The Best Meals on the Big Screen: A Roundup of Memorable Food Scenes

Grease (1978)

Using food to tell a slightly different story is the 1978 film Grease. This is a film that pays nostalgic homage to the doo-wop songs of the 1950s, the era's greasy hair, greasy engines, and yep, you've guessed it, greasy food. Enter the classic '50s American diner. Its nostalgic appeal makes it the perfect meeting spot for the characters in the film to meet both after school, and for a date. In fact, these diner's are making another comeback, with 'high-end' 50s style diners. The movie's 1950s throwback wouldn't be complete without the ice cream sodas and retro milkshakes, thick with ice cream and whipped cream - "just gimme a double Polar Burger wit' everything and a cherry soda wit' chocolate ice cream".

Matilda (1996)

Food plays a big role in Matilda, and we learn more about each character thanks to food. We meet Matilda's neglectful and sedentary family, who eat junk food off TV trays in the dark. Then you have the famous scene where Miss Trunchbull forces Bruce Bogtrotter to eat a giant chocolate cake. The uncomfortable scene of Bruce, on the verge of vomiting, forcing down another bite, shows just how repugnant Trunchball can be. It's a scene that remains etched into the memories of many who watched this film at a young age. In contrast, when it comes to the delightful Miss Honey, she is associated with hospitality and comfort, offering Matilda tea and cookies. And towards the end of the movie, we see a scene of apples, peanut butter, and jelly, symbolizing a happier future for Matilda. Needless to say, food is used throughout the film to symbolize both the good, and the bad.

‍
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

We've already mentioned Edward Scissorhands and Alice and Wonderland, so it won't be surprising to hear that Tim burton is no stranger to producing films with often darker backstories or undertones. The 2005 remake of the 1971 classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an obvious film to mention when it comes to understanding how food acts as a narrative, but more important in this case, helps us understand the characters in the film. We've all marveled at the chocolate river, and wished we could suck on an everlasting gobstopper or get our hands on a 3-course dinner gum, but each of these scenes helps us understand the deadly sins that the characters portray, from envy to excess. Unsurprisingly, food is used to portray greed in Augustus, pride in Violet, greed and envy in Veruca, sloth in Mike, and wrath in Willy Wonka himself. And you might ask, what about lust? Well, that's portrayed by Charlie - and his lust for finding the golden ticket.

Food plays a huge role across many of the films that we watch today - in fact Tarantino's most influential films Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds use food throughout their films. Many producers use food to help create a persona behind each character, as we've already mentioned through some of the films above. But why does food have such a big role in character development, even in the films that we watch today? Well simply put, food and drink can be used to exert power and control in ways that dialogue and acting alone can't. Food adds an extra layer of complexity to each of the characters that we see on screen and helps film producers and directors alike convey underlying messages behind the films that we watch.