Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen
Have I Ever Seen It Before: Never, which seems like preposterous blind spot, I know.
Did I like it: Is there any director other than Ridley Scott who has such a tonnage of absolute classics under his belt (and a few stinkers; let’s not completely lose our heads), and have those classics reside in such complete different genres? Spielberg may be as prolific, but he generally has his Amblin period, and his Oscar-bait period, and nearly every one of his films can fit into those large categories. Kubrick is certainly varied, but between a more high brow sensibility and a compulsive need to do scores of takes, there are only a handful of films in the canon. It’s Ridley Scott and only Ridley Scott for this particular category.
And so it is with this film, that an unlikely source creates an unabashedly feminist film. If the film came to the surface now, it would be beset by complaints over over-wokeness, and the only comfort I get from that realization is that it was also beset by those bad faith arguments, so maybe all lousy criticism (including, sometimes, the ones that appear on this site) will eventually evaporate into the ether, and the really good stuff will remain. Every man in this movie lands on some end of the terrible spectrum, and if that bothers you, well, 1991 called and wants its bullshit back.
And that’s what this is, the writing is top notch, often funny, and never boring. Sarandon and Davis are never better, bringing the simmering strength and still ingrained weakness in equal measure. There’s an absolute reason it is a classic.
Which brings us to the ending. No conversation about this movie would be complete without touching upon the final moments, as those are the ones that have become the most iconic over the years. It may be my least favorite thing about the film. The action of driving the car off the cliff feels tacked on somehow. The action of going out in a blaze of glory is fine, and absolutely flows from the film that precedes it. Perhaps the production ran out of money to have they turn around and make the various cops pay for their chase. Maybe I’m just bothered by how the polaroid of them from the beginning managed to stay just so on the backseat through that whole action sequence, only to fly off at the moment of maximum pathos. Maybe I don’t like the fact that my idiot brain thinks for a moment they might have made it.
It’s a minor complaint.