Fails the Bechdel test
1917
2020. Directed by Sam Mendes, written by Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns.
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
April 1917, the Western Front. Two British soldiers are sent to deliver an urgent message to an isolated regiment. If the message is not received in time the regiment will walk into a trap and be massacred. To get to the regiment they will need to cross through enemy territory. Time is of the essence and the journey will be fraught with danger.
- Released
- 10 Jan 2020
- Genres
- Drama, War
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 8.2 / 10
- Metascore
- 78 / 100
- Awards
- Won 3 Oscars. 137 wins & 202 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Schofield 236 lines, man
- Blake 172 lines, man
- Lieutenant Leslie 25 lines, man
- Captain Smith 24 lines, man
- Erinmore 23 lines, man
- Private Cooke 22 lines, man
- Private Rossi 14 lines, man
- Colonel Mackenzie 13 lines, man
- Sergeant Sanders 13 lines, man
- Private Butler 11 lines, man
Full cast, 57 people
- George MacKay as Lance Corporal Schofield
- Dean-Charles Chapman as Lance Corporal Blake
- Mark Strong as Captain Smith
- Andrew Scott as Lieutenant Leslie
- Richard Madden as Lieutenant Blake
- Claire Duburcq as Lauri
- Colin Firth as General Erinmore
- Benedict Cumberbatch as Colonel MacKenzie
- Daniel Mays as Sergeant Sanders
- Adrian Scarborough as Major Hepburn
- Chris Walley as Private Bullen
- Nabhaan Rizwan as Sepoy Jondalar
- Jamie Parker as Lieutenant Richards
- Tommy French as Private Butler
- Paul Tinto as NCO Baker
- Billy Postlethwaite as NCO Harvey
- Richard McCabe as Colonel Collins
- Justin Edwards as Captain Ivins
- Pip Carter as Lieutenant Gordon
- Andy Apollo as Sergeant Miller
- Josef Davies as Private Stokes
- Gabriel Akuwudike as Private Buchanan
- Spike Leighton as Private Kilgour
- Robert Maaser as German Pilot
- Gerran Howell as Private Parry
- Adam Hugill as Private Atkins
- Anson Boon as Private Cooke
- Kenny Fullwood as Private Rossi
- Ryan Nolan as Private Malky
- Elliot Baxter as Private Sniper
- Kye Mckee as German Soldier
- Ivy-I Macnamara as French Baby
- Merlin Leonhardt as Soldat Muller
- Taddeo Kufus as Soldat Baumer
- Jos Slovick as Wayfaring Stranger Soldier
- Luke Hornsby as Private Pinwood
- Jack Shalloo as Private Seymour
- Elliot Edusah as Private Grey
- Jacob James Beswick as Lance Corporal Duff
- Michael Jibson as Lieutenant Hutton
- Ian Wilson as Sergeant Wright
- Bradley Connor as Sergeant Gardner
- John Hollingworth as Sergeant Guthrie
- Samson Cox-Vinell as Orderly Dixon
- Jonny Lavelle as Orderly Byrne
- Michael Rouse as Captain Rylands
- Richard Dempsey as Mackenzie Officer
- Phil Cheadle as Mackenzie Officer
- Jonah Russell as Captain Morahan
- Daniel Attwell as Captain Sandbach
- Joe Anders as Private Willock
- Bogdan Kumšackij as German Sniper
- Bradley Riches as Soldier
- Oliver Simms as Attacking Soldier (uncredited)
- Ketan Majmudar as Sikh Soldier (uncredited)
- Sam Hills as Soldier (Uncredited)
- Ben Adams as Sergeant Harrop
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 2% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 62
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 0 | 17 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 29 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 55 |
| 7 to 8 | 0 | 82 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | 15 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 4 |
| 13 to 14 | 0 | 37 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 60 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 14 |
| 19 to 20 | 0 | 2 |
| 21 to 22 | 0 | 2 |
| 23 to 24 | 0 | 7 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 67 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 45 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 61 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 13 |
| 33 to 34 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 0 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 0 |
| 39 to 40 | 5 | 23 |
| 41 to 42 | 0 | 0 |
| 43 to 44 | 0 | 2 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 0 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 0 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 0 |
| 51 to 52 | 0 | 29 |
| 53 to 54 | 0 | 35 |
| 55 to 56 | 0 | 9 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 8 |
| 59 to 60 | 0 | 32 |
| 61 to 62 | 0 | 24 |
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, 1 are women's.
5 lines from women, 672 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
2 women and 51 men in the cast. 1 women and 43 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 517 of 689.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 516 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 0% of the words (11), men 100% (4,955). Women have 1% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
0
Two men
43
Exhibit E: behind the camera
5 of the 15 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 33% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Sam Mendes (man)
- Written by
- Krysty Wilson-Cairns (woman), Sam Mendes (man)
- Produced by
- Michael Lerman (man), Callum McDougall (man), Pippa Harris (woman), Sam Mendes (man), Jayne-Ann Tenggren (woman)
- Shot by
- Roger Deakins (man)
- Edited by
- Lee Smith (man)
- Music by
- Thomas Newman (man)
- Production design by
- Dennis Gassner (man)
- Costumes by
- David Crossman (man), Jacqueline Durran (woman)
- Cast by
- Nina Gold (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Art
4 women, 11 men, 32 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
10 women, 3 men, 29 not listed
-
Visual Effects
2 women, 9 men, 27 not listed
-
Production
7 women, 5 men, 8 not listed
-
Sound
4 women, 12 men, 4 not listed
-
Other crew
2 women, 9 men, 8 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 2 men, 15 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 6 men, 10 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Men: 42 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Men
Dean-Charles Chapman 22, George MacKay 27, Richard Madden 33, Daniel Mays 41, Andrew Scott 43, Benedict Cumberbatch 43, Adrian Scarborough 51, Mark Strong 56, Colin Firth 59
Exhibit G: the money
It made 4.5 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $100 million
- Box office
- $446 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 62 scenes and 689 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
