Fried Green Tomatoes

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

 

Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) shows women battling those that try to keep them in subservient positions, sometimes through physical abuse. What is different about this film is that it deals with two different time periods and shows how the earlier era helps empower a female in the later time frame. The movie also focuses on racial bigotry and age discrimination. Fiction (this movie is based on a novel by comedian Fannie Flagg) set in the South often has a gothic feel, sometimes presenting the supernatural, or at least dealing with the darker side of human nature. This movie certainly does the latter.

 

The opening shot of an early model car being fished out of a river establishes that what is happening took place in the past. The image is accompanied by the other-worldly music of a single clarinet which delivers feelings of mystery and danger, sort of the way the music works in another Southern gothic-type tale, To Kill a Mockingbird. As the credits roll, so do train wheels, and they move quickly over rails. Trains play a role in the plot, but the image also is one of movement that acts as a transition to current events as a dilapidated town is displayed. There is an empty building with a worn sign that says, “Whistle Stop Cafe,” which is located next to train tracks. Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates) sits in a car while her husband, Ed (Gailard Sartain) talks on a public telephone. (The name “Couch” suggests someone who is inactive, as opposed to the swiftness of a locomotive, and this tale is very much about Evelyn getting off a comfortable but stagnant spot and going on a personal journey). The portly Evelyn, which also implies being weighed down into passivity, stares at the old menu painted on the closed restaurant, takes out a candy bar, and starts chewing on it. She hears a train whistle and an engine chugging but there is nothing visible on the tracks. The camera moves along as if there is something passing through. There is a faint reflection of cars passing by in the windows of the defunct cafe, and the leaves on the ground blow away from the tracks. This ghostly suggestion fits in with a gothic story and adds to the merging of the past with the present. 

 

Evelyn gave Ed wrong directions, and she sheepishly smiles, acknowledging her mistake. She is lost in many ways at the start of the movie, and is the passive one in her marriage. They eventually get to the nursing home in Alabama where Ed’s aunt resides. She is ill-tempered toward Evelyn, who leaves Ed with her as Evelyn wanders off. She meets “Ninny” Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy), one of the residents, and it winds up changing Evelyn’s life. (Ninny’s last name suggests that she weaves a silver lining into the tapestry of Evelyn’s life). 

 

Ninny is a frank woman and starts the conversation by talking about having her gallbladder removed and needing a fleet enema. Her subject matter is not what the genteel women of the South usually engage in and is not what Evelyn is used to hearing. Ninny, who is from Whistle Stop, is not in need of skilled medical care but is the roommate of her friend, Mrs. Otis, and states she will leave when Mrs. Otis settles in. Ninny then abruptly mentions Imogene “Idgie” Threadgoode, and says she married her brother, Cleo. Idgie and Ruth Jamison ran the Whistle Stop Café. The coincidence of Evelyn getting lost (leading to her finding herself) at Whistle Stop right near the café and then learning about it right afterwards suggests fate is playing a role. 

 

Ninny says that Idgie was a bit wild but then adds that she can’t believe anyone would think Idgie “murdered that man.” Her line piques Evelyn’s and our interest and meshes with the opening shot of the car that suggests dire events. It also propels us into the narrative set in the past as the excellent storyteller Ninny recounts what happened. 

 Ninny says that Idgie was arrested for killing Frank Bennett, but then backtracks to when Idgie was young and played with her brother, Buddy (Chris O’Donnell) right after WWI. On the day of the wedding of her sister, Leona (Afton Smith), little Idgie (Nancy Moore Atchison) is wearing a dress. But, as she lifts her hem to walk down the stairs, scraped knees are visible, implying that Idgie is more of a Tomboy and wearing the traditional clothes of a female does not suit her. She immediately gets into a fight with the teasing young Julian Threadgoode (Reid Binion). She climbs to her treehouse and begins to shed the dress. Buddy tells stories and relates one about ducks getting their feet frozen in a nearby lake and flying off with the body of water to Georgia. He is able to charm his little sister. Idgie goes to the wedding but wears a jacket and tie showing her early rebelliousness against imposed gender roles. 

 

Ninny mentions how she had a big “crush” on the likable Buddy, who all the girls fancied. Buddy, however, was interested in Ruth (Mary-Louise Parker), who was a daughter of a friend of his mother. On the day of the wedding, Idgie, Ruth and Buddy go strolling and he tells the story about the ducks. This fairytale delights Idgie and Ruth, and is repeated in the film, adding an element of fantasy to the reality. 

 But the idyllic time the three share on that day is undercut when Buddy goes after Ruth’s hat that flies away in the wind. It winds up on those train tracks, which symbolize how life has good and bad changes in store as it passes through time. The two girls laugh as the hat keeps escaping out of Buddy’s reach, but this whimsical scene abruptly turns deadly as Buddy’s shoe gets caught in between the rails. We hear that whistle in the distance, a real one this time, and a speeding locomotive barrels down on where Buddy is trapped and kills the young man. 

 Idgie was so traumatized by the death of her brother that she exiled herself near the short waterfalls where she, Ruth and Buddy walked. As time passed, she became even more of an outsider to acceptable society. She only allowed Big George (Stan Shaw), the African American family worker, to be her friend, which in the South was rebellious in itself. He acted like a guardian angel as “he watched over her night and day.” The grownup Idgie (Mary Stuart Masterson) would stay away from home mostly and only Big George knew where she was.

 

Evelyn attends meetings to put “magic” and “spark” back in her marriage (the moderator is the author, Fannie Flagg), implying that society has left it up to her as the wife to revive the relationship, relieving the husband of all responsibility. Evelyn imagines herself wrapped in cellophane to greet Ed when he enters their house. The music playing in her head asks, “what’s become of the broken-hearted,” which implies her plan does not have a good chance for success. She imagines Ed’s response would be that she is insane. She can’t even have a romantic fantasy without it being doomed to failure. Her friend Missy (Constance Shulman) says instead of this useless group, they need, “an assertiveness training class for Southern women,” which she then admits, “that’s a contradiction in terms.” The stress here is that Southern women are taught to be submissive.

