Interview with Thelma and Louise screenplay author Callie Khouri
Callie Khouri Answers Critics Of `Thelma And Louise`
July 07, 1991|By June Sawyers.
Callie Khouri has heard all the criticism. ``Thelma and Louise`` is a man-hating, violent tale of retribution and revenge. ``Thelma and Louise`` is a movie inhabited by men who are either grotesque thugs, manipulative thieves, insensitive husbands or ineffectual do-gooders.
By making its protagonists two beautiful women, ``Thelma and Louise``
glorifies violence and provides poor role models for young, impressionable girls.
So which is it? Is ``Thelma and Louise`` a male-bashing tale fueled by anger and resentment or a feminist fantasy in which women hold the power over life and death?
Neither, says its author.
``I just wanted to write about two women on the screen that we haven`t seen before,`` Khouri says. ``I was intrigued with women outlaws. I thought it would be interesting to do women outlaws that were not involved in prostitution, who were not exploited. Generally even when you see women as criminals, like ``The Grifters,`` they`re still playing this sex-object role. I wanted to see something different.``
``Thelma and Louise`` is clearly different from most current movies. It`s an exhilarating tale of two ordinary women running away from the law and from their restrictive pasts.
Thelma Dickinson (Geena Davis) is a bored housewife married to a selfish boor. Louise Sawyer (Susan Sarandon) is a waitress in a coffeeshop involved with a peripatetic musician who can`t make up his mind.
``Thelma and Louise`` has been igniting movie screens, and receiving mostly positive reviews, since it opened Memorial Day weekend. Mixing robust humor and sudden bursts of violence, it follows in the time-honored tradition of other road movies such as ``Bonnie and Clyde`` and ``Easy Rider`` but with a major difference: The story is told from a woman`s point of view and features two immensely appealing performances by Davis and Sarandon.
Thelma and Louise reinvent themselves on the road. They discover qualities within each other that they didn`t know existed. Freedom comes in many forms. In the movie, it`s a 1966 Thunderbird convertible and an open stretch of highway.
The movie touches upon themes not commonly addressed in a mainstream Hollywood movie: sexism, the shaky relationship between men and women, female friendship and the continuous threat of violence, especially sexual violence, that permeates contemporary American society.
Yet Khouri, who wrote the screenplay in six months in 1988, insists that she had no feminist agenda. She simply wanted to tell a good story that featured strong female characters.
``If you`re looking for a feminist manifesto you will be disappointed,``
she says. But ``it does have a feminine outlook. I think of feminism as more of a political ideology. I think the issues in the movie are more humanist.`` Born in San Antonio and raised in Kentucky, the screenwriter, 33, studied acting at Purdue University before moving to Nashville, where she performed in theater productions and waited tables to make ends meet.
She then moved to Los Angeles to study at the Lee Strasberg Institute until she decided that acting was not for her.
Instead she found work as a receptionist at a music video production house and eventually began to produce rock videos for such acts as Alice Cooper and Robert Cray.
``I really love the visual telling of a tale,`` she says. ``This was something that really lent itself to film. It was much more impactful as film actually to see the transformation of two regular women into outlaws. Men have always had rebellious anti-heroes, but women really haven`t had that. Women were never really driving the story.``
It`s remarkable that Khouri managed to write a first-rate screenplay on her first try.
``It wasn`t really difficult because I didn`t have any expectation other than I wanted to finish the script,`` she says. ``I plodded through.``
What`s even more impressive, however, is the relative ease she had in marketing the script. Movie screenplays often languish for months, even years, on studio executives` desks. Not Khouri`s.
``The whole movie had a life of its own.``
She gave the script to a good friend who, in turn, showed it to another friend, Mimi Polk, executive vice president of director Ridley Scott`s production company.
Initially, Khouri, who co-produced the movie, had some misgivings about the choice of Scott as director. Scott had built his reputation largely on action and science-fiction thrillers such as ``Alien,`` ``Blade Runner`` and
``Black Rain``-movies that were long on special effects but thin on character.
All doubts vanished, though, when she met Scott. Khouri sensed that Scott, an Englishman, not only understood what she was trying to say but also, more important, understood the script`s rich, Southern-spiced humor.
