1991 Ranked
Non-2019 First Time Watches Ranked
Directors Ranked: Ridley Scott

Film #58 of my 100 Degrees, 100 Movies Challenge

Common actor from previous film: Geena Davis

PREVIOUS FILM: The Fly
NEXT FILM: The Witches Of Eastwick

"In the future, when a woman's crying like that, she isn't having any fun!"

If I went into this film not knowing anything about it and you gave me 50 guesses as to who directed it, I'd have never guessed Ridley Scott, but maybe that's not fair. Why couldn't Ridley Scott direct a film about woman power? Hell, he gave us one of the most bad ass protagonists in film history in Ellen Ripley...a woman! Later on, he'd also direct G.I. Jane so I guess Ridley directing this does make some sense.

I will say I didn't love this like I felt like I should...I know it's a classic and I did like it and I respect how well it was made, but I didn't love it. I feel like it was quite overlong. It probably could've been trimmed down to 90-100 minutes rather than the 130 that it is. I also think the acting is kinda cheesy in places. There's also some dated green screen stuff but that's more a product of the time than anything else.

The thing that is most impressive (or scary, depending how you look at it) about this film is how relevant it is today. The amount of times where, after a woman has been raped, that the phrase "maybe she was asking for it" scares me. To think we live in a day and age where some people think that women had a rape coming to them is truly horrific. And this film, released nearly 30 years ago, addresses this issue. And it's still happening to this day. That blows my mind.

On a less scary note, I thought the acting performances of Brad Pitt and Michael Madsen were truly excellent. I thought Sarandon and Davis did really good in the leads as well, although they were definitely cheesy at times. However, they still did enough where I bought into their journey and I was rooting for them despite knowing how this film ended. Fun fact, the first time I experienced this films ending was on The Simpsons. I really bought into the friendship the two titular characters showed for each other. That was really well done. I also thought the cinematography was pretty good. Some beautiful shots are shown throughout the film. The score was also excellent.

Overall, I can see why this is a classic but maybe I'm a few years late to watching it to truly see it as that. However, I can understand and respect its placing as such and I still found this a great watch.