This will go live on my blog tomorrow, kellyvision.wordpress.com

I first saw Thelma & Louise when I was 12 or so. I remember renting it the first weekend it was available (at my local Blockbuster--this was back in the days when one did such things), and I didn't know much about it. But I liked Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon (I had already seen The Fly and Bull Durham; my parents were very liberal about what I watched), and I loved the movie immediately.

I don't think I could have articulated why then, but now I realize that I love the fact that--while there are guys in the movie and some of them are good or great guys and some of them are complete jerks--the movie is about their friendship. It was probably the first movie I had ever seen (and there haven't been that many since, either) where the guys were in the background and the women were centerstage. It felt like a bit of a revelation, and it still does.

I like to think of myself as a Louise (in fact, one of my mantras was stolen from her---the unsympathetic but no less true "You get what you settle for") but I'm probably slightly more of a Thelma. I can be scattered and I may not be the best person around in a crisis. Honestly, though, I'd be incredibly proud to be either of them.

But that all doesn't matter. If you love Thelma & Louise (or movies in general), you need this book. It's so well-written and thorough and I feel like I love the movie even more now. And, of course, it's always great when people are passionate about the same things I'm passionate about--and people were so passionate about this, and still are--even decades later.

Highly recommended.

I LOVED this movie and when I saw there was a book about the making of it, my finger was on that request button as fast as I could get it there. And, I was not disappointed. This book was full of facts, quotes, reviews, opinions and trivia out the wazoo.

Did you know that George Clooney auditioned for the role that Brad Pitt got? It's in there and it's treated pretty humorously, as well.

I had no idea what kind of controversy this movie posed to a lot of people. All I knew was that I liked the movie. It was entertainment and I enjoyed it. According to this book, the movie caused all kinds of controversy. There was also several pages regarding the ending of the movie.

A book full of facts and one that I don't think I skipped a single page. I was that enthralled and into it. As a matter of fact, Kindle said I still had like 30 or 40 minutes to read, but that was due to the bibliography at the end. If your a trivia buff or a fan of Thelma and Louise, it's worth the read.

Thanks to Penguin Group and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Off The Cliff: How The Making of Thelma & Louise Drove Hollywood To The Edge
Warning: swearing
Starts out with Callie and how she grew up in KY, moved to TN and then onto CA over the years she's had many jobs and has met many people.
Also goes into what the movie industry is doing as not many movies staring women are endorsed as much as those with men in them.
Lots of name dropping so you understand who is out there doing their best.
Follows the people at the top of the production as they are selected, along with actors and actresses. Goes into their family life also and what motivated them into their field.
Amazing when it gets to the actual production and the complications they come up against. Lots of references and quotes listed at the end.
Enjoyed the book mostly because of all the descriptions of the locations that I've yet to visit. Storyline was a bit different than what I'm used to reading.
I received this book from a publicist via Net Galley in exchange for my honest review.

Becky Aikman’s ‘Off the Cliff How the Making of Thelma & Louise drove Hollywood to the Edge’ certainly grabs the reader.

Consider, for example, this passage picked more or less at random from the book’s opening pages:

“Diane took up her position behind the red industrial desk, snapped a headphone over her full head of blond eighties hair and squared her padded shoulders. Ready.”

The event described took place over a quarter of a century ago, on Monday 24 July 1989 and that fact prompts certain questions. How does Aikman know such details as the colour of the desk and the padded nature of the outfit? Has this information been derived from a contemporary photograph, is she extrapolating from the fashions of the time, or has she simply allowed her imagination to run riot?

The answer is that Aikman has conducted many interviews, which have been supplemented by “accounts published in newspapers, magazines and books”. Any reconstructed “scenes and conversations”, she tells us, are based upon “interviews with one or more people who participated.”

Aikman has certainly been very assiduous in interviewing many of those connected with bringing ‘Thelma & Louise’ to the screen, including all of the principal players but are we really to assume that she quizzed her interviewees on such fine details as their interior decoration and fashion choices?

More fundamentally, why does she feel the need to include this extraneous information?

Presumably this is done to add colour to her account and impart a greater sense of immediacy to her audience. If so, I’m afraid it’s largely wasted effort for readers like myself who like their non-fiction books to deal with unvarnished facts.

‘Thelma & Louise’ is a very important film as a potential turning point when nothing turned. Its commercial and critical success did not result in Hollywood significantly empowering more women within the industry or producing more films dealing with female empowerment. The reason why ‘Thelma & Louise’ bucked existing trends but failed to start a new one is usefully analysed by Aikman and the interview material which she has collected means that the book is a valuable addition to the literature on the film but hers would be an even better book if she’d traded her richly embroidered narrative for some chaste prose.