Blog #4: Power Dynamics

Ridley Scott's "Thelma & Louise" will forever be one of my favorite films of all time. I used this same film for my other media class and thought it will be befitting in completing this assignment. The film possessed an abundance of themes and issues in our society in the relation to men and women, and the scene that I chose truly exhibits the power dynamics between the two sexes.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D9mDHPY0RA





In this scene, Thelma and Louise encounter a very perverted trucker driver on the open road and finally decide to stop and engage in conversation. They kindly ask to apologize for his highly inappropriate language, but when he refuses, they decide to take matters into their own hands and shoot down his truck, ultimately exploding it.

In the matter of composition and lighting and sound, when Louise and Thelma scold the man and ask him to apologize, the camera moves from them to him and back and forth showing the exchange and the "interrogation." After the driver says "Fuck that" to apologize, Louise gets on top of her 1966 Thunderbird and pulls out her gun. This revealed strength and power that these women had over the man. All the man had was himself and his truck, which Thelma and Louise shot down, but Thelma and Louise had their self dignity and their guns, resulting in the truck driver being powerless. After both women begin shooting the truck, the truck explodes startling all three characters in the scene. The engulfment of the smoke symbolized, in my opinion, the evaporation of the driver's strength over the women. He was helpless as he threw his hat and fell to the ground. This movie is simply remarkable.