Fences

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed!

Fences (2016), written by acclaimed playwright August Wilson, and directed by Denzel Washington, uses the title of the story to convey various meanings. The main character, Troy Maxson (Washington), was an aspiring baseball player. (Could the name referencing the epic by Homer suggest Troy feels like the besieged city?) A batter in that sport “swings for the fences” in the hope of hitting a home run. That means the player exhibits the hope of accomplishment. Actual fences are barriers erected for physical safety, but they can also be psychological shields that protect an individual emotionally. They may imply the desire to prevent others from escaping the control of the of one in power. Wilson richly employs the metaphor in various ways.

The film takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the scene of many of Wilson’s plays. It begins in 1956. Troy is a trash collector, and he works with his friend, Jim Bono (Stephen McKinley Henderson). The two talk about Troy’s complaint that there are no Black trash truck drivers, and Blacks always have to haul the refuse into the vehicle. Troy sees it as a racial issue, which it is in general because of social deprivation. We later learn that specific to Troy’s situation, he can’t read and does not have a driver’s license.

The conversation turns to Troy having bought some drinks for a woman who is not his wife, Rose (Viola Davis, an Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actress for this role). The character’s name reminds one of Spring, and rebirth, and she tries to get Troy to emerge from the dead past in which he likes to dwell. Bono implies that his friend is not just being polite, as Troy argues, when a man buys several drinks for a woman. Troy gets Bono to admit that he has never known Troy to cheat on his wife. However, no knowledge of a fact doesn’t make it untrue, as we subsequently discover.

They share a pint of whiskey (we find that Troy drinks too much, since Bono teases him about hogging the bottle). They engage is some crude sexual humor about a large woman from Florida. Troy says the woman’s girth “cushions the ride” like “Goodyear” tires. Even if that type of joke might be offensive to some, it fits the characters Wilson portrays. They are at Troy’s house and Rose comes out of the house and appropriately asks what they are “getting into.” She seems to have radar when it comes to her husband’s state of mind. She offers her own sense of humor. Troy says that when they first met, he told her he wanted to be her man, but didn’t want to get married. She said if he wasn’t the “marrying kind” then he should “move out of the way, so the marrying kind could find” her.  Bono shows the deprived plight of African American families when he talks about how difficult it used to be to get a home without an outhouse, and he thought indoor plumbing was reserved for white folks.

Troy is glad that his young son, Cory (Jovan Adepo), works at the supermarket because he is able to contribute cash to the family. Cory plays football in high school and Rose says a recruiter has approached him. Troy again says that race will be a factor, and Cory will not be allowed to play football because he is Black. He says that his boy should do something practical, like car maintenance, so he “can make a living.” Rose points out that Cory isn’t looking to make a career out of playing football; it’s just an “honor” to be recruited. Rose and Bono point out that things have changed and that there are many Blacks in professional sports now. Troy appears to be living in the past, and he has put a virtual fence that keeps out thoughts of exalted aspirations. He acts angry about prejudicial treatment, but feels nothing can be done about it. He implies one must give up on dreams and accept the unfair life that exists. It is at this point that we see where his anger derives. Troy was a very good baseball player, but he tried to rise up when he was too old, and failed to become a big leaguer. He will not admit he needed more time before attempting to become a baseball star. He is bitter about his failure to succeed.

Rose tells her husband that his excessive drinking will kill him. Troy says that Death visited him once when he had pneumonia, but he beat Death in a wrestling match. He personifies the loss of life so he can feel like he is in a contest between two men in which he can compete. He also talks about confronting the Devil, and Rose comments that anything that Troy doesn’t understand, he calls it the Devil. It’s as if Troy paints himself as a bigger-than-life Sisyphus-like character, constantly battling overpowering forces.

Lyons (Russell Hornsby), Troy’s older son from a prior relationship, arrives with his guitar. Troy sees him as another person who is not practical, only wanting to pursue his music. Lyons sees music as the reason for living; he says he needs a reason to exist, and music gives him that reason. Lyons asks for money, which is the only reason Troy says he is there. Lyons says his girl, Bonnie, is working and he’ll pay back the money. Troy says he can get Lyons a job picking up trash, but Lyons wants something better than that for his life. Many parents want their children to have jobs that are better than how they make a living. However, Troy represents those parents who feel their children look down upon the work that they do. Troy feels that he must carry the weight of dreamers on his labor-inflicted back, and thus, he begrudges the dreams of his offspring. He says that Lyons’s mother did a poor job of raising him. Lyons counters by saying that Troy was not around, so he doesn’t know how he was raised. He basically is indicting Troy’s hypocritical action since he talks about being responsible but abdicated his responsibility toward his son. Rose gets the complaining Troy to come up with the ten dollars Lyons asked for.

It's the weekend and Rose sings a hymn as she hangs laundry to dry. The words of the song ask Jesus to be a “fence” around her. Here is where the title of the story involves the wish for protection. Rose talks about playing the “numbers,” an illegal form of gambling before state-run lotteries came into being. Troy calls the betting foolish. He again expresses his contempt for seeking a dream-like impractical way to escape the plight of the deprived.

Troy continues this rant by saying Cory wanted to escape working on a fence on his property by going to football practice. Here, the fence could be a metaphor for Troy trying to keep his son from escaping Troy’s control over him, and thus, depriving Cory the luxury of holding onto his aspirations. Rose tells her husband that he’s “off,” complaining about everything. She takes the saying about getting up on the wrong side of bed and wittily refreshes it by telling Troy to go back to bed and get up on the other side.

