This essay will discuss the ways in which the films entitled Thelma and Louise and Manny and Lo represent variations on the road/buddy film genre. It will examine the concept of the male gaze and sub-verting/returning the gaze. The paper will explore how elements of these films such as scenery and camera work function to subvert the male gaze. This essay will argue that the films' use of females in a place traditionally occupied by males in road/ buddy films opposes patriarchal representations of women in film and sub-verts the male gaze, thus resisting the ways in which relationships between women are typically represented in classical Hollywood cinema.
Manny and Lo depicts the journey of two foster children and sisters - Manny and Lo - as they run away from their foster homes in the city in hopes of establishing independent futures. As the sisters journey to the "country" (the suburbs) their means of transportation - a station wagon - and their desire for freedom exemplify the themes of road films.
A Heavy-Duty Boom Truck similar to that used in th...
English: Dead Horse Point, as seen from the Chicke...
Lake LouiseAs NAME Kotsopoulos states, the road movie "thematizes transformation through journey, with the main characters' movement from a familiar context to an unfamiliar space leading to personal discovery".2 Lo, who is pregnant, experiences a greater transformation than Manny; Lo changes from being a "hot head"1 with total contempt for any maternal figure to being more receptive to the motherly features of the woman the two girls kidnap, Elaine, a baby store sales clerk. Lo's transformation is also evident in her overcoming of her denial that she is pregnant and she realizes she will have to make tough decisions about the future of her unborn child. A camera shot of a long road with no traffic behind or ahead of the girls as they travel to the country represents the...