The 1997 film Soul Food is a movie about a working class African American family and the daily struggles they each face. The family has its fair share of problems that they deal with on a day to day basis whether it is health, food, or arguments. Every Sunday though the family puts their differences aside to have family dinner. It is tradition for the last forty years that they are to meet up at Big Mama’s house. She cooks a nice homemade meal for the entire family until later into the movie she falls ill. She has been suffering from diabetes and has not been taking care of it very well. She refuses to accept what she needs to do to take care of it and it eventually catches up to her. Big Mama is told that she has to have surgery to amputate her leg. During the procedure she suffered a stroke and fell into a coma for the next five weeks. While she was in the coma, the entire family began to fall apart right in front of Ahmad who narrates the film. He is exposed to many things including affairs between the family, arrests, and eventually the death of Big Mama. Food and Big Mama were the only two thing keeping the Joseph family together and as you watch the film, you can see that without those things it all goes down hill. After the death of Big Mama the kid is determined to get the family together again for Sunday dinner like they used to. He only gets everyone to show up because he convinced them about a large amount of money Big Mama left him somewhere within the house. As the members of the family arrive one by one, they soon find out Ahmad was lying. Ironically though, as they are all fighting Uncle Pete who locks himself away in his room during the whole movie comes out to join the others. In this scene, he drops his tv on the ground as he was trying to leave the burning house. To everyone’s surprise, out comes a very large amount of money Big Mama had hid within it. After this the family starts to get along once again and they are able to keep Big Mamas house.

Food takes sort of a back seat for the majority of the film. For most of the film the family is in absolute chaos. The only time food appears is when the family isn’t in the first and last scene of the movie. It shows that food is the one thing that can bring them together no matter what is going on at that time. The culture around African Americans with food is much different than others it seems. The closing scene of the movie tells the audience what Soul Food really means to African Americans. “Big Mama really did have a pile of money hidden away, and she had it stashed in the last place we’d all think to look, uncle Pete’s tv. Now I understand what soul food was all about. See during slavery, us black folks didn’t have a whole lot to celebrate, so cooking became the way we expressed our love for one another. And that’s what those Sunday dinners meant to us. More than just eating, it was a time for sharing our joys and sorrows, something the old folks say is missing in today’s families.” (1:49.57) After this scene things improved for the family. They didn’t let there problems get it the way anymore. They let food bring them together every sunday once again.

Another theme that appeared in soul food was gender. In a lot of families of different ethnicities have different family leader roles, usually the dominant male figure. In this family Big Mama was the head. When she was around nobody dared to disrespect her or miss the traditional Sunday dinner. She always knew how to make a situation better no matter how bad. “See right there, that was just like Big Mama, always knowin’ just what to do to set things right. I used to think she and I had a special connection, like we shared an inside joke no one else is in on. Cause it wasn’t long before I found out she had the same connection with all of us. Yeah, she was the rock of the Joseph family.” (8:46) Ahmad, who is narrating this quote is the most like Big Mama in a lot of ways . He is young and innocent while Big mama is old and pure while the rest of the family needs their guidance. This is a complete turn in the other directions for some cultures where only the man can call the shots. Whatever Big Mama says goes and when she gets sick the whole family loses order.

Overall I thought the film did a good job at showing the struggles of a working class African American family.  The film was more than just about food. A family plagued with so many problems is only held together by Big Mama and a little boy who just wants his family to get along. Throughout the whole movie, Ahmad’s mission was to see the best in everyone and try to hold the family together without Big Mama. It was a very dramatic film with very intense and shocking moments. It definitely goes to show literally every family has their problems and so does each individual.

 

Tillman, G. (Writer), & Tillman, G. (Director). (n.d.). Soul food[Video file].