Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)

Director:

Jon Avnet

Writers (WGA):

Fannie Flagg (novel)
Fannie Flagg (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

27 December 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy

Tagline:

The secret of life? The secret's in the sauce.

Plot:

A housewife who is unhappy with her life befriends an old lady in a nursing home and is enthralled by the tales she tells of people she used to know.

Plot Keywords:

Feminist | Murder | Sermon | Nostalgic | Single Parent

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 6 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sat. Sept. 13

6:45 AM

MAX

Cast

Kathy Bates	...	Evelyn Couch
Mary Stuart Masterson	...	Idgie Threadgoode
Mary-Louise Parker	...	Ruth Jamison
Jessica Tandy	...	Ninny Threadgoode
Cicely Tyson	...	Sipsey
Chris O'Donnell	...	Buddy Threadgoode
Stan Shaw	...	Big George
Gailard Sartain	...	Ed Couch
Timothy Scott	...	Smokey Lonesome (as Tim Scott)
Gary Basaraba	...	Grady Kilgore
Lois Smith	...	Mama Threadgoode
Jo Harvey Allen	...	Women's Awareness Teacher
Macon McCalman	...	Prosecutor Percy
Richard Riehle	...	Reverend Scroggins
Raynor Scheine	...	Sheriff Curtis Smoote

Also Known As:

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (UK)

Runtime:

130 min | 137 min (extended version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

UK:PG (video re-rating) | Iceland:L | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M (cable rating) | Australia:PG (original rating) | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | Germany:6 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 | Norway:10

Filming Locations:

Agnes Scott College - 141 E. College Avenue, Decatur, Georgia, USA

Company:

Act III Communications

Trivia:

Author Fannie Flagg is the woman telling the classroom of disaffected women, "You can get that spark back into your marriage!"

Goofs:

Continuity: Evelyn pauses with the wrapped fried green tomatoes in hand and looks down the hallway. There are several people in the hallway, one is an older woman with an orange flowered robe and a bandaged left foot. She is seated facing Evelyn as she begins her walk down the hallway, but as Evelyn passes the seated woman she suddenly has her back to the wall.

Quotes:

Grady Kilgore: Ruth, I have to say. I believe Idgie's been a bad influence on you.
Ruth: I agree!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Still Standing: Still Spending (#1.11)" (2002)

Soundtrack:

Railroad Blues

A warm, well acted film with sexual overtones

While I love this film, and have seen it a dozen times at least, the maturing of my mind since the first time I saw it as a teen in 1991, have made me take a second look at this stunningly acted film about love, friendship, devotion and racial issues in a multiple decade look at women's roles in society.

Anyone who went to college where I did would see that Idgy from her childhood is the sterotypical Lesbian. She does not like to wear dresses and prefers a man's dress even as a youngster. As she ages, and as Ruth befriends her, she is tantalized by a kiss Ruth gives her on the cheek at the swimming hole and so devastated by Ruth's wedding that she does not even attend but instead drives hours to Valdosta, Georgia to look on hurtfully from the woods at Ruth carried in her new home in her wedding dress.

As the film progresses and Ruth is rescued from her abusive relationship the two start a cafe called Whistle Stop Cafe in Whistle Stop, Alabama. If one watches carefully they'll see that the two live together in a house near the cafe. In one poignant moment, the two women are talking over coffee late at night in the cafe when Ruth says that she feels bad that Idgy may feel she needs to stay and care for Ruth and Buddy Threadgoode Jr. (Buddy is Ruth's son but has Idgy's last name?!) Ruth says that if it weren't for she and Buddy, Idgy may "settle down" Idgy dramatically replies "I am as settled as I am ever going to be" and "I don't want you to move out" The clincher was the image they showed shortly after that scene of Ruth in a feminine dress and Idgy in shorts and a shirt and tie, holding each other and smiling. Idgy never married or dated and Ruth never remarried.

Everyone must come to their own conclusion but mine is two women in the 1930's who enjoy a healthy, loving lesbian relationship with the disguise of business partners in a time and place when different anything race, religion or creed, was just not tolerated or accepted.