Overview
The movie Thelma and Louise is a feminist movie that revolves around two women. The set up rotates within a couple of themes and characterization. It opens up with best friends, two ladies who are middle-aged; Thelma (Geena Davis) and her best friend Louise (Susan Sarandon) start the movie with a plan to go for fun over the weekend. Louise works as a waitress while Thelma, who is a housewife married to abusive husband, sells carpets. Both Thelma and Louise have a problem in their marriages and this happens to be the reason as to why they want to take a break.
The major effect of the trip (or foreshadow) happens when Thelma packs the revolver in her purse. Although their main plan is to go for the holiday at a cabin belonging to Louise’s manager, Thelma requests that they make a stopover on the way for fun since the trip was one in million. She insists that they would have a stopover at a club called Silver Bullet for few drinks. Thelma orders for a drink while Louise does not want to indulge in drinking. Inside the bar, they meet Harlan - who gets attracted to Thelma. However, there is conflict between the two since Louise does not like Harlan.
Louise seems to be hostile to Harlan while Thelma is welcoming to the new man. They share some drinks and later they have a dance. Harlan tries to make Thelma drunk and dizzy. Later they move out to the parking lot which was empty. The events that ensue from there mark what would be the start of the crime scene.
At the parking lot, Harlan makes some advances to Thelma but she refuses. Harlan then slaps her as he pulls the dress up, which makes the scene look like intends to rape her. Thelma is then seen begging him to stop as she slaps him. This is followed by a blow from Harlan, which makes Thelma nose bleed. As Harlan unbuckles his belt, Louise shows up with the revolver pointed at Harlan’s neck. On seeing the gun, Harlan lets Thelma go. As the two women walk away, Harlan yells “Suck my Dick.” These words offend Louise prompting her to shoot him.
This event makes Louise a murderer and Thelma an accomplice. As Thelma insists the report the matter to the police, Louise explains to her how that could leave both in trouble. This would be due to the fact that people have seen them in the club dancing and, thus, they would not easily believe them. Since no one saw them commit the murder, they resolve to run away and continue with their journey. However, their freedom is short-lived since Detective Hal Slocumb (Harvey Keitel) begins his investigations to solve the murder.
The Detective starts his investigation at the Silver Bullet- the bar in which Thelma and Louise had stopped over for a drink. However, after a talk with his supervisor, the detective makes some adjustments to the investigation since the killers had left the state, and FBI is aware of the matter. Meanwhile, Thelma and Louise are unaware of the situation they are in but they keep on moving.
After a while, the ladies need the money for food, gas as well as accommodation. This prompts Louise to call her boyfriend Jimmy and, fortunately, he answers the call. Louise borrows some cash from Jimmy, and he agrees to wire the cash to Oklahoma City. On the other hand, Thelma also tries calling her husband Darryl; unfortunately, she is not lucky as the husband ends up insulting her, as expected. This gives an indication of a break up between Thelma and her husband. As Thelma Walks conveniently from a telephone booth, she comes across a young handsome man by the name JD, who then offers her a ride to Oklahoma after having a short conversation. From that link, JD becomes a major figure in the mid of the film, becoming the main figure in the escape as the bond with Thelma.
On one rainy night, Louise and Jimmy share a bed her boyfriend as Thelma with JD spends the night together. After Thelma and JD would have sex that same night. In the morning Jimmy say bye to her girlfriend Louise as JD steals the $750 left under Thelma's supervision by Jimmy. The girls were therefore left penniless and broke. This problem starts a moment of crisis and propels for Thelma in making an understandable decision and ideas and she steals a store using a certain technique taught to her by JD before they left together.
Thelma robs a store because her boyfriend JD steals their money. JD having created the problem also gave Thelma solution although not much productive one. This shows us that JD is an important joke maker in the plot. Moreover, JD is also a tale that reveals to the authorities their destination which was Mexico. The police sets a pursuit lo get them as they head further to the Mexican city. Their destination and whereabouts area made know as the detective talks to Darryl, Thelma’s husband who opens up of there were about. Slocomb, the investigator later talks to Louise as she tries to conduct Darryl this leads to her whereabouts as the police trace them. At the Grand Canyon, the FBI and the police corner them and they are left with no choice, either to surrender, keep going or jump the cliff. Louise stomps on the pedal they then drive off the cliff. This brings the journey to dead end as he police later arrests.
