The film, “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” directed by Lasse Hallström is set in an Iowa town. The plot follows the growth of the main character, Gilbert Grape, and the small town he lives in. After the death of his father, Gilbert stepped up to fill the paternal role in his household. He cares for his younger brother, Arnie, who is special needs, his obese mother, and his two sisters. Gilbert also juggles a job in the local grocery store along with friends and his personal struggles of growing up.

Scene 1: Food and Identity

The first scene is centered around the Grape’s dinner table as they discuss plans for Arnie’s 18th birthday party. Gilbert’s older sister, Amy, and his mother, Bonnie, go back and forth about what appetizers would be best suited for the party. This scene is relatively short but it covers a lot of areas relating to food and identity. Most noticeable, food and gender identity can be seen by who is participating in the conversation. As mentioned in class, women do the majority of feeding work in the U.S. They are mostly likely to do the planning, preserving, preparing, and serving when compared to men. So it makes sense that out of the entire family Amy and Bonnie are the only two who seem to be concerned about how they will feed their party guests. Even though Arnie mentions that he wants hot dogs at the party, it is significant that he requests hot dogs from his mom and sister instead of Gilbert who is his main caregiver because he knows he relies on the women in his family to prepare his food. This scene also has ties to food identity and social class. As seen throughout the film, the Grapes are by no means wealthy. In Bonnie and Amy’s appetizer discussion, they suggest two options for appetizers with few and inexpensive ingredients. Amy suggests, “You know, like those Hawaiian appetizers that they make with pineapple chunks out of the can and you wrap them with bacon and put toothpicks through them?” (25:33). This is a recipe that is very striking for the middle class. If the Grapes were an upper class family, they may splurge for a more costly appetizer. However, if the Grapes were in the lower class they would probably not be planning on feeding a large crowd, or maybe not even be familiar with the culture capital associated with serving appetizers.

Scene 2: Obesity

  In the second scene Bonnie, Gilbert, Ellen, and Amy make the drive to the sheriff’s office to pick up Arnie after he is placed in custody for climbing the town’s water tower. This is the first time in years that Bonnie is leaving the house because of her embarrassment of her weight. While The Grape’s make the short walk from the sheriff’s office to their car after getting Arnie, the town gathers to make a spectacle out of Bonnie’s size. From the beginning to end of this scene Bonnie is portrayed differently than the rest of the characters. The director makes it obvious that there is something wrong with Bonnie. Her movements are slow which accentuate her size and play on negative stereotypes of being obese; such as laziness.  There is little background noise and it makes the viewer feel some of Bonnie’s awkwardness as a crowd gathers ground her.  Children whisper, “Look at her” as she passes then and a man even snaps a picture of her. This scene displays some of the common negative social encounters of being obese. Bonnie is easy to ID, she is spotted immediately as she steps out of the car by two boys who have mocked her in the past.  She is so easy to ID that a large crowd gathers around her in a matter of steps.  Not only are the townies staring at her, but they are looking at her with disgust. Bonnie was once admired in her town for her beauty but because of her weight, the town looks down on her due to their personal prejudices against the obese. All of these reasons make it more difficult for Bonnie to pick up her son from town but if she were a normal size, she would have no hoops to jump through.

Scene 3- Food Systems and the Bio-cultural Model

In the third scene, Gilbert grabs lunch with his friends Bobby and Tucker in the town’s diner. Gilbert and Bobby listen to Tucker’s excited explanation of the Burger Barn fast food restaurant which will soon be moved to their town. Tucker marvels at the innovation of Burger Barn and a lot of what he says is similar  to the relationship between the  bio-cultural model and the food system. The food system is the processing, production and distribution of food and the bio-cultural model is the framework used to get an understanding of our dietary patterns. When Tucker says, “Burger Barn is cutting edge…They created the salad bar which is now mimicked by every single fast food chain in America. They came up with that” (21:15). Our readings mention in this relationship, that other components need to change along with it to make it flow smoothly. When Burger Barn created the salad bar, other fast food restaurants had to alter their environments from the bio-cultural model to in turn change their food systems. The sociocultural environment might have  initially sparked this change if the public is putting more of a focus on access to healthy foods. This would be the reason for an addition of a salad bar to the fast food restaurants. Since the competing fast food restaurants do not have salad bars set up, it would be necessary to alter the physical environment to make sure salad bar ingredients are available to go through the processing and production steps, which will in time be distributed to the public. 

Informed Opinion 

This film is great for many reasons but the most standout characteristic is the plot’s density. At first it seems to be about Gilbert’s paradox about growing up when he is already mature. But this movie covers more than just him, it shows the growth of his town, mother, and family with a direct connection to food. It is also somewhat comforting even though there are sad moments. These two reasons are why this is the type of movie that can be watched over and over again. There are no weaknesses. 

Works Cited

[Picture of ArnieandGilbert]. Retrieved May 12, 2021 from https://virtualfeast.net/cinematic-feasts/whats-eating-gilbert-grape-1993/

[Picture of BonnieGrape]. Retrieved May 12,  2021 from https://people.com/celebrity/darlene-cates-dies-gilbert-grape-weight-battle-hollywood-success/

[Picture of Cast]. Retrieved May 12, 2021 from https://people.com/celebrity/darlene-cates-dies-gilbert-grape-weight-battle-hollywood-success/

Ohlsson, B (Producer),  Matalon, D (Producer), Teper, M (Producer), & Hallström, L. (Director). (1993). What’s Eating Gilbert Grape [Motion Picture]. United States: Matalon Teper Ohlsson.

[Picture of Tucker]. Retrieved May 12, 2021 from https://digitalshortbread.com/2015/12/15/jcr-factor-9/