My Wife’s DVDs - Fried Green Tomatoes

*SPOILERS*

This is the fourth entry in this series, but in many ways, this is the first true pick because it hits my biggest blind spot in cinema: chick flicks. I doubt that’s an acceptable phrase these days, and I’m okay with not using it anymore because one of my goals in watching my wife’s DVD collection is to open my mind to movies I once thought weren’t for me. And when I was growing up Fried Green Tomatoes definitely seemed like a movie that was not made with me in mind. I won’t apologize for not wanting to watch movies like this as a child, but avoiding them as an adult is just sexist.

It’s sexist because the reason why I would think a movie like Fried Green Tomatoes isn’t for me is because the main cast is female. That shouldn’t keep me from giving a movie a chance. This was made doubly true after I asked my wife why she liked this movie enough to own it, and she said it was because of the perspectives it presented for the time and place of the story. If a woman watches this for a new perspective, then a dipshit dude like me definitely needs to see it.

The different perspectives presented in this movie are the second-class citizens of the South in the Depression era. The bulk of the story is about the lives of Idgie and Ruth, two women who open a restaurant in their small town (where the titular tomatoes come from). Rather than accept the situation their gender and time period placed upon them, they persevere to live the way they want…to a point (more on that later). 

Idgie and Big George are able to save Ruth from an abusive marriage, and at their restaurant they strive to treat everybody as equally as they can (they are reminded to make sure the African-American customers stay outside behind the restaurant though everyone is fine with a Big George cooking for whites and blacks), but there are plenty of struggles. The KKK is present, and Ruth’s estranged husband is a looming threat. 

Refreshingly, the sheriff helps out with the Klan, and Ruth’s husband is killed by Sipsey. Big George gets rid of his body by cooking it and feeding it to the detective investigating the murder. When typed out, that feels like quite the gruesome turn for a movie I once considered exclusively for women. It’s still a wild plot point, and it’s the only thing I kind of knew about the movie even though I had never seen it. The dark comedy of the detective eating multiple plates of the man he’s searching for is easily my favorite part, but the whole movie works for me.

It mainly works because all the main characters are likable. And while I’m more pessimistic about how this situation would have turned out in reality, it was nice to see this small community come together to protect each other, even getting a preacher to lie in court at one point. 

The one aspect that seemed missing in the film was a full acknowledgement of Idgie and Ruth’s relationship. It’s very clear that they are in love beyond friendship, and in the book this is overt (at least that’s what the summary I read claimed). But for a film in 1991, an open lesbian relationship must have been deemed too controversial for a mainstream movie. At least it wasn’t completely excised since I was able to pick up on the undertones. Since the hint of the relationship is there, this isn’t a weak point in the film; it’s just something that I think would be more overt if it was made today. 

As with most of my cinematic blindspots, I’m glad I finally checked this out thanks to my wife’s DVD collection. While I know there are some movies coming up that truly aren’t for me (looking at you, The Notebook), I am done dismissing any of them as movies only meant for women. From here on out, if I think a movie sucks it will be because it sucks, not because I didn’t even watch it because “it’s not for me.” It’s not fair to lump Fried Green Tomatoes in with something like Fifty Shades of Grey (which I did see with my wife opening weekend, and which does suck) just because I’m not the target audience. They are wildly different movies, both in content and quality, and it’s stupid to put them under the same label.