I have had the words of “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan” running through my mind for days. It could be the Unconscious, the Dreamtime speaking to me about any number of things but it got me thinking about that great Road Trip Chick Flick nodding to the dream of empowerment while balancing the terror and wonder of being a woman ~ “Thelma & Louise”.

Lucy Jordan, Thelma & Louise …

I saw this movie … before Google and cyberspace changed the landscape of the imagination forever, at Au Cinema with a high school friend with whom I recently reconnected. We played softball together and I am pretty sure she was with me the day I defied my mother and got my ears pierced. I am pleased to say, when it is all said and done, she’s exactly the same person now as she was then.

There is a scene, in Thelma & Louise, that my mind has been reviewing the same way a rolling pin attempts to review pastry … They are driving in Louise’s Blue Thunderbird Convertible with the top down. They are driving at night, through the desert. Louise is wide awake at the wheel, Thelma is her friend, next to her in the passenger seat. The full impact of their fate is gathering in their minds. They do not speak but both understand what the other is thinking. They know. No need for words. The night is cool in contrast to the dry hot day. The stillness all around helps Thelma and Louise understand what all of us women know but never speak out loud. The first notes of ‘The Ballad of Lucy Jordan’ sound.

Here it is now with clips from the movie.

I should back up a bit. Thelma & Louise starts out as a footloose and fancy free Girl’s Weekend-Holiday Away. Thelma, a housewife and hopefully soon to be mother, is married to Darryl who seems to be unable to bath himself without telling her off.

Introducing Darryl …



Louise works as a waitress at the local diner and has Trucker boyfriend Jimmy, cool Elvis style lover complete with resonate buttery voice and lascivious long lashed looks. But he is not her husband and she won’t let him be her protector. The Thunderbird Convertible is their chariot, symbol of defiance and declaration of freedom that carries both characters and the story to the end, the bitter end.

Here’s the Original Spoiler, gives an idea of what’s to come.

I could prepare a thoughtful review but Susan Sarandon who plays the role of Louise does a much better job in this clip.

I think Thelma & Louise is about the nature of power, of empowerment – facing down your enemy to retrieve your spirit once stolen from you but it takes them time to gain the confidence to do this. I can’t resist sharing two scene that map their transformation, am I the only one who has ever wished I could …?

And then …



But where there is light, there is also … darkness. To be continued …