Antifeminist and feminist film analysis

Feminist and Anti-Feminist Film:

The Themes of male protection against male violence in Something Wild and Thelma and Louise

What does it mean to produce a feminist -- or an anti-feminist film? According to the Internet dictionary, WordReference.com "Feminism" is simply defined as a "doctrine that advocates equal rights for women." But even if this is true politically, how does this translate artistically? How do films that deal with the psychology of human sexual relations define human rights in a world where laws cannot settle all human disputes, nor protect the female body? Clearly, Louise of Thelma and Louise, for instance, believes that although the law theoretically may deal with men and women equally in its text and frameworks of justice, in human legal and social practice women and men are far from equal. This is why, after her friend Thelma is almost raped, she flees with the women after killing Thelma's attacker in her friend's defense.

Good outlaws who are on the run from the law are a typical theme of American cinema. Both Something Wild, directed by Jonathan Demme, and Thelma and Louise, directed by Ridley Scott, are of the 'road movie' genre, which features the American myth of the open road, and free and easy access to changing one's life through motion. Usually the road pictures, from the motorcycle-riding Easy Rider-s in the 1960's films of the genre, even back to Bing Crosby and Bob Hope's popular 'road' pictures, like the Road to Bali, of the Golden Age of Hollywood musical comedies, involve men. These pictures share a common theme with Something Wild and Thelma and Louise, in that road pictures traditionally stress that friendship outside the law, rather than 'equal rights before the law,' a law that is often seen as inadequate, creates more just relationship between human individuals, is a more effective way of reckoning justice.

Thus, both films deal with a problem -- if feminism is about women's rights, what of women's rights if the law, for both men and women, is so often wrong. One reason both films provide different answers is that Something Wild involves a male and a female, while Thelma and Louise involves two females. Something Wild suggests that the female is only capable of full motion and movement on the open road in the presence of a male, while the plot of Thelma and Louise suggests that the road provides a potential means of escape for both men and women, and that the presence of men such as the cowboy/drifter of Brad Pitt can sunder female closeness.

In the 1986 Demme-directed film, Lulu/Audrey captures and upsets the mundane life of Charlie Driggs, bringing madcap spontaneity through her female dizziness. But in Ridley Scott's female road epic, Thelma must escape the madcap, silly housewife persona that leads her into a bad situation during the opening cowboy dance scene that nearly results in a rape. Thelma becomes toughed for the better by the proximity of the character of Louise and gaining a new outlook on female empowerment.

Audrey was also married, like Thelma, to a violent man named Ray. Her chosen protector Charlie finds the ray of his own manhood by saving Audrey, after she has playfully abducted this uptight yuppie from his rote, miserable job and dull daily existence. This suggests that men can rescue women from the tyrannies of patriarchy in exchange for female lightness and delights. But both the personas of Thelma and Louise suggest in their struggle men cannot. Even the well-intentioned FBI pursuer who knows the history of the women cannot save them -- he must let them go, ultimately, in their drive over the cliff to death. Even when he commiserates with Louise, ultimately the male's attempt to show sympathy and protect the woman is in the service of the law and results in Louise being entrapped, and prevents both women from escaping to their final destiny of Mexico.