Troy’s brother Gabe (Mykelti Williamson) walks down the street yelling about selling plums that he does not have. He acts child-like, and it is obvious that he has mental deficits which we learn was due to receiving a serious head injury in the military. Despite his impairment, Gabe has religious visions about hellhounds, St. Peter, and Judgment Day. It’s as if he is an uncomplicated vessel that carries a divine message about the evils around him and urges preparation for the apocalypse to come (perhaps that is why he has the name of the angel Gabriel who. with his trumpet. announces God’s wishes). He wanders off urging others to get ready for God’s arrival. He recently moved out of Troy’s house and Gabe says that he wanted to get out of Troy’s way. Gabe is a gentle soul in contrast to his brother, and appears intimidated by Troy, wondering if his brother is angry with him. Gabe received $3,000 when he left the service and Troy used that money to buy his house. So, despite Troy talking about having to earn one’s own way, he used his brother’s disability to get what Troy wanted. Troy did take care of his brother until he moved out. Troy expresses regret and anger that life is so unfair that the only way he could have his own place was because of his brother’s life-threatening injury.

Troy says he is going to work on the fence, but he goes to the local tavern and comes back drunk. He says he is going to fix things around the house but escapes into his drinking instead. At the same time that he rants about Cory not doing his chores, the boy is actually home ready to take care of his responsibilities. Troy is always on the offensive about the way he sees the world vexing him. What follows is a universal exchange between the self-indulgent but life-enjoying child and the practical adult. Cory says his father should buy a TV. Troy points out that the money that would buy a TV must go to fixing the roof. Troy humorously says what good is the TV if the roof leaks water onto Cory’s brand-new television.

As the two work on the wood for the fence, Cory talks about the Pittsburgh Pirates. Troy, always wearing that chip on his shoulder, says that Roberto Clemente isn’t allowed to play all the time because he is a man of color. Cory corrects his father’s limited perspective by telling him Clemente plays a great deal. Troy adds that the baseball leagues play mediocre white men while Black players must be great to get a chance. Cory, trying to add fairness to the argument, mentions exceptional white and Black ballplayers, including Hank Aaron. Troy dismisses the great Aaron by saying any player can do well once he gets his timing, and says that Troy had hits off the great Negro League pitcher Satchel Paige. Troy appears to need to compensate for a lack of success by knocking down the accomplishments of others.

From baseball the two move on to Cory’s football aspirations, of which Troy again says his son has unachievable dreams. Cory quit his weekday job at the grocery store, but will continue to work weekends. The owner will hold his job until after the football season. Cory can go to college because of his football abilities and good grades. That’s not enough for Troy, who still views his boy’s hopes as a longshot because Troy interprets his failure at sports as being due to a continuing systemic racist system that will also affect Cory. He demands that Cory try to get his job back, or find a new one, and give up his dream of playing college sports. Troy tells his son to learn a trade so he will not have to haul trash like his dad. He wants his son to succeed, but in a pragmatic sense.

A dejected Cory, trying to comprehend why his father is denying him a chance at happiness, asks if Troy likes him. Troy reduces even family relationships to practical transactions. He says there is no “law” that says he must like Cory. He has a duty to take care of him because he is his son. He said having him did not include in the bargain liking him. He tells a now seething Cory that his son should stop worrying about being liked and focus on who “is doin’ right by you.” Troy’s reducing family relationships to a pragmatic contract involving duties not only leaves no room for liking someone but also excludes love, the real glue that binds a family together.

Rose again tries to break through the “fence” of Troy’s self-delusion that the only reason that he didn’t succeed in sports was because of racism, and not his age. She tries to tell him that he is enclosed himself in the bitterness of the past and doesn’t want to see that things have changed, implying that there are more opportunities in sports for African Americans at the time the story takes place.

Instead of getting fired for complaining about there being no Black truck drivers, Troy instead becomes the first African American trash truck driver (despite having no license). He celebrates with Bono and Troy tells Rose the good news. That’s one instance of Troy being wrong about how he sees the world. Immediately after that, there is a second example. Lyons arrives and wants to pay him back the ten dollars he borrowed. Instead of acknowledging his son’s responsible action, he tells him to hold onto the money for the next time he needs a handout instead of coming to his father. Troy assumes his son will continue to be a burden instead of admitting that maybe things can change.

Gabe shows up with more announcements about Armageddon and the Devil, who Troy says he did battle with. Gabe calls Lyons, because of his name, the king of the jungle and they both growl. However, for Troy, his musician son is no force of nature. Outside, Troy (drinking again) says his father cared about himself first and his eleven children came afterwards. He did stick around when others left their responsibilities behind. Still, Troy says his dad was “evil,” as he tried to take advantage of Troy’s girlfriend after beating Troy. It was his mother who left the family because of the father’s ways. Yet, he understood his father, saying his dad was caught in a trap, working at picking cotton and having many mouths to feed. Troy sees life as a trap. Troy ran away from home at age fourteen and turned to robbing people to get by. He was in a confrontation with a man who shot him. Troy killed the man and was in prison for fifteen years. That time in prison is the reason why Troy started his baseball career too late. One can understand that Troy suffered traumatic experiences that contributed to his view of how harsh life is. His stories about the old times along with those of his old friend, Bono, affirm what Rose says about him being ensnared in the past.

