Thelma and Louise -- 1991 -- R

Another classic among classics would be the iconic film helmed by Ridley Scott, who directed Alien so many years before as well as a slew of others, naturally. This is one of those that I'd been meaning to see for quite some time, just because it is so well known and has the iconic scene of the overhead view of the car driving across the desert tailed by a slew of cops. This is the movie where that came from.

The plot deals with a neglected housewife and worn out waitress going on a short weekend vacation to the cabin of someone who is about to lose it to his ex-wife. On the way, they stop over at a nightclub where the housewife is nearly raped, but instead of that act, the rapist gets his just desserts when he's shot by the waitress. They freak out and feel like they can't go to the police because they'll be tried for murder since some might think the housewife was just asking for that kind of treatement.

Through a series of unfortunate circumstances, the pair makes their way across 4 states going from having just a problem to creating a veritable crime spree in order to try and make it to Mexico to escape not only their original crime of murder, but the subsequent crimes they commit as a result of their circumstances.

This is one of those movies where one event lends itself to the next. All the while, you consider "if only this hadn't happened, then...", knowing that if they'd only decided a different path, they would not be in the trouble they're in. Naturally, their decisions are influenced by their perception of their situation, and that's really the key. We know that their situation is not as dire as they make it out to be, but their view of the world drives their decisions every time, and it makes for a very pleasant watch of a film.

With a theme of friendship, bonding, and driving through to the end together, the end was an inevitability. I will say that knowing how it ended spoiled the experience a bit more for me than knowing the ending of Citizen Kane. Since I knew where it was going to end, it became partly a matter of waiting for it to be setup and go instead of following the movie watching it unfold, but one can hardly follow movies as closely as I do without eventually stumbling across the ending to Thelma and Louise, or least hearing about it.

There was one single plot weakness, however. They left home to go to this cabin in the mountains on a vacation, right? They stopped at a bar to have a time of it. No one knew them there, and it took an eternity to track them down after the murder was over. What set the cops on their trail was that they never reached the cabin. My immediate thought on "what to do next" was to go to the cabin as if you never stopped. That way, when the cops investigate, they find that you followed your original plan, and they look elsewhere. Sure, they wouldn't have experienced their growth, but I'll always find that to be more logicla than running.

The only scene(s) that really got to me were in the hotels. If any part of the movie ran as predictable and even annoying, it was those scenes. In the first hotel, Louise goes on about "figuring out what to do," and it didn't take long before I want the scene to be over. Add to this the long discussions between Louise and her man, along with the highly predictable subplot of the J.D. character that they picked up. Now, I love J.D.'s how-to speech, but overall, that part didn't measure up to the rest of the film.

The title characters were superb, which is what makes this movie as good as it is, even with the slow section. Even the supporting characters were fairly well put together which served to engage us into the film as a whole. They had both moving and funny moments throughout.

So this is a work I can definitely see why it continues to make the lists of the best movies of all time. It's not the greatest, but it can stand with the upper echelon without a doubt. A very enjoyable and memorable experience.