Fails the Bechdel test
12 Angry Men
1957. Directed by Sidney Lumet, written by Reginald Rose.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
0 / 3
Fails
-
No
1. At least two women
Fewer than two women characters. -
No
2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 0 out of 3.
The film
The defense and the prosecution have rested, and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young man is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open-and-shut case of murder soon becomes a detective story that presents a succession of clues creating doubt, and a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, AND each other. Based on the play, all of the action takes place on the stage of the jury room.
- Released
- 10 Apr 1957
- Genres
- Crime, Drama
- Rated
- Approved
- IMDb
- 9 / 10
- Metascore
- 97 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 3 Oscars. 16 wins & 12 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Foreman 100 lines, man
- Judge 4 lines, man
- Guard 3 lines, man
- Fa 2 lines
- Hy 2 lines
- I 2 lines
- On 2 lines
- Uy 2 lines
- Aad 1 lines
- An 1 lines
Full cast, 18 people
- Martin Balsam as Juror 1
- John Fiedler as Juror 2
- Lee J. Cobb as Juror 3
- E.G. Marshall as Juror 4
- Jack Klugman as Juror 5
- Edward Binns as Juror 6
- Jack Warden as Juror 7
- Henry Fonda as Juror 8
- Joseph Sweeney as Juror 9
- Ed Begley as Juror 10
- George Voskovec as Juror 11
- Robert Webber as Juror 12
- Rudy Bond as Judge (uncredited)
- Tom Gorman as Stenographer (uncredited)
- James Kelly as Guard (uncredited)
- Billy Nelson as Court Clerk (uncredited)
- Walter Stocker as Man Waiting for Elevator (uncredited)
- John Savoca as Defendant (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
We couldn't read who says what in this film's script, so there's no dialogue chart for it yet.
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 0 are women's.
0 lines from women, 109 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
0 women and 17 men in the cast. 0 women and 3 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
No woman speaks.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 152 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 0% of the words (0), men 100% (2,687).
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Run the other way, for men, the film scores 0 out of 3.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
0
Two men
0
Exhibit E: behind the camera
None of the 8 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 7% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Sidney Lumet (man)
- Written by
- Reginald Rose (man)
- Story by
- Reginald Rose (man)
- Produced by
- Henry Fonda (man), Reginald Rose (man)
- Shot by
- Boris Kaufman (man)
- Edited by
- Carl Lerner (man)
- Music by
- Kenyon Hopkins (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Directing
1 women, 2 men
-
Production
0 women, 3 men
-
Sound
0 women, 3 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Writing
0 women, 2 men
-
Art
0 women, 0 men, 1 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 1 men
-
Editing
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Men: 45 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Men
John Fiedler 32, Jack Klugman 34, Jack Warden 36, Martin Balsam 37, Edward Binns 40, E.G. Marshall 42, Lee J. Cobb 45, Henry Fonda 51, Ed Begley 56, Joseph Sweeney 72
Exhibit G: the money
It made 11.0 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $397,751
- Box office
- $4.4 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 1 scenes and 152 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
