Independent Films, Film Profiles

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is a 1987 best selling novel by Fannie Flagg. In 1991 the novel was adapted into the film Fried Green Tomatoes.The story jumps narration and sequence and is distinctive in chapter opening visuals to establish the date and the source of the chapter. Some come from the fictional newspaper in Whistle Stop, Alabama called The Weems Weekly. Some come from the Couchs' house in Birmingham, and others fill in some of the more intimate details of the stories told about the characters.The story is told through many generations and begins in 1985 with an unfulfilled housewife named Evelyn Couch, who visits her mother-in-law, who dislikes her, at an Alabama nursing home. While avoiding her, Evelyn meets nursing home resident Ninny Threadgoode, who begins to tell her random stories of her home in Whistle Stop, beginning in the 1920s. Evelyn becomes so interested in the stories of Whistle Stop that her life begins to take new meaning in the characters in Mrs. Threadgoode's history.Ninny Threadgoode grew up in a bustling house after being adopted by the Threadgoode family and eventually married one of the brothers. Her first love, however, was young Buddy Threadgoode, whose pet of all the children was the youngest girl, Idgie (Imogene). An unrepentant tomboy, Idgie learned her charm from Buddy. Buddy died tragically, when a train hit him, and high school-aged Idgie was devastated. Nothing civilized her until a few summers later when beautiful and virtuous Ruth Jamison came to live with the family while she taught Vacation Bible School. The family and servants watched with amusement as Idgie fell head over heels in love with Ruth, but when Ruth went home to Georgia to marry a man she was promised to, once more, Idgie drank too much, lived in the woods, and fell apart.After a few years, Idgie went to check up on Ruth and discovered that her husband, Frank Bennett, was abusing her. When Ruth's mother died of illness soon after, a page torn from the Book of Ruth in the Bible was sent to the Threadgoode house (appropriately Ruth 1:16, "But Ruth said, 'Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.'"), and Idgie, her brother Julian, and Big George (son of the Threadgoode cook, Sipsey) went to Georgia to bring the pregnant Ruth home. Frank resisted, but Ruth came home and promised never to leave Idgie again. Papa Threadgoode gave Idgie money to start a business so that she could care for Ruth and their son. She bought the cafe where Sipsey and her daughter-in-law Onzell cooked, and Big George, married to Onzell, made the best barbecue in Alabama.Idgie and Ruth raised Ruth's son, and the cafe became known all over the US during The Great Depression through the communication of hobos, especially half-time Whistle Stop resident Smokey Lonesome. It had a reputation for feeding men down on their luck, and Idgie and Ruth got in trouble from local law enforcement when they decided to serve black customers from the back door at lowered prices. It was about this point that Georgia detectives started asking about the suspicious disappearance of Ruth's ex-husband.Evelyn Couch becomes so entwined in Mrs. Threadgoode's stories that she begins to live them in her mind, and she realizes how purposeless her life has become and how pointless her reasons were for caring about people's opinions while growing up. Overweight and virtually ignored by her husband, Evelyn becomes inspired by Idgie's boldness and audacity and creates an alter-ego named Towanda, a hyper-violent, Amazon-like character who lashes out at people. Made uneasy by how much satisfaction she feels at lashing out, Evelyn confesses to Mrs. Threadgoode what is happening. She gets a job with Mary Kay Cosmetics and, at Mrs. Threadgoode's suggestion, starts to take hormones for menopause.Prodded on by Evelyn, Ninny resumes her story. For years the cafe ran--through World War II and into the 1950s. Idgie and Ruth's son grew up, and the lives of the town members moved on. However, when Ruth died of cancer, the life went out of the cafe. Soon after, Idgie herself was arrested along with Big George for the murder of Frank Bennett when his car was found at the bottom of a lake outside of Whistle Stop. The case is dismissed at the trial when the local minister, paying Idgie back for anonymously bailing his son out of jail, lies on the stand and testifies that she and Big George were at a three day revival the weekend Frank Bennett went missing. Bennett's body was never found, but it is revealed toward the end that Sipsey killed him as he came into the cafe to kidnap Ruth's infant son by slamming a cast iron skillet on his head. Big George barbecued the body, and Sipsey buried the head in the Threadgoodes' garden.Evelyn gets called home from a weight loss camp when Mrs. Threadgoode dies. Evelyn visits her grave, driving her new pink Cadillac. After visiting her grave, Evelyn notices a note from Idgie on Ruth's grave, placed there moments before.In an epilogue, it is revealed that Idgie is still alive and now sells honey by a roadside stand.