Khouri says the film contains no hidden message, offers no heavy morality lesson.
July 07, 1991|By June Sawyers.
Callie Khouri has heard all the criticism. ``Thelma and Louise`` is a man-hating, violent tale of retribution and revenge. ``Thelma and Louise`` is a movie inhabited by men who are either grotesque thugs, manipulative thieves, insensitive husbands or ineffectual do-gooders.
By making its protagonists two beautiful women, ``Thelma and Louise``
glorifies violence and provides poor role models for young, impressionable girls.
So which is it? Is ``Thelma and Louise`` a male-bashing tale fueled by anger and resentment or a feminist fantasy in which women hold the power over life and death?
Neither, says its author.
``I just wanted to write about two women on the screen that we haven`t seen before,`` Khouri says. ``I was intrigued with women outlaws. I thought it would be interesting to do women outlaws that were not involved in prostitution, who were not exploited. Generally even when you see women as criminals, like ``The Grifters,`` they`re still playing this sex-object role. I wanted to see something different.``
``Thelma and Louise`` is clearly different from most current movies. It`s an exhilarating tale of two ordinary women running away from the law and from their restrictive pasts.
Thelma Dickinson (Geena Davis) is a bored housewife married to a selfish boor. Louise Sawyer (Susan Sarandon) is a waitress in a coffeeshop involved with a peripatetic musician who can`t make up his mind.
``Thelma and Louise`` has been igniting movie screens, and receiving mostly positive reviews, since it opened Memorial Day weekend. Mixing robust humor and sudden bursts of violence, it follows in the time-honored tradition of other road movies such as ``Bonnie and Clyde`` and ``Easy Rider`` but with a major difference: The story is told from a woman`s point of view and features two immensely appealing performances by Davis and Sarandon.
Thelma and Louise reinvent themselves on the road. They discover qualities within each other that they didn`t know existed. Freedom comes in many forms. In the movie, it`s a 1966 Thunderbird convertible and an open stretch of highway.
The movie touches upon themes not commonly addressed in a mainstream Hollywood movie: sexism, the shaky relationship between men and women, female friendship and the continuous threat of violence, especially sexual violence, that permeates contemporary American society.
Yet Khouri, who wrote the screenplay in six months in 1988, insists that she had no feminist agenda. She simply wanted to tell a good story that featured strong female characters.
``If you`re looking for a feminist manifesto you will be disappointed,``
she says. But ``it does have a feminine outlook. I think of feminism as more of a political ideology. I think the issues in the movie are more humanist.`` Born in San Antonio and raised in Kentucky, the screenwriter, 33, studied acting at Purdue University before moving to Nashville, where she performed in theater productions and waited tables to make ends meet.
She then moved to Los Angeles to study at the Lee Strasberg Institute until she decided that acting was not for her.
Instead she found work as a receptionist at a music video production house and eventually began to produce rock videos for such acts as Alice Cooper and Robert Cray.
``I really love the visual telling of a tale,`` she says. ``This was something that really lent itself to film. It was much more impactful as film actually to see the transformation of two regular women into outlaws. Men have always had rebellious anti-heroes, but women really haven`t had that. Women were never really driving the story.``
It`s remarkable that Khouri managed to write a first-rate screenplay on her first try.
``It wasn`t really difficult because I didn`t have any expectation other than I wanted to finish the script,`` she says. ``I plodded through.``
What`s even more impressive, however, is the relative ease she had in marketing the script. Movie screenplays often languish for months, even years, on studio executives` desks. Not Khouri`s.
``The whole movie had a life of its own.``
She gave the script to a good friend who, in turn, showed it to another friend, Mimi Polk, executive vice president of director Ridley Scott`s production company.
Initially, Khouri, who co-produced the movie, had some misgivings about the choice of Scott as director. Scott had built his reputation largely on action and science-fiction thrillers such as ``Alien,`` ``Blade Runner`` and
``Black Rain``-movies that were long on special effects but thin on character.
All doubts vanished, though, when she met Scott. Khouri sensed that Scott, an Englishman, not only understood what she was trying to say but also, more important, understood the script`s rich, Southern-spiced humor.
Khouri says the film contains no hidden message, offers no heavy morality lesson.