Lyons invites his father to hear him play but Troy refuses. He can’t find it himself to take pride in his son’s impractical artistic nature because he perceives Lyons as just another weight he must carry. Cory comes home angry and throws his helmet which bounces off the house porch. Cory says Troy told the coach he can’t play football anymore. Cory says something that hits at the core of his father’s mindset when he says that his father is jealous of his son succeeding when Troy couldn’t. In Troy’s mind, his son can get a good job if he works hard, but he will not accept the possibility that his son could hit the occupational lottery when Troy couldn’t. Troy uses a baseball metaphor when he says that the thrown helmet was “strike one” because it missed Troy. He warns his son that he better not “strike out.” He is threatening Cory with physical violence at this point.

The next day Cory practices hitting a baseball hanging from a rope on a tree with a bat. He tells Rose he will not quit football. Is he metaphorically making sure he will not strike out against his father, the seasoned ballplayer? Bona says that Troy is paying too much attention to another woman. As Cory helps Troy and Bono saw wood for the fence, Bono, referring to what he said about the other woman, announces the central theme of the story when he says, “Some build fences to keep people out and other people build fences to keep people in. Rose wants to hold onto you all.” The implication is that Troy is divisive, and Rose works as a force to balance Troy’s ways, so her song to God is echoed here where a fence is symbolic of protection.

Bono takes Troy aside and tells him he has learned a great deal from Troy and he knows whether or not someone’s telling the truth. He says that he doesn’t want to see Rose hurt. Troy here admits to his extramarital affair and says that he can’t shake this other woman loose. Troy is breaking his marital vows, and Bono reminds his friend that he should practice what he preaches about accepting responsibility.

After what Bono said, Troy is feeling guilty and he decides to confess to Rose. But there is more to the story than what Bono knows; he tells Rose he is going to be a “daddy” again. Rose gets hit with both barrels at once concerning Troy’s infidelity. Rose almost falls to the floor from the emotional wounds that Troy has inflicted on her. She runs outside toward the existing metal fence, as if trying to flee the barrier that she thought protected her. She drops the rose that Gabriel gave her, possibly signifying the relinquishing of hope for the future that her name suggested. He tries to defend himself by using extensive baseball metaphors, using the tools he knows. He says that he was born with two strikes against him, most likely being Black and poor. However, he avoided that third strike by getting married, having a family and a job. But, he says the other woman gives him an escape from the pressure of his work and family responsibilities, and he says he can’t give up that feeling of freedom. Rose says that it’s her job to alive pressure, and he shouldn’t be looking for someone outside the family. In baseball language, that would mean the relief pitcher should be someone on the same team. He says that he feels like he has been standing still. Her angry response is, “Well, I’ve been standing with you!” She has been supporting him and has given up moving on by committing to her life with Troy. Just like his boys, Troy has tried to kill Rose’s wants and dreams. She says she buried her desires “inside” her husband, hoping happiness would grow there, but she found she planted her hopes on rocky soil. She calls him out on his selfishness since he always talks about what he has sacrificed and forgets how much he has taken, most likely implying how much he has deprived her of her wishes. He becomes angry about being accused of taking and not giving back, and grabs Rose’s arm. As she cries out that he is hurting her, Cory comes outside and slams Troy into the fence, threatening that barrier of authority between father and son. Troy says that Cory now has two strikes against him, and he implies there will be violent retribution against his son if he gets that third strike.

We get a montage of images that show time passing as the weather turns cold with snow falling. Troy continues to build the fence alone; Cory works out in the basement as he keeps his dream alive of playing football; Rose seeks refuge in the embrace of fellow females at her church; Gabriel visits the grave of his mother who died young. The family members are isolated from each other. At least until Rose shows up at Troy’s workplace and tells her husband they must talk. He says it's been six months since she hasn’t wanted to have a conversation with him. She wants him to come straight home after work, implying he should not visit his lady friend, Alberta. After some evading, Troy says he just wants to stop at the hospital because Alberta may be having the baby early. Rose’s face reflects her anguish and criticizes Troy for signing papers that would send Gabriel to an institution (something he said he wouldn’t do) and would award him half of his brother’s disability check. Yet, he would not sign the agreement to have Cory play football at a college. Troy can’t read, so it’s possible he is truthful when he says he didn’t know anything about what Rose reports, which again stresses how his lack of an education has hindered him. Most likely out of guilt Troy feeds his brother at the asylum, like a nurturing father giving food to a baby.

Rose answers the phone in the middle of the night. She reports to Troy that Alberta gave birth to a girl, but she died during childbirth. When Rose asks about what’s to be done next, Troy reverts to his usual complaint about being burdened by life. After Rose leaves him alone, Troy rants at Death, saying he’s going to finish the fence, to keep Death at a safe distance until it’s his time, and then they will battle. He tells Death not to come at him through others, like Alberta. We again have a mythological level to the tale, as Troy addresses primal forces. It is as if he is delivering a dramatic soliloquy, like Shakespeare’s King Lear. However, Troy’s speech shows how he is an egotist, as if everything revolves around him.

The next scene has Troy coming home with his infant daughter. He tells Rose she is an innocent child with no mother. He is asking for help to raise her, but the suffering Rose says there is no point telling her that. He goes outside and is quietly defiant saying to the baby he is not sorry for what he has done because he felt his actions were right for him. He says he was homeless before, but not with a baby. Rose hears Troy basically saying that he will have to care for his child outside of his home. Davis shows Rose’s anguish just from her back as she drops what she is holding into the sink and stretches her arms as if to support her emotional heaviness. Troy now comes straight out and asks that Rose help take care of the baby. Rose agrees, because she knows that the child is innocent, and should not inherit the sins of the father. Rose has always valued the other family members above her own needs. She says his daughter is no longer motherless, but he is womanless, stressing that she has not forgiven his sins against her.

