Race, sexuality, class and gender seen in "Set it Off" and "Thelma and Louise"
In both films, the principle characters are women on a mission to better their lives. Owing to each class and race, that of caucasian versus African American, the women are able to accomplish different things. In each film, the women seek to get to the road and leave their troubled lives behind in a quest for freedom. In "Thelma and Louise," although it starts out as just a weekend getaway, they eventually feel liberated once they're on their own without the constraints of society holding them back. Likewise, in "Set It Off", the women are searching for a similar escape; however due to the difference in races and thus each financial situation, it is not as easily accomplished in "Set It Off." Thelma and Louise are only able to access freedom on the road at the very end, and instead of having it be taken away, they choose to drive off the cliff. Similarly in "Set It Off," the women would rather risk their lives than be locked up. Stony is the only one who gets away and for me, the ultimate scene of freedom symbolized through the road is when she's driving along the coast in her jeep.
Interestingly enough, both films also had a common theme of the white male cop. In "Thelma and Louise" the cop is on their side from the beginning and it is apparent that he truly wants to help the two women. On the contrary, in "Set It Off," the cop starts out against the women. He believes that Frankie was involved with the first bank robbery and makes it his mission to set out to find her guilty. In the scene where Frankie is caught, she is able to turn the tables on him; she holds the gun to his head, putting herself in a position of great power and proves her point, "What would you do with a gun to your head?" The transition the cop makes in "Set It Off" as a character eventually coincides with that of the cop in "Thelma and Louise," however it isn't until he's killed Cleo, Titi and Frankie that he realizes what these women have had to endure living in the ghetto and thus felt their only way to a better living situation was robbery. It is a great leap for him to see Stony on the bus and let her go, his character development was huge in that last scene with Frankie.
"Set It Off" was an interesting take on "Thelma and Louise" because the differences in race and class greatly affected the outcome for the women in each film. I believe that Thelma and Louise would have been spared a long jail time had they been caught and certainly death wasn't on the police's mind. Where as in "Set It Off," the fact that the women were African American played a huge role in their shooting. This was also evident when Stony's brother Stevie was killed, he was a large black man out at night. I don't think that I would have seen the link between the two films had they not been pointed out to me, but the comparisons were undeniable in the end; all the women were searching for was opportunity and be it from unfavorable living conditions or money, save Stony, the women were forced to end their lives.