 

The next scene emphasizes the above fact as Evelyn waits at the door with beer in hand as her husband rushes through the house so he can eat in front of the TV while watching a ballgame. His only words to her are to ask her to not block his view. He confirms what she predicted when she asks what he would have thought if she greeted him only wearing cellophane. He says he would be checking her into the “looney bin.”

 

Evelyn is relegated to the waiting room again at the nursing home when they visit Ed’s aunt on Halloween (another gothic reference). Ninny sees her and the older woman mentions how smells bring back memories. Again there is that ethereal music that brings us back to the ghosts of the past as Ninny recalls eating fried green tomatoes at the cafe. Ninny says that Idgie, on a rare visit home, met Frank Bennett (Nick Searcy), and he is overly complimentary. She says her name is “Towanda,” which reflects her mythical warrior-woman persona, and says to Frank, “You a politician, or does lying just run in your family?” She sizes him up right away and the exchange shows how she is not willing to comply with playing the Southern hospitality game. 

 Mama (Lois Smith) and the family servant, Sipsey (Cicely Tyson), accept Idgie’s gift of caught fish which emphasizes Idgie’s self-reliant abilities, showing how she can exist without the presence of a man. Mama asked Ruth to spend the summer with them, hoping Ruth could connect with Idgie and bring her back to the family. But, Idgie was a renegade before Buddy’s death, and it is Idgie that draws out the courageous woman inside the meek-appearing Ruth. Ruth goes to The River Club which Big George warns does not have “church-going” people there. But Ruth feels it's her duty to reach out to Idgie, who is playing cards with Grady Kilgore (Gary Basaraba), the hulky local sheriff. Ruth brazenly grabs Idgie’s money and says Idgie must go home to her family. Ruth tells Idgie that she is being self-centered in her grief concerning Buddy, since they all lost him, and she shouldn’t turn her back on the family that loves her. But Idgie says that she goes where she wants to go, so Ruth’s argument concerning submission to Mama’s request is rejected.

 

Reverend Scroggins (Richard Riehle) gives a sermon about how evil lurks in places like the River Club, which he calls “a den of the devil,” because it has alcohol, gambling, and “sin,” in general. He equates Satan with serpents and while he speaks, the irreverent Idgie rides by, disrupting the status quo, saying Scroggins resembles a serpent himself. The reverend stresses to his congregation that evil can take a pleasing shape, implying the congregation shouldn’t be taken in by the pretty Idgie. Although these two are combative, Scroggins believes in justice and is not above bending the rules to see that fairness triumphs later in the story.

 

Ruth persists in trying to be Idgie’s friend and begs for a chance to have fun together. Idgie’s idea of fun is not what Ruth had in mind. Idgie takes her to, where else, a train, which has cans and bags of food in one of the cars. This time its movement shows it to be a vehicle for good as it allows the two women to aid the poor people on the roadside as they toss food to them. Even though they are giving away what doesn’t belong to them, they are like angels dispensing hope to the underprivileged. So, Ruth’s participation in Idgie’s Robin Hood-like adventure turns her into an outlaw, but she enjoys the role as she sees the smiling faces of hungry children running near the train so that they can get something to eat. Idgie points out that the high-minded churchgoers are hypocrites because they go to the River Club. The implication is that they pretend to be Christians but do no acts of kindness for the needy. When the time comes to jump off the train, Ruth thinks Idgie is crazy for suggesting it. But, when Idgie says to Ruth she will never jump off, implying she doesn’t have the courage to be daring, Ruth’s hidden strength surfaces. She says to Idgie, “Don’t you ever say never to me.” Ruth is the first to jump and she comes out unscathed while it is Idgie who hurts her ankle. Ruth tells her that she will help her walk. So, Ruth, through her association with Idgie, becomes the strong one in a reversal of roles.

 In an acknowledgement of Ruth showing her daring side, Idgie now demonstrates her strong will in order to reward Ruth. Idgie takes Ruth into a field where there is a huge beehive in a tree. She reaches in, grabs a chunk of honey, and puts it in a jar (she earlier brought a jar of honey to Buddy’s grave), and gives it as a gift to Ruth. The bees swarm around and land on her, but she assures the concerned Ruth she never gets stung. (There are no special effects or a stand-in as Mary Stuart Masterson did the scene herself). This incident adds another element of the supernatural as the astonished Ruth says to Idgie, “You’re just a bee charmer, Idgie Threadgoode, that’s what you are, a bee charmer.” Idgie is more one with the cosmic power of nature than she is connected to other people.

 Ruth’s friendship does bring Idgie back to having more contact with her family. Ruth is teaching religious classes to children for Reverend Scroggins. She is telling the youngsters about Job. The Bible story seems to fit what happens to people in the movie as they suffer many tribulations. Idgie is smiling as she looks at Ruth through a window, which stresses her outsider status. The next scene contrasts with the previous church setting since it takes place at The River Club, which Scroggins condemned as a place of sin. They are celebrating Ruth’s birthday and she gets drunk and plays poker and baseball for the first time with Grady, Idgie, and others. The two women are dripping wet after taking a dip in the river, and there is a sensual feel to the images. Ruth says that it’s the best birthday she ever had and declares that she never had more fun. Then she kisses Idgie on the cheek. The novel has a lesbian connection between Idgie and Ruth, but the film only hints at intimacy between the two. 

 

Idgie tells Ruth not to concern herself about getting drunk and worrying what other people think. Idgie wants to open up a whole new world of enjoyment for Ruth. Idgie tells Ruth she has only done what was expected of her, teaching Sunday school, taking care of her father before he died, and will be doing the same for her ailing mother. Ruth then surprises Idgie when she says, “and I’m gonna marry the man I’m supposed to.” Ninny narrates that Ruth married Frank Bennett, but Idgie didn’t go to the wedding, which shows some jealousy and possibly that Idgie felt that she and Ruth didn’t need men in their lives to be happy as long as they had each other. Idgie was so upset that she “swore that she would never see Ruth again.”

 

Evelyn continues to go to groups to find some satisfaction in her life. One meeting addresses female empowerment and the instructor says the women present are to explore their “own femaleness” by using mirrors to examine the “source” of their “strength” and “separateness,” their “vaginas.” This exercise is so shocking to Evelyn’s Southern temperament, she almost falls out of her chair. She says she can’t just slip off her panties because she is wearing a girdle. It is a funny scene, but it also points to how her society has put Evelyn physically and literally in restraints. The room in which the meeting takes place looks like a man cave, with animals and fish mounted on the walls and a dartboard on the door. It’s as if the macho male-dominated culture which surrounds women is difficult to escape.