A short time has passed as Troy comes home to find Cory leave the yard as soon as he sees his father. Rose leaves to bring a cake to the church and left Troy some dinner. He goes to the local bar and talks to Bono who he hasn’t seen for a while because Troy is now driving in a white neighborhood. Troy is losing his family and his friend due to his actions. He sings about his dead dog, again seeking solace in the past. Cory stops at a Marine recruiting office, so we know Troy has lost his son even though he tried to keep him inside his fence.

When Cory comes home the drunken Troy blocks his entrance, and Cory refuses to say, “Excuse me,” because he says his father, due to his actions, doesn’t count anymore. Troy then reverts to the same list of material things he has given his son, but Cory states how his father only made him fear him, and was never supportive. They have a physical confrontation, with Troy overpowering Cory, and taking the baseball bat away from him. Troy comes close to choking and slugging his son. He kicks Cory out of his house, which Cory reminds him is not really his since Gabriel paid for it. Troy says Cory’s belongs will be on the other side of the fence, which emphasizes how Troy’s world is shrinking as he alienates everyone around him. But Troy is defiant in his emptiness, swinging his baseball bat, invoking Death again, saying he is ready to fight the Grim Reaper. He is ready for death as an escape now, but he will still deal with his demise as he has lived his life, kicking and screaming.

The next scene takes place several years later, and Troy’s daughter, Raynell (Saniyya Sidney - Could her name suggest a “ray” of sunshine and the hope for a better future?), is a youngster taking care of a garden outside. The greenery may represent the influence of Rose, the person with the regenerative name. Bono is there with Lyons. They are dressed up in black, as is Rose. We know they are going to Troy’s funeral. Cory shows up looking impressive in his Marine uniform, wearing a corporal’s stripes, and has been in the service for six years. He has been away since his father kicked him out, since Raynell doesn’t know that he is her half-brother. Lyons tells Cory that he is finishing up a three-year prison sentence for cashing other people’s checks (his father was a thief when he was young), and the penitentiary let him out for his dad’s funeral. He reminds the bitter Cory that Troy used to say, “you got to take the crookeds with the straights.” He recounts how his father would strike out and then hit the ball out of the stadium, and after the game two hundred people wanted to shake his hand. Despite his shortcomings, Lyons is saying that Troy was a force of nature. Lyons still plays music, keeping what feeds him emotionally in his life. Troy’s sons may not have played baseball, but they played music and football, and refuse to give into defeat.

In the kitchen are pictures of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jesus, individuals that inspire and keep Rose going. She tells Cory outside that Troy was swinging his bat at the ball tied to the tree when he fell over and died. He went down swinging, as he said he would when Death came for him. Cory tells Rose that he has to say “no” to his father just once and will not go to the funeral. Rose is outraged and says that is not how she brought him up, and he must put his animosity aside. She says her words with the baseball hanging between them and the fence Troy built in the background. These images show how Troy’s legacy of placing boundaries between people continues to divide lives despite Rose’s wish to bring the family together.

Cory says that his father was like a “shadow,” suggesting it was like a black plague that infested his life. Rose says that Cory can’t escape his father’s influence, but he must deal with it. Troy was a man of contradictions, but she believes he wanted to do more good than harm. Her words show that conflict between wanting to help but not knowing how to deliver it. She says that sometimes when he touched someone, he “bruised” them, and when he held her, she might feel him “cut” her, both in an emotional sense. He most likely wanted Cory to be far from what Troy was in his failures, but also to be like him in his strength.

She says that Troy was a bigger than life character who filled up the house and all the “empty” spaces in her. But, she admits that didn’t leave much room for her own individuality to thrive. She does take responsibility for choosing Troy, and she has turned the negative events that brought Raynell into the world into a positive. The girl is a symbol of rebirth, giving Rose a new energy, which refueled Rose, who is a life force herself.

Raynell and Cory sing Troy’s song about his dog, Blue. After they are done, she hugs him. The institution let Gabriel out for the funeral of his brother, and he shows up with a trumpet, living up to the angel whose name he carries. He blows one clear note, and the sun shines through the clouds, which Gabriel takes as opening the gates of heaven for Troy. Raynell holds Gabriel’s hand. Troy’s child is able to accomplish what he couldn’t do in life, which is to bring the family together.

The next film is Stand by Me.

BlacKkKlansman

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Spike Lee won an Oscar for adapting the screenplay for BlacKkKlansman (2018) based on the true story of Ron Stallworth. He was a Black policeman who, with the help of others, infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan during the time when African Americans were discovering Black pride and power in the civil rights movement. Even though the topic of the movie is serious, there is humor and satire in the film, and the story shows how Stallworth was caught between the radical agendas of the racist right and the black revolutionaries since he was part of the law-and-order system.

Lee, a former student and now sometime instructor at the prestigious Tisch film school at NYU, makes references here to movies that, although studied for their cinematic influences, portrayed racist subject matter. The film begins with a scene from Gone with the Wind, a multiple Oscar winner, that portrays slave-owning Southerners during the Civil War sympathetically and Blacks stereotypically.

