White Cops and Road Film Justifications
How does the role of the white cop function in the narrative?
The role of the white cop has significantly different functions in both films. In "Thelma and Louise," Hal Slocomb was the investigator trying to track the two down. He was a sympathetic figure, the only man in the entire film who could see that what Thelma and Louise did was circumstantial to the actions of men. He sought them out firstly, because it was his job, but secondly because he empathized with them; he believed they were innocent, he wanted to help them, and he understood that they had been screwed over time and time again. He performed his job with compassion for the two women who were stuck in an endlessly masculine world. The aim of this white cop was to help the two women, and not so much to just catch them as we see in the end of the movie where he attempts to stop the stand off by asking the FBI agent "how many times do they have to be screwed over?" The white cop in the film, "Set It Off," was different in that his aim was opposite, to catch rather than really help. We see the major differences between these two white cop figures after the crucial bank scene where Detective Strode judges Frankie for knowing the robbers and insists, despite her fervent and truthful denials, that she was involved. This lack of trust creates a huge gap between the two characters as Strode does not empathize with the women's racial and poverty troubles as Slocomb empathizes with the women trapped in a male society. Though Strode does have less of a sympathetic and understanding relationship with the girls, he isn't completely heartless. After the accidental death of Stoney's brother, he shows definite empathy in the way he desperately tells the dying boy to hold on, and in the way he reacts when he finds out what a good kid he was. This empathy comes in play again at the end when he is facing off with the three women and tells Stoney that her brother was enough. The two cops have their strongest similarity in the end. Like Slocomb, Strode attempts to calm the situation so nothing drastic has to happen. He makes the surrounding officers lower their weapons and tries to talk calmly and understandingly to Frankie, but cannot get through. The damage has been done and the result is the death of his targets.
Why is "Set It Off" a road film?
Though "Set It Off" does not have the conventional setting of a road film like "Thelma and Louise" (aka, the road), it still falls into the genre because it's about finding a road out of poverty, the road of upward mobility. Thelma and Louise had a physical road to travel to escape their sexist prison. They used this road to run from what they, in the end, could not escape. In "Set It Off," the road is a road of actions that all three women choose, the road out of the projects. Each woman has been endlessly crushed and beaten by the system which they live in, much like Thelma and Louise had been endlessly oppressed by a male dominated society. The women in "Set It Off" formed their own road by robbing banks to achieve upward mobility. The women journey down this road, trying to escape the oppressive system that keeps beating them back down because of their race and economic status, Their road finally comes to an end, much in the same way Thelma and Louise's did, when the system catches up to them. The only successful traveler was Stoney, who was able to follow the road of upward mobility until she was free. Cleo would be the biggest embodiment of the road in this film as she was the one who had the power of the automobile. Not only was her car the means by which the women were able to rob banks and follow the road to upward mobility, but in her death she used the road to take a stand against the system that was beating her down. By leading the high speed chase at the end, which resulted in a shoot-out and her death, she gave meaning to auto-mobility in this movie, get free or die trying. Do what you have to to follow the road out of the oppressive system you find yourself in.