 

Evelyn still tries to win her husband over with a nice dinner, but he comes in wearing baseball clothes (another testosterone-fueled image) and takes his meal again to the chair to watch a game on the TV. Evelyn says with their son on his own they can go to Florida and rent a boat like they did when they were first married. But the unromantic Ed says he likes the quiet in their house now which implies he sees no need for such a trip. She is trying to recapture the romance that no longer exists in their relationship. She says the classes she takes haven’t helped and instead of showing understanding or taking responsibility, he simply tells her to stop attending the meetings. At this point she is still looking for individual fulfillment from a man.

 

Evelyn instead gets what she needs by visiting Ninny on her own and listening to her tale of two women in the past dealing with male adversity. At this point in the story, Idgie is more at home staying with the Black servants, Sipsey and Big George, than her own family, which again shows Idgie’s lack of conformity. Idgie eventually feels the need to pay Ruth a visit and discovers Frank has hit her friend. Idgie wants to confront Frank, but Ruth tells her to leave if Idgie cares about her. Ruth most likely is implying that men have the upper hand, and she will suffer more violence if Frank thinks she sought outside help. 

 

Idgie receives a letter from Ruth that has an obituary for her mother and a passage from the Book of Ruth in the Bible that implies Ruth wants to be with Idgie. Idgie goes to the Bennett house with Big George and the now grownup Julian Threadgoode (Haynes Brooke). A mournful Ruth says she is pregnant. They begin to load up the car with Ruth’s things when Frank arrives, and he promptly smacks Ruth hard. Big George intimidates Frank, so he lets Ruth go, but not without kicking his wife, who carries his child, down the stairs, showing what a vile person he is. Idgie threatens to kill Frank if he comes near Ruth anymore, and again calls herself “Towanda, the amazing Amazon woman!” which is a persona which conjures up independent female power. But, her threat will come back to haunt Idgie.

 

There is then an appropriate transition to Evelyn looking at a tabloid with a headline about a woman killing her husband and selling his body parts to aliens. Sci-fi homicidal capitalism! (The outlandish violence in the newspaper is actually a foreshadowing of what is to happen). Evelyn probably is subconsciously building up her aggressive feelings about being dismissed, and that is why she is looking at the article. We then get a scene which will feed her anger as a rude male youth bumps into Evelyn who is carrying her bags and proceeds to call her a “fat cow” and an “old bitch.” So not only is Evelyn being dismissed because of her gender, she is also being victimized because of her age and body-shamed due to her weight. 

 

At their next meeting, the sobbing Evelyn tells Ninny she feels “useless” and “powerless.” That can be attributed to how she has been treated. But she is also stressed out and keeps eating. Men go through midlife crises, and women also can experience that feeling. As Evelyn says, “I’m too young to be old and I’m too old to be young.” Ninny discovers that her friend has hot flashes, sweats, and her heart sometimes pounds. So, menopause is complicating her situation. Ninny tells her to get some hormones to help with her symptoms. The older lady acts like a counselor here, also telling Evelyn to get out of the house and find a job. Ninny tells Evelyn that she has a “pretty complexion” and could sell cosmetics. As opposed to the nasty boy who attacked Evelyn’s looks, Ninny inspires self-confidence. We thus have a woman helping another woman to help counter the negative effects of a male. 

 

Ruth, no longer tied to her parents or her husband, now becomes part of the Threadgoode family, has her child, and stays at the Threadgoode house. That fact brings Idgie closer to her family and she and Ruth are like the parents of baby Buddy Junior, a name that honors Idgie’s brother, but also turns out to be ominous for the boy. Papa Threadgoode (Danny Nelson) gets the two women some money so that they can establish the Whistle Stop Café. Their feminist empowerment thus is fueled now by Idgie and Ruth becoming business partners. There then is a song about good-tasting barbecued meat, and Big George is cooking some food and making a sauce, another bit of foreshadowing. 

 

Grady is disapproving because of all the Black folks the two women are serving at the cafe, and warns Idgie that she is asking for trouble from certain residents in this Deep South state in this time period. Idgie says she might ask those mysterious critics “who they are under those sheets.” She implies that Grady is a member of the Ku Klux Klan since she recognized his large shoe size despite the costume. Grady has already asked Idgie to marry him so he is caught in a dilemma and says he will try to talk to the town’s Klansmen. 

 

Ruth and Idgie are compassionate toward other outcasts of society. Ruth doesn’t charge some families who are poverty-stricken. They give the friendly alcoholic, Smokey Lonesome (Timothy Scott), food and a place to sleep. 

 

While cooking up the first batch of fried green tomatoes, which Ruth declares to be “terrible,” the young women get into a laughing food fight that has an erotic feel to it as did the river scene earlier. The film’s director, Jon Avnet, said in an interview he wanted to suggest two people making love without really making love. That fact is not lost on Grady as he suspiciously eyes Idgie and Ruth smeared in raspberries and other ingredients. When he says they are coming close to disorderly conduct, Ruth plies his face with chocolate frosting. He says that Idgie has been “a bad influence” on her, to which Ruth triumphantly says, “I agree!” Ruth realizes that the rule-breaking Idgie may be condemned by the community, but for Ruth, Idgie’s contrariness has helped to set Ruth free.

 

But the laughter is undercut by the presence of Frank scoping out what is happening in Whistle Stop. He and his fellow KKK members come at night and he threatens Ruth, saying she and the baby will return to him. Society’s scorned members, Sipsey and Smokey, are the only ones there to add support to Ruth, and Sipsey is courageous as she tells Frank she is not afraid of him, another piece of foreshadowing. Frank and his fellow Klansmen from Georgia grab Big George and whip him while also breaking some windows at the café. Grady is there to warn them to stay away but tells Idgie the KKK doesn’t like her selling to Blacks, as he previously warned her not to do. He says he is not a member of the KKK despite Idgie’s accusation, as he doesn’t like being in “parades” wearing “bedsheets.”