There is then a shift to a speech by Dr. Kennebrew Beauregard (Alec Baldwin) ranting about how African Americans and Jewish people are ruining the United States for white Christian Protestants, turning the country into “a mongrel” nation. The film stresses how this twisted idea of “purity” is at the heart of segregation and the desire for ethnic cleansing, and how religion is warped to justify racism. The movie ridicules Beauregard by showing him make loud, strange noises as he clears his throat to record his tirade. Lee intercuts scenes during Beauregard’s speech from another film revered for its filmmaking breakthroughs, Birth of a Nation, depicting a white man in exaggerated blackface, accosting a white woman who prefers suicide to being touched by a Black man. Lee is stressing how the film industry was guilty of spreading the stereotype of the Black man as a sexual predator of white women.

The story then moves to Colorado Springs, CO, and Stallworth (John David Washington) enters the police station for an interview. The sign on the building says that “minorities are encouraged to apply.” Well, not until then. Chief Bridges (Robert John Burke) and an African American, Mr. Turrentine (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.), grill Ron, making sure he doesn’t have any negative issues regarding his past. Turrentine says he will be the first black officer on the force, the “Jackie Robinson” of that police department, which places a great deal of responsibility on Ron to be able to withstand bigoted remarks.

Ron gets the job, but he is put in the records section, hidden away from any meaningful work, which means he an ethnic token on the force. He expresses his discontent to Chief Bridges and Sergeant Trapp (Ken Garito), and wants to go undercover, but Bridges turns him down. The cops asking for files call each Black person they investigate a “toad.” Ron shows his resentment for the derogatory classification by saying there are no toads there, only “human beings.”

Bridges changes his mind and assigns Ron to go undercover. He uses him as a Black spy to infiltrate those associated with Black activist Stokely Carmichael, who changed his name to Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins). Bridges thinks Ture will create unrest among the African Americans in the city. So, Ron is in the compromising position of informing on those with the same racial background as his own.

Two detectives help him prepare for the assignment, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver, who received an Oscar nomination for supporting actor) and Jimmy Creek (Michael Buscemi, who reminds one of Steve). Ron meets the person who invited Ture, the President of the Colorado College Black Student Union, Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier), and tries to ingratiate himself to her to gather information. Ture gives an energized speech that urges black pride. Lee frames shots of Black persons which stress the beauty of Black people that does not conform to white ideas of what is attractive. He emphasizes how Black Americans were taught to hate their heritage and says when he was young and watched the white Tarzan beat up Africans, he cheered him on. He now realizes that he was taught to urge violence against himself. Ron hears the passion if the audience as they respond to the speech, and he gets caught up in the emotional moment. Ture says cops continue to shoot down black people in the streets and urges African Americans to retaliate. He says, “Power to all the people,” which includes those who are white and have been oppressed. After the speech, Ron, wanting to know if violence will occur, asks Ture if a race war is coming, and Ture urges Ron to arm himself because a revolution is approaching.

Ron meets Patrice later at a bar. She tells him that the cops pulled the car with Ture in it over. Instead of just narration, we see an impactful dramatization as racist slurs are heaped upon the passengers, and they are threatened to make sure Ture leaves town soon. In a briefing, Ron tries to mitigate the effect of Ture’s speech, calling it “rhetoric,” and Flip and Jimmy agree. When Ron says that Carmichael changed his name, Bridges says that he doesn’t care if he changed his name to Muhammad Ali, “that draft dodger.” Negative feelings toward Blacks exist in the police department here based on a belief that a leader of the African American community is not patriotic even though Ali was expressing the general anti-Vietnam War stance prevalent among whites.

Bridges transfers Ron to the “Intelligence” division. Here is the turning point of the story. Ron decides to call the KKK, asking for reading material. He gets a call back from Walter Breachway (Ryan Eggold). Ron improvises an exaggerated hate rant about hating Blacks and Jews, using ethnic slurs, which is funny as the other cops in the room listen in surprise. Ron tells Walter what he wants to hear, and Walter says that Ron is just the type of person they are looking for, which is humorous since we know that Ron is Black. Flip points out that Ron gave his real name, a major mistake, and the others laugh calling it the “amateur hour,” referencing a TV show back then. Ron goes with Trapp to see Bridges about using a white cop for a meeting with Walter. Bridges, again showing prejudicial views, says the KKK guy will know the difference between the way a white person and a Black person speak. Ron says some people can speak the “King’s English,” and others can talk “jive.” Luckily for Bridges, Ron is bilingual when it comes to this problem. Ron is following up on what Ture said about how white people believe that African Americans can’t do anything without white people helping them. However, in this case, although Ron can talk “white” on the phone, he needs a white man to pull off the investigation.

Flip is going to play white Ron, and the meeting between Ron, Flip, and Jimmy to rehearse is very funny. Flip talks about how all of his heroes are Black. (A similar scene occurs in Lee’s Do the Right Thing). So, Ron jokingly says Flip can now get his dream and play a white version of Black Ron. He wants him to sound somewhat like Ron. But he ironically makes Flip repeat words that a civil rights protester would say in “jive” to stress the differences in speech. Jimmy tells Flip to lose his “Jewish necklace,” and Flip corrects him saying it is “the Star of David.” Ron says he didn’t know Flip was Jewish. Flip interestingly responds by saying, “I don’t know, am I?” Flip reveals here that he hasn’t associated himself with his Jewish background, but that will change as he witnesses the antagonism against those of his background.

