Feminist Film Theory: Halloween and Thelma & Louise
John Carpenter's Halloween conforms to feminist film theory in that the lead character is a female who ends up being the final girl. However much of the rest of the film goes against feminist film theory. For example, despite the lead character being female, she is still portrayed as an attractive but not so strong woman. This fits with Laura Mulvey's idea of 'visual pleasure' and the 'male gaze' which state that cinema is aimed at the viewing pleasure of men and therefore female characters will be portrayed as overly attractive and sexualised. Added to this is the fact that Laurie, the lead character, isn't the hero in the end but is instead saved by Dr Loomis, a man. This goes against Carol Clover's final girl theory as she is rescued, taking away the masculinity that would have been bestowed upon her had she killed the villain. That being said, Dr Loomis still fails to kill Myers despite shooting him with a gun which makes Laurie's efforts to repel the villain with such weaponry seem more impressive and we can therefore still consider her as the final girl.
Thelma and Louise is also considered to be one of the great feminist films but like Halloween, also goes against feminist film theory. The film orignally recieved a lot of praise for the way in which the two lead characters were strong women who ended up defying the men in their lives. However, in order to get to that point they had to change until the point at which they were portrayed as very masculine. For example, in the scene where they blow up the fuel tanker, they act very aggressively just like the way some men are portrayed early on in the film.