the spitfire grill

Director: lee david zlotoff

Actor: alison elliott,ellen burstyn,marcia gay harden,will patton

Data Published: Tue Feb 06 1996

Genres: Drama

Key Words: small town,reference to homer's odyssey,prison,world war two,wound

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117718/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spitfire_Grill

Description: The Spitfire Grill is a movie starring Alison Elliott, Ellen Burstyn, and Marcia Gay Harden. Percy, upon being released from prison, goes to the small town of Gillead, to find a place where she can start over again. She is taken in...

Plot: The story centers on a young woman named Percy (Alison Elliott) who was recently released from prison. She arrives in a small town in Maine with hopes of beginning a new life. She lands a job as a waitress in the Spitfire Grill, owned by Hannah (Ellen Burstyn), whose gruff exterior conceals a kind heart and little tolerance for the grill's regular customers who are suspicious of Percy's mysterious past. None is more suspicious than Nahum, Hannah's nephew, although his wife, Shelby, has a kinder curiosity. When Hannah is bedridden after a nasty fall, Percy and Shelby pitch in to save the Grill and win the approval of Hannah, who learns she does need friends. Joe, an attractive young man in town, becomes smitten with Percy. He is approached by a scientist who thinks that the town's trees might have medicinal benefits. As the plot unfolds, Hannah holds a $100-per-entry essay contest to find a new owner for the grill. This creates a positive change in the town, but the plans are disrupted by Nahum's suspicions about Percy and the revelation that a local hermit is Hannah's shell-shocked, Vietnam veteran son. Percy sacrifices her own life to save Hannah's son and prompts a number of the town's citizens to examine their own conduct more deeply. Overall, the film deals with powerful themes of redemption, hatred, compassion, independence, the economic problems of small towns, the plight of Vietnam War veterans, and, to some extent female empowerment. The film somewhat misleads the audience into thinking that it will be Percy who finds redemption, but it is other characters and relationships, and indeed the town itself, that are powerfully redeemed through Percy's actions.