How does the role of the white cop differ in narrative function in "Thelma and Louise", "Set it Off" and "Little Miss Sunshine"? How does this reflect on gender, race, and sexuality as represented in these films? Do not repeat what students have written in prior log entries.
The cop in Thelma and Louise knew that the women killed Harlan and knew it was an accident. He had sympathy for these women and that is why he ran after them in the end when they drove away, so that no one would shoot at them. The cop made sure that they women were not shot at, unlike the cop in Set It Off. The cop in set it off let the women get shot. He viewed them as hardcore criminal, and the only sympathy he seemed to have for the black women was after he realized too many people have been shot and he will probably get in trouble. The reason I think that he let Stony leave was because he shot her younger brother because he assumed he was a part of the bank robbery. He was suspicious of Frankie since she knew the bank robbers from the beginning and therefore thought she was a part of it too. The cop in Little Miss Sunshine was as about oblivious as they come because instead of seeing the dead body in the back of the van he saw porn and took it and set the family on their way, all except the gay porn. These reflect gender, race, and sexuality for different reasons in each of the three films. In Thelma and Louise, the cop had pity for the WOMEN because he thought that they couldn’t have killed Harlen for no reason; he had to have done something really bad and he said that when he spoke to Thelma on the phone for the first time. He let them go because since they were women then they couldn’t have committed a bad crime for no reason. This says that the cop favored gender. In Set It Off the cop had already thought since the bank robbers were BLACK from the first robbery then Frankie had something to do with it too since she was black herself. Also since Stony’s brother was shot for no reason and was shot for basically being black shows that the cop disfavored them all because they were black. Lastly, the cop in Little Miss Sunshine let the family go and didn’t even see the dead body because he didn’t search the van for some reason leads me to believe that he didn’t do it because they were white, and he didn’t take the gay porn and laughed and gave a weird look when he saw it says that he probably favors white people and that he doesn’t except the GAYS.