 

Ruth goes to one of Scroggins’s revival events, which shows her balancing herself between the world of the spiritual and the profane. Her absence occurs during the Town Follies, a secular celebration in which Idgie is more at home participating. In a skit onstage Idgie is dressed as a man and Grady wears a dress which is for comic effect, but which also implies gender reversal, since Idgie never acts traditionally feminine. In contrast to these festivities, Frank arrives and knocks Sipsey to the floor as he attempts to take his boy. Big George sees him and goes to alert Idgie. As Frank heads to his car the sound of the train whistle is in the background, again sounding like an alarm alerting us that dramatic change is again about to occur. Smokey tries to stop Frank, but he hits Smokey who falls to the ground. Someone slams Frank over the head with a frying pan, buy at this point it is a mystery as to who that person is. 

 

There is a time jump to Grady introducing Georgia Sheriff Curtis Smoote (Raynor Scheine) to Idgie. Smoote is investigating the disappearance of Frank, who told his hired help he was going to see his ex-wife and child. So Smoote is suspicious of Ruth and Idgie’s possible involvement in Frank’s absence. Smoote confronts Idgie and says Frank’s hired hand heard her threaten to kill Frank, so he is looking for the evidence that will put her away. He is also intimidating as he questions Big George, since Smoote learned how attached he and Idgie are. At the same time, he enjoys eating what Grady calls the “best barbecue” in Alabama. Big George prepares the food in the back as the camera lingers on his stirring the sauce, the significance of which we learn later. 

 

Ruth tells Idgie that maybe it’s time she moved on because she thinks Idgie feels she must take care of her and little Buddy, Thus, she can’t “settle down,” which implies getting married. But Idgie says, “I’m as settled as I ever hope to be.” She is by nature unsettled, but the someone she feels most attached to is Ruth, not a man. Idgie hasn’t told Ruth what she was doing the night Frank disappeared and Ruth shows she is sympathetic to doing away with her ex-husband since praying has not helped her in the past. She tells Idgie if Frank came to take little Buddy, she would “break his neck.” Idgie reassures her that she doesn’t have to worry about Frank anymore. Ruth assumes Idgie killed Frank, but Idgie appears sincere when she says she didn't murder him. 

 

Back in the present, Evelyn looks different as she wears hipper clothing. Two women steal Evelyn’s parking space at the supermarket, telling her they are “younger and faster.” This time she will not let someone take advantage of her Southern manners and older age. Idgie, by way of Winnie, is having an effect on Evelyn losing her victimhood. She uses Idgie’s battle cry, “Towanda,” and proceeds to continually slam into the parked car that belongs to the young women. She counters their previous verbal jab by telling the car space thieves that she is older so she has “more insurance,” reversing the power position.

 

Evelyn verbally spikes her triumph by telling Ninny what happened in the parking lot. Evelyn says it was considered “bad manners” for a woman to get mad when she was growing up, but here she defies that upbringing and says, “I got mad and it felt terrific.” She no longer is willing to play the role of a female doormat and takes on her new attitude with a vengeance. She says she wants to take out all the “punks” of the world and then the “wife beaters, like Frank Bennett,” hoping to “machine gun their genitals.” She wants to right the wrongs of age discrimination and body shaming by making wrinkles sexually desirable, and banning young fashion models that “weigh under 130 pounds.” Ninny comically asks, “how many of them hormones you takin’?” 

 

Evelyn is now exercising at home and is into healthier food as she tries to change the course of her life, getting on track as it were, toward something more self-fulfilling. Of course her husband, Ed, is not on board with the new Evelyn, but she begins to reverse their roles. Her knocking down a wall in her house to let in light and air is a metaphor for how she is opening herself up to fresh ways of living. (Ed starts to respond to Evelyn’s worry about their marriage by bringing her flowers, but she later rebuilds the wall to have an extra room because she wants Ninny to move in with them. This possibility is too much for Ed, who says it’s “never” going to happen, Evelyn repeats Ruth's words: “Don’t you ever say ‘never’ to me,” which shows how the courage of Ruth in the past has brought the gift of empowerment to Evelyn in the present). When Ed sarcastically asks if his wife is trying to kill him with the low cholesterol diet, she says if she was going to kill him she'd use her hands, a masculine response. Even Ninny is worried about Evelyn’s extreme turnaround as she tells Janeen (Latanya Richardson Jackson,) a worker at the facility, that Evelyn said she gets the urge to hit Ed with a baseball bat when he watches a game on television. Janeen, obviously knowledgeable about the negative side of men, humorously says, “Oh hell, that seems normal to me.” Evelyn is thinking about using the baseball bat, a possible phallic image, and thus reversing the power roles by employing the male symbol of force against the neglectful and inconsiderate man in her life. 

 

The possibility of Evelyn killing Ed is only a joke in the story in the present. But the narrative in the past contains the real doing away with a man. Ninny says that five years passed since Frank disappeared. Smokey was missing for those five years, and now shows up again, suggesting that maybe he was the one who killed Frank. Smoote still shows up looking for the killer, but also so he can enjoy the barbecued meat. There is that ominous train whistle again in the background and the train zooms by, as someone calls out in alarm for young Buddy (Grayson Fricke). Will history repeat itself? Almost, as the revolving wheels of the train, possibly implying the passing time on a clock face, reap Buddy Jr.’s arm. 

 After drenching rainfalls, Frank’s truck surfaces, like a dark memory that will not be suppressed. Grady tells Idgie that she and Big George will be under arrest for murder. He says that if she runs off the authorities will be satisfied with executing Big George, since nobody wants to hang a woman, especially a white one. Grady says this racism is just the “facts of life.” But the rebellious Idgie will have no part of institutionalized bigotry. 

 

At the trial of Idgie and Big George, Percy, (Macon McCallman), the prosecuting attorney, tries to make it look like Idgie manipulated Ruth into leaving her husband and then she and Big George, who he slanders with racial slurs, murdered Frank. Idgie is confrontational and sarcastic on the witness stand. She never compromises as to what makes her who she is. Ruth dismisses the notion that she was controlled by Idgie and says she went with Idgie because she was “the best friend” she ever had, and declares that, “I love her.” In this context, a platonic love is assumed, but Ruth does not qualify her affection, despite the prejudice of this time and place against true love between women. 

