Thelma and Louise (dir. Ridley Scott, 1991) incorporates the conventions of various film genres. This paper especially concentrates on the elements of the Western in this film. The Western has iconic status in American film culture and is a quintessentially male genre. It is the model for all the later male action genres, some of which are known to have contributed to building America’s national image. Thelma and Louise, however, featuring two female outlaws, subverts the convention of the Western, and provides an insight into the constructed nature of the myth behind the traditional Western hero. At the same time, it prevents spectators from identifying with the female protagonists, who are imperfect and merely “perform” masculinity. By subverting the familiar genre and creating unfamiliar spectatorship, this film implicitly critiques the male-centeredness of the popular American film genre and its roles in disseminating dominant ideologies through the identification process.