Where do women go from here?
"Thelma and Louise" and "Set it Off" are similar movies that question women's struggles on the road and result in the women becoming outlaws. Although these two movies carry the same theme, there are also several differences between the two. "Set it Off" also adds the issues of race (the main characters are African-American), economics (the four women live in the projects) and homosexuality (because Cleo is gay).
The landscapes of the two films vary for in several ways. Thelma and Louise come from lower to middle class neighborhoods. One is a waitress with a boyfriend, the other is a married housewife. One of the women in "Set it Off" has a child, and the four women end up working for the same janitorial service. The other main difference in landscape of the films is that of the road itself. While Thelma and Louise take off in Louise's thunderbird making it through several states and ending at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Cleo and her girls never make it out of the city (with the exception of Stoney at the very end of the film). The scenery of "Set it Off" is mainly focused in the projects and at the bank that they rob. There is also a glimpse of upper-class life when Stoney visits Blair, the banker, in his home and accompanies him to a job-related party. It could be said that Stoney is the only one who truly finds the road, and she is forced to choose between two very different ones.
One similarity of the two films is the role of the white, male cop. In both movies he is the leader of the investigation to find the women, and in both films he acts as if he is trying to help them and truly cares about their survival. I'm not sure why these films chose to put the lead police officer on a pedistal as if he is truly seeking fair and positive justice in the world. It also makes me wonder why the white male is not in a position of danger or being unfairly treated by society; he is in both cases a sort of courageous super hero urging the women to do the right thing. Judging the films by this point alone do they not then just reinforce all the stereotypes of race, class and gender that already exist?
It is hard to say why both directors chose the white male as a "good guy" or why the white women of "Thelma and Louise" make it on the road and the black women of "Set it Off" do not. Both films also leave the audience wondering if the only escape from the injustices of society for women is death. Out of the six characters in these two films, Stoney is the only one who lives. However, it makes a person wonder if she would be better off dead too considering she ends up in Mexico without her friends and without her lover. By surviving she is not any better off than her friends, or the women of "Thelma and Louise." In the end is the moral of the story that women should do as their told, not take to the road and certainly not become criminals?