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:

Cafe | Nursing Home | Sermon | Seamstress | Poignant

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 6 nominations

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 (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

UK:PG (video re-rating) | Iceland:L | 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:

Factual errors: In the scene where the young women are in the boxcar (from which they pass out canned goods), the box cars were obviously built by the set decorators. And wrong. The cars have outside bracing, common enough in the period of the film. But all outside-braced boxcars had their wood planks running horizontally, not vertically as in the movie. Any model railroader or train buff could have advised the movie makers how to do it right.

Quotes:

Sipsey: Secret's in the sauce.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Verbotene Liebe: (#1.1082)" (1999)

Soundtrack:

Barbeque Bess

Sweet, Bittersweet, and Intense

This is a film you are bound to fall in love with. All of its characters feel real, intense, reaching out to touch with their passion and the film's nostalgic feel.

It contains some of my favorite performances of all time: Masterson, Parker, Tandy, and Bates give their very best, bringing two life fictional women who feel real, strong, and powerful. The film is very emotional, never maudlin, never disrespecting any of its components or the audience. It allows us to feel we are part of a world that might not exist anymore. What I like most about the film is how it embraces a passion for living.

There is much to be admired about the technical aspects of the film as well. It travels back and forth in time, with a structure that is hard to describe but a joy to watch as it shows how the main relationships were born, developed, and eventually were transformed into something more spiritual. The music is haunting and quite suitable to the delicate relationships, and the photography makes everyone and everything lovely, dreamlike at times.

The film will live on and will eventually be regarded as a classic. It deserves it so.