Instead of Walter, Flip, wearing a wire, meets with Felix Kendrickson (Jasper Paakonen), an unstable, nasty guy, who puts Flip in a tight spot when he sees someone (Ron) following his truck. He makes Flip load a shotgun, but luckily, he isn’t asked to use it. They meet Walter, the “Organization’s” chapter president, at a bar which advertises its stance with a Confederate Flag in its window. Walter has a personal axe to grind, saying he was shot by Black men who also assaulted his wife. They complain about how African Americans are all over the TV now, when it used to be just Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima. A man there, Ivanhoe (Paul Walter Houser) says he is okay with those Blacks because he likes rice and pancakes. He’s saying that if African Americans comply with subservient, Uncle Tom roles then it’s okay with the KKK. Ivanhoe implies that there are going to be “fireworks” soon, suggesting that bombings might occur. Walter plays down that talk because Ron (Flip) is new and Walter says they are nonviolent just like Martin Luther King, an ironic statement. Ivanhoe calls the last name of the civil rights leader “Coon,” to add to the derogatory attitude about Blacks and, thus, nonviolence. Felix is suspicious of Flip, suspecting that he is Jewish, and undercover because Flip asks many questions. Walter is more accepting. It is funny when Flip must fill in application forms and receives a membership card, and must pay dues, with robes and hoods costing extra. It’s as if he’s joining an organization that’s as safe as a local choir group.

Ron has dinner with Patrice, who keeps calling cops “pigs,” so, even though she doesn’t know it, she is calling Ron a pig. She notices he is quiet, and he admits that he doesn’t like using that word, and asks her if she thinks all policemen are racist killers. She then asks him if he is a “pig,” and he lies saying he is in construction and just wants to forget the politics. He gives her a necklace, and he is stepping outside of his assignment here because he is obviously interested in Patrice romantically.

Trapp says that the Grand Wizard of the KKK, David Duke (Topher Grace), is making the face of the Klan more appealing as he always wears a three-piece suit and is called the “national director,” instead of the intimidating traditional title. Even Felix said that nobody calls them the Klan, so as not to evoke the same scared response. The movie appears to be equating this past time with political leaders of today who look presentable but harbor hatred underneath their phony appearance. Trapp says to Ron that Duke is looking to get elected to public office by using hot button topics as “affirmative action, immigration, crime, tax reform” to sell hate. The film suggests that these issues provide cover for racists by hiding their bigotry. The hope, Trapp says, is that eventually the racists will get “somebody in the White House that embodies” that bigotry. Ron can’t believe that America would ever elect a man like Duke as President, but Trapp says he is naïve and should “wake up.” Director/writer Lee is obviously referring to how he views Donald Trump as the realization of this prophesy.

Flip goes to a meeting at Felix’s house, where his wife, Connie (Ashlie Atkinson) espouses as much racist talk as her husband. But Felix doesn’t like his macho standing being undermined by a woman, and dismisses her. Felix invites Flip downstairs where he has a gun called a “Jew killer,” and tells Walter he wants to make sure Flip is not Jewish. It is interesting that Walter says that there is no “Star of David” hanging from Flip’s neck, which is exactly what Jimmy warned him to remove. Felix waves a gun at Flip and wants him to take a lie detector test. Felix is unfortunately not alone when he says he believes the Holocaust didn’t happen and is just a Jewish conspiracy. Felix asks Flip if his penis was “circumstanced,” which is the type of malapropism that Archie Bunker would say on All in the Family. Just before Flip has to take the test, the eavesdropping Ron flings a rock through the house window to interrupt Felix’s plans. Connie sees the back of the fleeing Ron and shouts that a “lawn jockey” (they can’t seem to refrain from using ethnic slurs) was on their green lawn. Flip grabs the gun out of Felix’s hand and fires at Ron’s speeding car, calling out some racist names but preventing from Felix from shooting at the fleeing Ron.

Ron and Flip have a private talk where Flip expresses his fear that he was almost shot by Felix for what Flip considers some jerks setting sticks on fire (crosses) and playing dress up. He says that for Ron it’s a “crusade,” but for him it’s only a “job.” He says it shouldn’t be “personal.” For a white man it may not be, but for a Black person, how could it not be? Ron argues that Trip should be dedicated to the operation because he is Jewish, and the KKK hates him just as much as African Americans. The contemplative Ron says he has been “passing” as a WASP, suggesting he is like those Blacks who are light-skinned enough to pass for white and thus deny their own heritage. Ron says he will get Flip the KKK membership card so he can go to the cross burning that the KKK members were talking about. Flip walks out, unhappy about his role at this point, but not pulling out of the assignment.

Ron calls up the central number of the KKK to get his membership card. He actually gets David Duke on the phone, It is hysterical to hear Ron talking about how few white America heroes are left in the country, and saying “God bless white America.” 

Master Patrolman Landers (Frederick Weller) knocks into Ron and causes him to spill documents as he speaks condescendingly to Ron. Flip confirms that it was Landers who pulled over Ture and harassed him. So, Ron must deal with racism outside and inside the police department, the place that is supposed to protect all people from harm. Flip says Landers is a bad cop who killed a Black kid who, despite what Landers said, was unarmed. Jimmy says that they tolerate him because the police must stick together. Ron points out that another group feels the same way, suggesting that the police have some characteristics in common with the Klan.

The Klan members, with Flip, do target practice. Ron, tailing Flip, goes to the location afterwards, and the targets depict black people running. It is a chilling moment as Ron sees the violence inherent in the racism of the group.