 Back in the present, Evelyn looks classy with her new clothes and hairstyle. She also has slimmed down a good bit and has a job selling cosmetics as Ninny suggested. She discovers from Sue Otis (Carol Mitchell-Leon), Mrs. Otis’s daughter-in-law, that Ninny's house was condemned and torn down, but nobody told Ninny so as not to upset her. After hearing the news about Ninny’s house, Evelyn walks through the nursing home and as she observes old people in wheelchairs the look on her face shows worry. She may be concluding how people, like houses, are subject to the ravages of time. Evelyn goes to Ninny’s room for the first time and she sees the wall full of pictures of Ruth, Idgie, and the Threadgoode family, along with paper roses, which at least can’t decay. It’s Ninny’s birthday, which adds to the emphasis on the passage of time. Ninny says she can’t believe she’s eighty-three, and says, “it sorta slipped up on me.” All of us as we get older feel exactly like that. Evelyn has brought fried green tomatoes instead of a birthday cake as the past merges with the present. 

 

Ninny looks sad as she thinks about Ruth, who began to lose her appetite after the trial. As Ninny says that Ruth’s cancer was found to be so advanced that she only had a few weeks to live, there is a shot of an engineer oiling a locomotive, again connecting the train to the inescapable approach of death. Ruth wants to hear the story about the ducks flying off with the lake. Idgie says that was just a lie, but Ruth just wants to hear a tale, which although not true, serves a beneficial purpose as opposed to most lies. She is just like the rest of us, which is why we read books and go to movies. The best stories show us what is genuine about the human condition. Ruth passes away as Idgie finishes the tall tale. One finally escapes the onslaught of time when a person leaves this earth behind. Sipsey seems to understand the way of things as she stops the pendulum of the clock in the bedroom and tells Idgie, “Let her go. You know, Miss Ruth was a lady. And a lady always knows when to leave.” Director Avnet said that life has no close-ups, no cuts, so he staged this scene so that Idgie was not looking at Ruth as she told the story, and the audience might not notice Ruth’s passing if not paying attention. He said that’s how life is. We may miss some dramatic events. After hearing about Ruth’s fate, Evelyn confesses to Ninny what most of us are afraid to give words to. She says, “I hate death. It scares me so,” whereas Ninny says she’s much older and is not afraid of dying. This film addresses the different ways people live their lives in the face of that fear. Ninny offers later that what gets us through the tough times is knowing that the most important thing in life “is friends. Best friends.”

 

Evelyn goes to the nursing home another time to find Ninny’s bed empty and an attendant peeling Ninny’s roses off of the wall, like a grim reaper. Evelyn thinks Ninny died, and is devastated until she discovers it is Mrs. Otis who is deceased. Ninny discharged herself to go to the home that no longer exists. When Evelyn catches up with Ninny, the older woman is distraught when she sees that her house is no longer standing. Evelyn cheers her up by saying how Ninny, through her stories, has changed Evelyn’s life, and now makes her glad to get up in the morning. Ninny isn’t worried about herself because she is selfless. She is upset because she no longer has someone to take care of, as she did for her child, husband Cleo, and then Mrs. Otis. Evelyn tells her that she can come live with her, and that she would be a blessing for her and Ed, thugs giving Ninny a purpose. 

We then learn the truth about Franks Bennett’s death, since Ninny discovered what really happened from Mrs. Otis, who was Sipsey’s younger sister. It was Sipsey who picked herself up after being hit by Frank and used her frying pan to bash in his skull. It is interesting that the Black female domestic uses a tool of a servant to dispatch a white supremacist woman abuser. Sort of like divine justice. They know that the Alabama society will not believe the alcoholic Smokey, and the Blacks and their friend, Idgie, that the death was in self-defense and to prevent a kidnapping of a child. Idgie, Big George and his mother, Sipsey, devise a coverup, which is pretty dark. Idgie tells Big George that “it’s hog-boiling time.” There is only the suggestion of what takes place, but we know that Big George is barbecuing an unusual cut of meat. The Georgia lawman, Smoote, comments on how good the food tastes, and Sipsey says, “Secret’s in the sauce,” which is really true, as the director pointed out in an interview, since the mystery of what happened to Frank rests there. Idgie looks horrified to think that Smoote might discover the mystery since he is eating Frank’s cooked remains. Nothing like a touch of cannibalism to spice up a story. Smoote finally found Frank’s body, but just didn’t realize it.

 

Director Avnet said that fried green tomatoes are like the enigma that is the South. The tomato “hasn’t made it to ripeness, it’s dipped in batter. It’s bad for you, but it tastes really, really good.” The café and the food conjure up the hospitality of Southern culture. Of course the cooking of Frank’s body subverts that idea, and brings in that gothic element. 

 

Evelyn and Ninny find a jar with a honeycomb in it at Ruth’s grave with a note from Idgie. Evelyn is astounded to learn from Ninny that Idgie is alive, still “charming bees.” She says that sometimes she believes she catches “a glimpse of her.” Evelyn looks intrigued and says, “Maybe we’ll see her today.” Ninny replies, “Maybe,” and she has an enigmatic look on her face. There has been the suggestion that Ninny is really Idgie. The film possibly implies that, since Ninny never appears in the flashbacks as a younger woman. In Fannie Flagg’s book it is evident that they are separate people, and it would be weird for Ninny to say she had a crush on Buddy, since he was Idgie’s brother. It is more likely that Ninny put the honey and the note there to emphasize that these fascinating people live on through the retelling of stories, just like the fanciful ones that Buddy used to tell and were repeated by Idgie, who then told them to Buddy, Jr. Ninny says as much when she tells Evelyn, “All these people’ll live as long as you remember ‘em.”

 

As Ninny and Evelyn walk away, Ninny’s voice-over says that after Ruth died and the train no longer came to Whistle Stop, the café was shuttered, and everybody “scattered to the winds.” She adds, “when the café closed, the heart of the town just stopped beatin.’ It’s funny how a little place like that brought so many people together.” It is ironic that two social outcasts and their Black friends were a magnet that attracted others to this Alabama town so long ago. Whistle Stop is now a ghost town whose spirits live on in the tales told about it which incorporates individuals and transcends them.

The next film is The Mouse That Roared.

