"Set it Off" vs. "Thelma and Louise"
In both "Thelma and Louise" and "Set it Off", sisterhood is the most central theme, but I read the sisterhood in the two movies as being very different. The loyalty of Thelma and Louise seems triumphant, and the viewer is almost proud of them for standing up for one another. For instance, when Louise shoots the man who is about the rape Thelma, when Thelma decides to stick with Louise instead of going back, and when they choose death together. On the other hand, in "Set it Off", I did not read the women's sisterhood as triumphant. The women were loyal to the other women because they felt they had no other choice--and their loyalty eventually led to their deaths or the ruining of their lives, in Stoney's case. Another theme that makes these two movies very different are the landscapes in which the take place. "Thelma and Louise" is completely comprised of desert scenes and wilderness, while "Set if Off" takes place almost all in the city. In the end, both sets of women are caught by the police in intense police chases--the death of Cleo is in some ways similar to the deaths of Thelma and Louise because they know that they're caught with no way out, and they choose death "head on." The urban landscape of "Set it Off" is important because they are never truly free while still in the city. The only time we sense freedom throughout the film is when Stoney is driving away through the mountains in the last scene. There are important differences between race and gender in the films because Thelma and Louise's "otherness" is only that they are women, while the four black women's "otherness" is both their race and their gender. Additionally, Cleo's sexuality marginalized her character even more. Class also plays an important role because the women in "Set it Off" are committing crimes because of their struggles with being in the lower class, while Thelma and Louise's class is not a large determinant of why they commit crimes.