Conviction
The movie revolves around a set of crimes which should be investigated clearly before taking the matter to the court for judgment. Therefore, there are various types of these crimes which were committed. First there are the agents of the crime, situations which instigate the problem and cannot be eliminated when doing the investigation. Thelma’s husband proofs to be a brutal one. The relationship seems to be on stones and this leads to a situation that would later make Thelma want to go for the trip. Louise as well has a problem with the husband and the job too as the waitress. These are some of the agents that need to be investigated as the case is being taken to the judge. Another agent is the presence of revolver in the house. Investigations should look at the authorization of the revolver, the license and the genuinely. Ballistic tests should be carried out on the bullets to show whether the gun was really the one used to commit the crime or it had other crime scenes in the past. Another body that should be investigated is the club to which the two ladies had their drink. The owner should be questioned on the knowledge of the Harlan, His conduct and his normal routine within the area. This should be done to prompt his intentions in the club conduct and whether what happened could be normal. The investigators should look on whether there has been any other case of the same sort within the area. They should also get to the root of it all as the crime was clearly not intentional. It was under the defense as Harlan wanted to force his advances on Thelma, taking advantage on her feminism and fact that she was intoxicated. The crime here is rape. Another crime that should be investigated is the existence of JD in the story. Although not that involved, the investigations department should note on the naivety of the two ladies Thelma and Louise since after getting the money from husband then they lost it through theft. Again JD had taught them on how to steal or shoplift an indication that the ladies knew nothing about the crime.
First, as a judge it would be professional and deal with the possession of firearm. This should be with reference to Gun control Act 1968 that prohibits certain or specific type of people from possession of firearms. This act is under the United States Firearm Control board. The specific people who are prohibited should not at any point be found with firearm since it would be considered as felony offense. This entitles passing the firearm to those people also. In our case, the prohibition would be possession of firearm to someone who has domestic violence. The sentence to this sort of offense should be one year in the prison. T he conflict would however be the owner of the firearm and the person who committed the crime. In act one, it is seen as Thelma pack the revolver in her purse although she is not the one who committed the crime. Louise committed the crime therefore, the sentence should be severe. That is because she does not own the revolver, it belonged to Thelma. Therefore, the charge should be pressed on Louise on two counts, one she uses a gun or firearm that does not belong to her in shooting the victim. Secondly, since she used the gun in committing a crime, she could be convicted of homicide or manslaughter at the same time.
Thelma as an accomplice should be charged of allowing her gun land on someone else in committing the crime. Ballistic reports should show involvement of the gun in committing the crime. Thus the investigators would link the crime with the owner of the gun and thus charges would be laid against her by law of Unite States under the Gun Control Act 1968. Combination of all these crime would land the two ladies in jail for not less than 3 years in the prison and under maximum security.
Another form of crime that should be well considered is the crime against the murder of Harlan. This should be looked at different views. One, whether the crime was intentional or it happened accidentally. First, the court would want the accused to understand some of the terminologies used as according to the crime involved. Homicide consists of both murder and manslaughter. Man slaughter can be committed through killing with an intention with application of partial defense. It can also define as conduct that could be made grossly in negligence which gives the other party risk if death and ends up dying. Manslaughter can also involve conduct that is unlawful and exposing dander of death and end up killing the other party. On the hand, murder can be classified as crime of killing that occurs when the culprit has sound mind or sane. It could also be classified when murder is committed unlawfully just killing. It can also be caused by unreasonable creature.
In the movie, Thelma and Louise, Harlan instigated his murder after he attempted to rape Thelma. The homicide can be termed as murder since it was taken with clear mind (sanely). It could not be said they were acting as self defense since Harlan had already let go of Thelma. In situations like those where a defendant gets accused of an offence for instance, assault related to the victim, but where the victim's (Harlan) injuries later proves serious as the defendant gets charged over murder with assault ( several years later), the prosecutors must consider sesction.74(3) written in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. In this section, earlier convictions are allowed. For example, for attacker to include admissible evidence it proves that the defendant should be guilty of attacking the victim and also guilty of murder as the laws of the state.