Dolores Claiborne

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Since two TV shows, Pretty Little Lies and The Handmaid’s Tale, recently won several Emmy awards, I decided to talk about this 1995 movie, directed by Taylor Hackford and based on a Stephen King work, since these stories address a topic which is important to me, the abuse of women by men.

The movie starts with an upward shot of an opulent house, emphasizing the elevated status of its owner, Vera Donovan (Judy Parfitt). The story begins in the present, with Vera, in a wheelchair, shouting at her maid, Dolores Claiborne (Kathy Bates), in the upstairs hallway. Vera is yelling, “Let me go Dolores!” Vera then topples down the long staircase, crashing into the spokes of the banister. She is bleeding and in agony, and then says to the other woman, “Please Dolores.” She runs into the kitchen, knocks objects onto the floor in a frenzy, looking for something, and settles on a rolling pin. She stands over Vera, ready to end the woman’s life, but cries and shakes, and is interrupted by the mailman. Vera then dies from her injuries.

It appears at first glance that Dolores is trying to kill Vera, but her conflicted emotions about harming the other woman leaves us with a mystery concerning what really happened. The narrative then moves back and forth between flashbacks and the current situation in order to let the audience know what truly occurred.

There is a cut from the site of the death on the island off the shore of Maine to New York, where Dolores’ daughter, Selena (Jennifer Jason Leigh - the three lead women here should have received Oscar nominations. They are excellent), pleads with her boss, Peter (Eric Bogosian) to cover an important story in Phoenix. In economic fashion, we quickly learn that Selena is an excellent journalist, but slept with her boss, who now has moved on to the next pretty young worker, and Selena will probably not land the next important assignment she deserves. Here we have a talented woman who, despite her success interviewing famous people, must be made subservient to a man, both professionally and sexually.

Selena receives an anonymous fax indicating that her mother is under suspicion for killing Vera. Out of responsibility, she returns to her home which she ran away from not long after her thirteenth birthday. The sunny skies of New York change to the overcast chilliness of the island, symbolizing the somber and troubled mood of Selena and her relationship with Dolores. The ride on the ferry stresses the isolation in which Dolores resides, both physically and psychologically, and the mental journey of returning to an unpleasant place is mirrored on Selena’s grim face. Indeed, Selena appears irritable and sad throughout the movie because of how she perceives her mother, until more information comes to light, and her buried memories of what really happened in her youth are unearthed.

Mother and daughter have been estranged for so long that Dolores doesn’t even recognize her. She is glad to see Selena, hugs the emotionally distant daughter, but she did not send the fax, not wanting to involve Selena in more sordid business. Because this incident is the second time Dolores is a suspect in a death. Selena’s father, the alcoholic Joe St. George (David Starthairn) died and Dolores was accused of killing him. She was acquitted, but the detective, John Mackey (Christopher Plummer), lost the case, and now wants to make sure that Dolores doesn’t get away with it again. But, the fact that Dolores did not actually hit Vera with the rolling pin only makes her a suspect in the death of Vera, and can’t be arrested, much to Mackey’s disappointment. So, she goes back to her abandoned house with Selena because she had been living full time at the Donovan house, taking care of the invalid Vera.

Mackey is another male in the story trying to subjugate a woman with his power. But, to her credit, and, as Selena points out, to her mother’s own detriment, Dolores refuses to be bullied. Her colorful and combative language vents her hostility, but also provokes anger in others. She says that the police station is a mess, and starts to tidy up, despite the mild protestations of Constable Frank Stamshaw (John C. Reilly), one of the few males in the film that is not depicted in a negative light. When going home, some young men shout out to Dolores if she has killed anybody else today, and her angry retort is to say, no, but she knows where to start. After getting fed up with Mackey’s snide comments and vindictiveness toward her, she wittingly and aggressively says, “Now, you listen to me, Mr. Grand High Poobah of Upper Buttcrack, I’m just about half-past give a shit with your fun and games.” She explains to Selena that she is hostile many times because, “Sometimes, being a bitch is all a woman has to hang on to.” This phrase is repeated in the movie to show that women have to use the only tool at their disposal to survive.

The return to their house allows for memories to emerge in the form of flashbacks, primarily for Dolores, but a significant one for Selena toward the end of the film. Selena does not want to remember her childhood, but subconsciously she flinches as she enters the house again, and looks wary of ascending the stairs. But, she is stuck there because the only hotel is closed for the season, and the inn burned down. The coldness of the season suggests the harshness of confronting negative thoughts and the desire to close the mental door on what is threatening, and withdraw into one’s comforting status quo. Selena’s selective way of looking at things is seen by her accusing her mother of not getting in touch with her after Dolores mentions that she hasn’t recently heard from Selena. She can’t see that Dolores kept away to shield her daughter from unwanted reminders of what happened to her father since Selena believes, just like Mackey, that her mother killed her father.

While Selena gets washed, Dolores unpacks her bags in Selena’s old bedroom. There are newspaper articles on the wall showing her daughter’s interest in current events, and the books on the shelves are those of prominent writers, such as Saul Bellow, Doris Lessing, and Kurt Vonnegut. These items show us that Selena was a very bright girl and young woman with great potential, who was able to overcome prior trauma, but who is psychologically damaged because of past abuses. Indeed, Dolores finds several bottles of medicine to treat psychiatric conditions in Selena’s travel bag. Dolores may be wanting to rationalize when she says her daughter only went through a “bad patch.” Selena corrects her, saying she had a nervous breakdown. But, despite the terrible experiences Dolores has endured, and her resultant bad humor, we see Dolores remembering a pleasant time, when she played hide and seek with the young Selena.

In addition, Selena smokes and drinks, and the latter upsets Dolores because she is afraid the daughter may have inherited a tendency toward alcoholism from her father. While Dolores admits Selena has been under a great deal of pressure, maintaining her reputation, which includes interviewing noteworthy people such as President Richard Nixon, and drinks to alleviate the stress, she, nevertheless, advises Selena to “slow down” on the booze. Selena says, “Trust me, I know my limit.” Dolores says she’s heard that before, from her husband. Selena angrily justifies her father’s drinking by saying, “What did he have to be happy about.” Dolores says that Joe was happy when he made other people miserable. Selena then directly accuses her mother when she says,”Is that why you killed him?” She goes on to say that the few memories she has of her father, she would like to keep. This is an ironic statement, because she has been successful in making herself forget many disturbing memories about her dad.

