The attention to film detail is ever-expanding, and the emphasis on societal traumas touched upon in film is larger now than it has ever been, particularly in terms of race and gender studies. Many films over the last few centuries host a variety of equivocal themes and questionable content, and even alarming, by today’s standards. To address such a field of study, Texas A&M University – Texarkana’s Dr. Drew Morton, alongside Rachel Stonecipher and Dr. Jaime Cantrell, hosted a screening of Jon Avnet’s Fried Green Tomatoes (1991).

As it turns out, this film adaptation deviates far from its original, textual source. According to Dr. Cantrell, the lesbian relationship between Idgie and Ruth and the depth of the African-American characters drive the plot of the book. The film mostly utilizes the murder case. This analysis reveals the tendency of Hollywood to create false scenarios and make adaptations that appeal to its audiences mindset, rather than explicitly reveal contexts. For example, as both Rachel Stonecipher and Dr. Cantrell discussed, the film uses nuances, such as the kitchen food fight between Idgie and Ruth, to suggest a lesbian relationship. The book makes known that the girls have romantic feelings toward one another.

This restraint can also be seen in relation to the African-American characters of the film. The book creates more depth and pulls from historical occurrences to create a more realistic scenario for the people of Whistlestop. The film deems the characters as simple people devoted entirely to helping their white counterparts. Big George being whipped by Georgian KKK members and, instead of crying for his own life, insisting that Idgie return indoors for her protection shows this. In this way, the film creators have managed to create a perfect fantasy land for viewers. There is no tension between African-American and Caucasian people.

Photo by Allison Hall

In the same regard, the lesbian relationship between Ruth and Idgie is also accepted in the text. However, the film adopts a certain amount of ambiguity that allows the viewer to decide whether this relationship actually exists. If the viewer decides that Ruth and Idgie are just good friends, then there is nothing controversial present and the story becomes a less dense, more feel-good scenario.

The film is a great example of Hollywood symbolism and strategic ambiguity that offers different contexts to a variety of audiences. A viewer today might read the scenarios differently than someone watching it in 1991, just as a twenty-year old will see something different from what a fifty-year old might. In the end, the lecture was an attempt to strike up a conversation about these types of Hollywood effects and to provide a specific situation in which this happens.

For more information, contact Dr. Drew Morton at dmorton@tamut.edu, Dr. Jamie Cantrell at jcantrell@tamut.edu, or Rachel Stonecipher at rstonecipher@tamut.edu.