While the previous conviction is still in the court, the case would be open for the defendant the balance through probabilities in showing she is not guilty or she never committed the crime for which she was convicted earlier. In addition to that, section 78 of Police And Criminal Evidence could be used to remove the earlier accusation by law, this verdict would not be based on nebulous factors of not being fair; but the evidence should specifically be related to a certain circumstances related directly to the case in courts.
Particularly offences like murder are very sensitive, and therefore, to make consistency approach, collective cases related to a homicide prosecution approach should be reviewed in places where death happens 3 years after the first assault injury got sustained or after previous conviction of those offences committed under those circumstances related to the death requiring the Director of Public Prosecutions' Principal Legal Advisor to approve prior to the moving the case to the Attorney General's verdict for further approval. These cases are for serious offence under which the teams of investigation are turmoil. In the Case of Thelma and Louise, the case has the first killer but with intend a murder that if proven guilty by the attacker would have some serious consequences as according to the law. Therefore, on account of the committed murder on different circumstances, the case may be taken the chief prosecutor for more clarification on the matter. In case the case is forwarded for Approval, it should be handled through Chief Crown Prosecutors or the attorney general’s office. An evidence transcript on the verdict expected should be expected on hearing of the conviction which should be written in any papers that are sent to the chief persecutor since they contain comment related to the issues on double jeopardy.
If the conviction has to be handled under the British courts, the subject should be described for murder or manslaughter in Wales and England even if the offence is committed outside the jurisdiction. The victim’s nationality would be immaterial and dealt under section 9 Offences which are filed against the Person Act 1861. Therefore, the prosecution should always indicate link between the act or the omission on the cause of death. The omission or act should be a clear cause of death, although it should not necessarily be the s main or sole cause of murder. Under the laws on murder and manslaughter, the causal must have more than minimal negligibly as well as trivial contribution to the death.
Under the same doctrines, it would not matter whether the act or the omission by the person on the defense merely "fastened" the death of victim. However, in case of illegibility in omission on a substantial cause of murder, causation would be particularly hard. It would be important to show according to criminal standards that for the act the deceased should not have died not have died. Therefore, to stop the chain related to the cause of death an intervention act should be in such a way that it proves the particular cause of the death of the victim in response to relieving the liability of the defendant. For instance, the intervening acts are: The third party interventions in the case: such an act would never break the chains unless it is freed, informed, deliberate voluntary act, which would not be reasonable.
In conclusion, the movie Thelma and Louise is set under different themes which rotate around specific issues. The movie comprises of three acts, one the start of the trip which comprise of a crime committed by Louise where she shoots Harlan. The second one, Intervention or confrontation as the two ladies try to escape the crime committed and thirdly escape as they end up rolling on a cliff. The murder of Harlan ends their rip as the police come in pursuing them. The crime should be termed to as murder since Louise shoot Harlan with intent. This according to the laws of United States can be classified as homicide and prior action should be taking. Moreover, possession of firearm can be said to be another case that should be prosecuted. Therefore, Louise is guilty of murder while Thelma is an accomplice. To add salt to the injury, the two ladies try to resist arrest as they engage the police in a hot pursuit where they don’t seem to surrender to the police. Another crime committed in the movie where Thelma stole from a store some money using tactics which JD taught her. That adds the record for the crime as the investigators compile all the crimes. Whilst the conviction is laid before the judge, some point should also not be neglected. For instance, Harlan tried to rape Thelma as evident through the assaults at the parking yard. Police investigators should examine the injuries on her cheek as she slapped her to appoint of her bleeding the nose. Therefore, before any judgment is done that should be put in consideration as the murder could have been in self defense in case of lack of enough evidence. Another important offence committed was possession and use of fire arm while Louise was drunk. This is termed as an offence by the criminal department of United States.
Thus, the verdict should put the two ladies into trial as they need to defend themselves on all those charges. The final one would be the need to be jailed, a sentence not less that than 5 years each.
Bibliography
Horder, Jeremy. Homicide and the Politics of Law Reform. london: Oxford University Press,
2012. Print.
Neroni, Hilary. The Violent Woman: Femininity, Narrative, and Violence in Contemporary
American . New York : SUNY Press,, 2005. Print.