Patrice tells Ron how films such as Coffy and Cleopatra Jones, released at that time, were fantasies about empowered black women, but that in real life, cops continued to kill Blacks. She also doesn’t like depictions in motion pictures that have Black men as pimps, saying it promulgates negative stereotypes. Lee, again referencing films, is making a comment about Black exploitation movies that let African Americans vicariously feel strength, but which drained the desire for power after the films were over. Ron, covertly referring to himself, says maybe an African American cop can change things from the inside. Patrice says that can’t happen because the system to too corrupt, and white people will not give up their power to dominate the society. Patrice says that Blacks in America, quoting W.E.B. Du Bois, live a double life as Blacks and Americans which creates an irreconcilable inner war. That is what Ron is experiencing.

Felix hasn’t given up on his suspicions about Flip. He looked up Ron’s name and went to the address associated with it. He finds Ron there with Patrice. Felix, Walter, and Ivanhoe confront Flip, who thinks quickly, and says his number is unlisted, and states another address as his own. Felix points out that Patrice was there, who has the reputation as a Black leader in the area. The investigation is safe for the moment, but the coincidence of a Black guy having the same name as Flip who is with a Black activist could lead to more questions.

Ron receives the KKK membership card and hands it to Flip. He admits that he grew up not even thinking about his Jewish heritage. He didn’t even have a Bar Mitzvah. Now that he sees the hatred of others because of his background up close, he has become preoccupied with “rituals and heritage.” He admits that he has been passing.

The night of a cross burning, Flip is with Ivanhoe, but Ron, monitoring the situation, has a number of police cars go by, so the Klan must cancel the plan. Ivanhoe asks Flip if he knows about C-4, so we know the Klan has been thinking about using explosives. Flip has found out that there are Klan members in the military, another instance of defenders of democracy being hypocrites as they wish to attack citizens of their own nation who do not share the same white complexion. In the background Duke’s civilized voice tries to convince others in a broadcast about what he sees as the moneyed Jewish conspiracy that bankrolls the ethnic cleansing of white European culture.

In a phone conversation between Duke and Ron, Duke says, all indications to the contrary, that the Klan doesn’t hate Blacks, but just feels that they want and should be with their own kind, a feeble attempt to justify segregation. He relates how he had a sort of “mammy” like Hattie McDaniel in Gone with the Wind. Here is another reference to film history, with the stress of how Blacks were portrayed as slaves. McDaniel received an Oscar for supporting actress, but could only do so by playing a stereotype. Ron talks about how as a boy he played with a black kid until the white kid’s father stopped him. Most likely, Ron is talking about a white child who played with him, but then the white boy’s father put a stop to it. Duke comments that Ron’s father was an admirable man, the opposite of what Ron is really saying. Duke admits to the need to have people who think like they do to be in public office. Duke says that America needs to find its greatness again, and there is no doubt that Lee is referencing the current MAGA movement.

Walter thinks the chapter needs new blood and he wants to make sure “loose cannon” Felix doesn’t become the leader. He wants of all people Ron to take over, ironically based on the phone conversations he has had with the real Ron. At a meeting Flip almost messes up when he says he must take care of his sick father in Dallas, although Ron had said El Paso on the phone. He recovers just in time. Felix and Ivanhoe are against the appointment of Flip, having met him only recently. Ron also has been talking to the approving Duke who is visiting to be present at Ron’s initiation. Ron pushes it by asking how does Duke know if he isn’t really talking to a Negro. Duke says he knows Ron isn’t Black by the way he talks. Obviously not an accurate system.

Felix calls Ron at the police station, because he used that direct number when he first called. The audience shares Ron’s uneasiness when hearing Felix’s voice talking to the real Ron Stallworth. He wants Ron to meet him at his house with others. Flip shows up and Felix, amid guns in his basement, says ominously that the war is coming the next weekend. Felix talks with his wife, Connie, about cleansing the country by killing Blacks and Jews. He ironically quotes King by saying, “Free at last, free at last,” and then the Bible by saying that good things come to those that wait. Connie says their actions could be the start of a ‘new Boston Tea Party.” The reference here is connecting the current Tea Party to the American Revolution one, but the meshing of racists with the conservative political movement throws scorn upon the current Tea Party.

Ron receives information from an intelligence worker who says that two of the Klan members work at NORAD, thus placing extremists in a Federal agency whose goal is to protect the citizens that they actually hate. He also tells Ron that explosives have been stolen from the Army that may be linked to the Klan. He is frightened for Patrice, and tells her to stay away from a protest. He confesses to her that he is an undercover detective working in an investigation of the KKK. Patrice is unforgiving and does not appreciate that he must keep his actions secret for them to be effective. He tells her, “Just because I don’t wear a black beret or a black leather jacket, black Ray Bans, screaming ‘Kill Whitey,’ that I don’t care about my people!” The film here shows that when people become radicalized, objectivity can be lost, and unfairness may result.

Bridges assigns Ron to protect the visiting Duke who has received death threats, an assignment that Flip says is dangerous (as well as ironic, since Duke is there for the Ron/Flip initiation), because Duke may recognize Ron’s voice. A fellow Klansman, Walker (Nicholas Turturro), who stole the C-4 from the Army, gives to Connie the explosives and a switch to detonate them. The target is Patrice and the Black Student Union, just as Ron thought. It is very strange to see Ron and Flip, who is supposed to be Ron, in the same place, and especially weird for a Black man to be Duke’s bodyguard. Apparently, Felix does not recognize Ron from when he went to his apartment, looking for Flip as Ron. It may be because Ron is wearing dark sunglasses. Or, maybe because in Felix’s warped mind, all Blacks look alike. Overheard is a Klansman saying, “Make America great again,” an obvious linking of white supremacists with the Donald Trump campaign slogan.

