Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)

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.

Director:

Jon Avnet

Writers:

Fannie Flagg (novel), Fannie Flagg (screenplay),

Stars:

Kathy Bates, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

Evelyn Couch is having trouble in her marriage, and no one seems to take her seriously. While in a nursing home visiting relatives, she meets Ninny Threadgoode, an outgoing old woman, who tells her the story of Idgie Threadgoode, a young woman in 1920's Alabama. Through Idgie's inspiring life, Evelyn learns to be more assertive and builds a lasting friendship of her own with Ninny.

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Plot Keywords:

nursing home | 1920s | stories | alabama | friendship | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Drama | Comedy

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 December 1991 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tomates verdes fritos

Filming Locations:

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

Box Office

Gross:

$80,100,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Act III Communications, Avnet/Kerner Productions, Electric Shadow Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

130 min 137 min (extended)

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

There really is a Whistle Stop Cafe that does indeed serve fried green tomatoes (among other Southern foods) just north of Macon Georgia. It is in the actual area where many of the scenes were filmed. After the film became a huge success, the Whistle Stop Cafe set was turned into an actual restaurant, and its surrounding area into a tourist attraction. Although they may have filmed in Georgia, the true Whistle Stop Cafe is in Irondale, Alabama (a suburb or Birmingham, where Author Fannie Flagg grew up.)

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Goofs

When Ninnie is voicing the story of Ruth's cancer, she states that Ruth is moved to the Threadgoode house and placed downstairs. The following scenes indicate that Ruth is in an upstairs bedroom, as we see Idgie looking out the window, and looking down at the kids playing ball, and we see the tops of trees when Sipsey prepares the medications.

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Quotes

Evelyn Couch: I never get mad, Miss Threadgoode, never, the way I was raised, it was bad manners. Well I got mad, and it felt great. I felt like I could just beat the shit out of all those punks! Excuse my language. And then when I finish with those punks, I'll take on all the wife beaters like Frank Bennett, machine gun their genitals,
[imitates machine gun]
Evelyn Couch: eh-he-he-he-he-he!
[laughs]
Evelyn Couch: Towanda will go on a rampage, I'll slip tiny bombs into Penthouse and Playboys so they explode when you open them. I'll ban ...

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Connections

Referenced in The Simpsons: The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons (1997)

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Soundtracks

"If I Can Help Somebody"
Written by Alma Androzzo
Produced by Arthur Baker
Performed by Aaron Hall
Mixed by Louis Scalise

User Reviews

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.