It is at this point in the movie that Dolores feels she must fill in those parts of their history that either Selena has repressed or of which she was unaware. The flashbacks that follow reveal what a brutal and humiliating man Joe was. There was the time that he came home and Dolores urges him to sell some old machinery because they have money problems. He fights her on it, and she says if he hadn’t lost his fishing boats, they wouldn’t be desperate, and she wouldn’t have to spend so much time working for Vera. When he bends over he reveals a split in the seat of his pants. She laughs. He deceptively laughs with her, then takes a chunk of wood and slams Dolores in the back. He blames her for provoking him, saying, “Why do you make me do it?” He thinks she is acting superior to him because of where she works. He later piles on his verbal attacks, saying that she should look at the women on the television beauty pageant to see what “a real ass should look like.” He tells his pals that Dolores didn’t look so bad when he decided to marry her because he was too drunk to know better. The abuser of women usually has low self-esteem, and refuses to do a self-assessment of inadequacies. So, he builds himself up by blaming the female for everything, and refuses to take any responsibility for his violent and demeaning actions.

Dolores is in severe pain after the attack, but hides it from the young Selena, saying she is just tired. However, Dolores is no pushover. When she drops a plate, Joe says it better not be one that belonged to his mother, who said Dolores couldn’t cook and would get fat. Right then, Dolores smashes a bottle over Joe’s head. She has a hatchet in her hands and now Joe is scared, because bullies are really cowards at heart, hiding their fear behind an intimidating cover. But, she drops the hatchet in his lap, and dares him to kill her, because if he doesn’t, and he hits her again, she says, “one of us is going to the bone yard.” He backs off as Selena enters the room, and Dolores shields her, literally and figuratively, from what has happened, blocking her daughter’s view of Joe. In the present, Selena yells and cries, sarcastically shouting, “Thanks for sharing!” to her mother. She does not want to believe Dolores, who is establishing what kind of man Joe was, and that hits too close to home to what Selena has worked to forget.

A flashback to Dolores’ first days as Vera’s employee shows Mrs. Donovan as a domestic tyrant. She has endless rules on how Dolores should take care of the house, even on the number of clothespins that have to be used to hang up the washed linens. “Six pins, Dolores. Six pins, not five!” she shouts at her maid. In her narration to Selena, Dolores sums up the suffering involved with working for Vera when she says, “Hell ain’t somethin’ you get thrown into overnight. Nope real hell comes on you slow and steady as a line of wet winter sheets.”

But, Dolores has that ability to see both sides of the situation. She says that Vera was a prisoner of these rules herself, having to feel compelled to insure their enforcement. Also, she observes that Vera’s husband, Jack Donovan (Kelly Burnett) ignored his wife, not even acknowledging her remarks to him as he practiced his golf. The man was also dismissive of Dolores as she interrupts his swings because she must hang the clothes out to dry. He only would visit his wife once during the summer stay at the island house. So, even though Vera may lord over the premises, her husband, the man, still is the ultimate ruler. However, Jack Donovan dies in a car accident, and Vera, not a grieving widow, decides to move into the summer home permanently. Dolores agrees to work for the exacting Vera all year round to save money for Selena’s education.

In the present, Mackey comes around to gather evidence. He needs one of Dolores’ hair follicles. Dolores lets him pull it himself from her scalp, in a scene stressing how men use force against women. Dolores admits that she threatened Vera regularly because the invalid woman became more and more nasty toward Dolores as Vera’s illness progressed. But, Dolores points out to Mackey that saying something and doing something are very different things. Selena questions why her mother is so nasty toward Mackey, and Dolores must again remind Selena of her past. Mackey ruthlessly grilled the young Selena, implying that she conspired with her mother because the daughter was not at home on the day of her father’s death, thus removing herself as a witness. In fact, Selena was working at the hotel because of the additional visitors there to witness the solar eclipse on that day. Mackey, like many men, likes women to be demure and submissive, and Dolores is the opposite of that type of female.

How Selena is also a woman at odds with the male gender is demonstrated in the next few scenes. In a phone conversation with Peter, her love-them-and leave-them boss, she learns that he gave the important Phoenix story to another reporter. She quits her job, becoming even more isolated, like her mother. She then encounters Mackey in a bar, and he is intimidating about how he underestimated Dolores before but won’t let her get away with murder this time. He says that he successfully closed over eighty cases, and Joe’s death is the only one in which he was unsuccessful. Selena then realizes that it was Mackey who sent her the fax, because the detective figured that Selena’s estrangement from her mother indicated that she, too, blamed Dolores for her father’s death, and that Mackey could now use Selena against her mother. Selena now sees him as another manipulative man. When Selena goes back to Dolores’ house, her mother tries to be encouraging about future companionship, despite her negative experiences with males. Selena is pessimistic. Is response to Dolores’ question, “You tellin’ me there’s nobody?” she says, “I’m telling you there’s a lot of nobodies.” Subconsciously, her childhood has prevented her from trusting any commitment to a long term relationship. The current harassment of Dolores by locals resurrects Selena’s memories of the same onslaught when her father died. We see her flashbacks of trying to hurt herself with a broken glass Christmas ball. In the present, Selena storms out, ready to escape the current torment. She takes her pills to escape the mental pain. But, she remains, maybe because deep down she feels a need to help her mother in her world of male oppression.

A visit to the Donovan house to collect Dolores’ belongings causes Dolores to be outraged that the police left Vera’s unclean bedpan, with Mackey claiming it as evidence. Mackey drops a bomb onto Dolores when he says she had motive because Vera left over a million dollars to Dolores in her will. Since the document was executed eight years prior, Mackey argues she must have known about it. Dolores is dumbfounded and swears she knew nothing about the inheritance. The visit triggers another flashback, which shows Dolores became the only person Vera could rely on in her decrepit state. Dolores tells Selena that as Vera’s illness grew worse, she moved into the Donovan home, and fed Vera, helped with her transfers from her wheelchair, cleaned her bedpan, and dealt with Vera’s incontinence. The actions showed Dolores’ caring attention, even if their words were antagonistic to each other. In that verbal hostility was demonstrated how the employer-subservient worker relationship developed into one of equality and familiarity.