What follows are intercut scenes between a Black activist Jerome Turner (Harry Bellefonte), talking to the Black Union about judicial injustice against African Americans, relating how all-white juries sentence innocent people of color followed by mob torture, and Duke speaking to his fellow Klansmen about Christianity, espousing what is really a perversion of the religion. The Klan leader quotes a scientist who says that the white race is superior. The movie implies that prejudiced people cherry-pick the few bits of statements which are unsubstantiated by evidence and use them to support outrageous theories. Ron then must suffer through his name being initiated into the community of white supremacists. Turner states that Birth of a Nation brought about a “rebirth” of the KKK, where even President Woodrow Wilson showed the movie at the White House and praised it. As he says these words, the Klan watches the film, justifying Turner’s claim. Lee again is indicting the movie industry for its part in fueling racism. The Klan members chant “White Power” which contrasts with shouts by African Americans for “Black Power,” except the film suggests that whites have always had the power. Duke adds patriotism to try to legitimize the KKK by saying they put “America first,” which stresses a white dominance over the countries of color. The effect of these contrasting scenes condemns the Klan for their hatred which is propagated under the guise of professing Christian values.

Walker recognizes Flip, saying to Felix that his name isn’t Ron Stallworth, but is really Phillip Zimmerman. He arrested Walker in the past. Felix hears the name and is incensed that there is a Jew infiltrating their organization. Walker says it could be worse if Ron were Black (he uses the “n” word). Of course, Ron Stallworth is Black, and so the irony thickens.

Ron sees Connie drive off and he alerts the police department to be on the lookout for her car. At the KKK dinner, Felix introduces Flip to Walker and says they are acquainted, and he calls Flip by his real name. When Connie gets to the Black Union rally, she sees many cops there and calls Felix, who tells her to go to Plan B. Due to Connie’s situation, Felix, Walker, and Ivanhoe leave. Flip tells Duke that he was in prison with Walker, and there he had the nickname of Flip. He then excuses himself to evade further scrutiny. In the background are posters of President Richard Nixon with the words over his picture that read, “Now More Than Ever.” Quite an indictment of the former President, associating him with racist mentality.

Ron finds out at the rally that Patrice and Turner left, so he goes to Patrice’s place where Connie is there to deliver the bomb. He wrestles her to the ground. When white cops show up they automatically believe that the Black man is assaulting a white woman, and beat Ron, even though he tells them he is an undercover policeman. The scene stresses the prejudice that exists in the job against a fellow police officer just because of the color of his skin. In the background is a radio broadcast from Duke spouting his white power manifesto which adds to the feeling of hatred to the events depicted. Felix, Walker, and Ivanhoe drive up and Felix flips the switch to detonate the bomb. Luckily, Connie couldn’t fit the explosives inside the mailbox, so she places it in Patrice’s car after the latter arrives home. The bomb goes off right next to the KKK car, killing Felix, Walker, and Ivanhoe. Flip, probably hearing that the police are arriving at Patrice’s home, calls the racist white cops off of Ron.

Ron wears a wire at a restaurant where the racist cop Landers is and he gets him to reveal his threats of killing Blacks, saying it would have been better that they would have been killed instead of the KKK men. Bridges is there and arrests Landers. Despite these wins against racism, Bridges later says there are budget cuts, and he closes down the team’s work, saying there are no longer any “credible threats,” an obvious denial of the remaining KKK’s mission against anyone who is not a white Christian. He says that they must destroy all files relating to their operation, so as not to incite the public. What really is happening is a coverup so that there will be no fueling of outrage among the Black community.

Ron does get in one last shot at Duke as he calls him up and reveals that the Black cop guarding him was the real Ron Stallworth. He calls Duke a “racist, peckerwood, redneck, inchworm, needle-dick, motherfucker” before hanging up and stunning the clueless Duke. Ron subjects Duke to slurs the way that he as a Black man has had to endure.

Patrice tells Ron that she can’t be with him because it would be like sleeping with the enemy. She still can’t see him being a crusading Black man while working in what she considers a pervasive racist law enforcement system. Ron, most likely thinking she is being unfair, says he always wanted to be a cop and does not want to resign. There is a knock at the door and they both draw guns. Lee then employs a signature camera shot used in his other films that makes the two seem like they are gliding forward, their plight taking on an unreal, scary quality, as they approach a door that may have danger on the other side.

There is a cross-burning depicted, and then Lee gives us footage of the events of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017, where Nazis clashed with police. One Nazi ran over and killed Heather Heyer, to whom the film is dedicated. There are also shots of then President Trump saying how there were “very fine people” on both sides of the event, and of the real David Duke feeling encouraged by Trump’s election in 2016. Lee is not a subtle filmmaker when it comes to his themes, but, like Oliver Stone, is adept at presenting the images supporting his argument. This real footage is meant to show how Ron’s earlier statement about how the country would not elect a racist was as naïve as Trapp said it was.

The last image is that of an upside-down American flag, suggesting that the judicial idealism of the United States has been inverted, and injustice and hatred have the upper hand.

The next film is Closely Watched Trains.

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.