Dolores then tells Selena what really happened on the day that Vera died. Vera was a strong woman, and hated the idea of being helpless. She tried to throw herself down the stairs. Dolores was trying to prevent her suicide. However, after Vera was suffering following her fall, she pleaded with Dolores to end her life. So, Dolores chaotically searched for an object to put Vera out of her misery. But, when she stood over Vera with the rolling pin, she couldn’t find it in herself to end the life of the woman she had shared so much time with.

Selena, trying to escape the situation, feels she no longer has to be responsible for her mother since Dolores now has money and can hire a good lawyer. Selena gives her a list of prominent New York attorneys. Dolores wants to know that Selena believes her story. Selena doesn’t understand why, if life with Vera was so terrible, her mother didn’t leave. Selena says that’s what she does, implying that her mother hurt her and that’s why she left. Dolores now realizes the extent of Selena’s selective amnesia concerning the actions of her father. Tired of being accused as the one who hurt Selena, she makes Selena sit and hear the truth. In a flashback, Dolores tells her that she questioned young Selena why her honor student grades started dropping to C’s and D’s. Selena stopped washing her hair and taking care of her appearance, as if trying to look unattractive as a defense against unwanted attention. Selena tells her mother not to touch her. Dolores also noted that Joe gave his daughter a pretty necklace that was handed down from her mother’s side of the family. Men give gifts when they want to seduce women, or money to prostitutes for sex. Dolores voices her realization to her teenage daughter that Joe was sexually abusing Selena.

Once Dolores realized Joe’s incestuous activity, she went to the bank to withdraw the savings for Selena so the two could escape. But, Joe went with a story about how the passbook was lost, and the bank issued a new one to him. He closed the account, taking the savings, and opened up a new one in his name. We have another example of male abuse, only here it is financial. The bank manager is condescending, another man who wants his women submissive and quiet. But, Dolores is outraged, and tells the bank manager loudly that she lost her money because she is a woman. If she had come in and tried to take the money out of her husband’s account, they would have contacted Joe.

Continuing with her retelling, Dolores says she broke down and cried while in the presence of Vera. After Dolores tells her what has been going on, Vera now tells Dolores to call her by her first name, as their sisterhood in opposition to male abuse becomes more established. She says Selena didn’t want to deal with the situation when she was thirteen, and ran off to work at the hotel so she wouldn’t be around when her father came home. Running after Selena, Dolores found a covered over hole on the property, which was the place where Joe’s body was eventually found.

At this point, Selena doesn’t want to hear anymore because the story is becoming too painful for her to listen to. She gives Dolores the discovery evidence she acquired from Mackey to give to a lawyer, and she packs and leaves. But, Dolores has slipped a tape in her belongings so that she would listen to the rest of the story. Dolores counts on the reporter part of Selena, in the absence of her mother’s offputting presence, to want the facts. In the recording, Dolores relates how she told Vera about her husband’s advances on the teenage Selena. Vera wants to know if he has gone all the way with his daughter, and Dolores says that if he hasn’t already, he soon will. We now discover that it is Vera who initiated the “bitch” line. She tells Dolores, “Sometimes, you have to be a high riding bitch to survive. Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hang on to.” She then says, “It’s a depressingly masculine world in we live, Dolores.” She goes on to advise Dolores that the little bit of money she saved will not protect her. It is Vera who covertly suggests doing away with Joe, by admitting that is what she did with her husband, Jack. He says, “Husbands die every day, Dolores … They die and leave their wives their money. I should know, shouldn’t I? Sometimes they’re driving home from their mistress’ apartment and their brakes suddenly fail. An accident, Dolores, can be an unhappy woman’s best friend.”

After listening to Vera, she realizes how the deep hole she found on their property can be used to cause Joe’s “accident.” With everyone at eclipse parties, including one at the Donovan house, Vera tells Dolores she can have the rest of the day off, to go home and watch the eclipse with her husband. Of course, her words are code for doing him in. Dolores gets Joe a large bottle of whiskey, and in his drunken state, he is slowed down and clumsy. Dolores then tells him that she knows about the money, and persuaded the bank to gain access to the account, except for $500 Joe had taken. She then accuses him of sexually abusing Selena, and says she will get him arrested for child molestation. The taunts work, as Joe goes after Dolores, and she leads him to the hole, where Joe falls to his death. Before he drops, Joe begs his wife by saying “please,” which reminds us of what Vera said. But, this is not a plea that deserves mercy; it is a desperate request from a monster. Dolores looks up at the eclipse, the darkness, possibly representing Joe’s evil and maybe Dolores’ dark deed, but with the subsequent reappearance of the sunshine comes the hope for a brighter life to live. Everyone knew Joe was an alcoholic, and his death was ruled an accident while intoxicated. Dolores says on the tape that she will tell the truth about what happened to Vera, but will not get a lawyer and fight whatever is decided. If she is convicted of murdering her, then it will be payback for killing Joe.

Now, Selena has a flashback of a memory she was not able to face until her mother initiated her rediscovery of her history. She is on the ferry, and she remembers her dad buying her hot chocolate (another bribe), and forcing her to perform manual sex on him. Selena, now understanding that it was the paternal part of the family that harmed her, shows up at the inquest to help her mother. She argues that if, indeed, Dolores knew for many years about the will, why would she endure several years of cleaning bedpans and backbreaking work before she would kill Vera? And, why do it at the time that the mailman showed up at the same time every day? Selena says the two women, despite their arguments, really experienced supportive love for each other. She reveals to the magistrate that the real reason the case is being made against her mother is because Mackey has an agenda because he was angry for Dolores spoiling his all-win conviction record. It is about revenge for a prior case, and Vera’s death should have nothing to do with their shared histories. She tells Mackey that she will get a New York lawyer to tear his case apart if he pursues it. Selena finally shows affection toward her mother, taking her hand and they leave on the ferry.

Selena says that she doesn’t know how to feel about what her mother did, but she knows she did it for her. Dolores is relieved because she is finally understood. Selena leaves her, but Dolores is no longer alone in spirit. When the “bitches” are united, as is the case in Pretty Little Lies, they win.

The next film is The Deer Hunter.