Fails the Bechdel test
44 Inch Chest
2009. Directed by Malcolm Venville, written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
2 women characters. 2 of them speak. -
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 1 out of 3.
The film
Colin (Ray Winstone) is in agony, shattered by his wife's infidelity. However, he has friends who do more than stand by. They kidnap the wife's French lover and hold him prisoner so that Colin can restore his manhood with revenge. A kangaroo court takes place, and as the situation escalates, loverboy's life hangs in the balance as Colin wrestles with revenge, remorse, grief, and self pity, all the while egged on by his motley crew of friends who just want him to get on with it so they can get down to the pub.
- Released
- 15 Jan 2010
- Genres
- Crime, Drama
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 5.8 / 10
- Metascore
- 47 / 100
- Awards
- 2 wins & 2 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Archie 163 lines, man
- Mal 133 lines, man
- Colin 125 lines, man
- Omp 122 lines, man
- Meredith 114 lines, man
- Liz 42 lines, woman
- Tippi 10 lines, man
- Biggy 9 lines, man
- Omp Voice 7 lines
- Meredith Vo 6 lines, man
Full cast, 11 people
- Ray Winstone as Colin Diamond
- John Hurt as Old Man Peanut
- Ian McShane as Meredith
- Tom Wilkinson as Archie
- Joanne Whalley as Liz
- Melvil Poupaud as Loverboy
- Steven Berkoff as Tippi Gordon
- Derek Lea as Bumface
- Andy de la Tour as Biggy Walpole
- Stephen Dillane as Mal
- Edna Doré as Archie's Mum
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 83
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 | 0 |
| 3 to 4 | 3 | 6 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 to 8 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 18 |
| 13 to 14 | 0 | 12 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 12 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 47 |
| 19 to 20 | 0 | 29 |
| 21 to 22 | 8 | 19 |
| 23 to 24 | 0 | 18 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 2 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 2 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 32 |
| 31 to 32 | 9 | 27 |
| 33 to 34 | 0 | 7 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 12 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 1 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 158 |
| 41 to 42 | 0 | 7 |
| 43 to 44 | 0 | 0 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 26 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 2 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 1 |
| 51 to 52 | 0 | 4 |
| 53 to 54 | 0 | 1 |
| 55 to 56 | 0 | 1 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 2 |
| 59 to 60 | 0 | 0 |
| 61 to 62 | 0 | 0 |
| 63 to 64 | 1 | 4 |
| 65 to 66 | 19 | 100 |
| 67 to 68 | 1 | 7 |
| 69 to 70 | 0 | 22 |
| 71 to 72 | 4 | 15 |
| 73 to 74 | 1 | 1 |
| 75 to 76 | 0 | 20 |
| 77 to 78 | 0 | 64 |
| 79 to 80 | 0 | 3 |
| 81 to 82 | 0 | 0 |
| 83 to 83 | 0 | 1 |
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, 6 are women's.
46 lines from women, 688 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
2 women and 9 men in the cast. 2 women and 10 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 3 of 750.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 253 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 2% of the words (245), men 98% (11,579). Women have 6% 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
73
Exhibit E: behind the camera
1 of the 12 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 21% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Malcolm Venville (man)
- Written by
- David Scinto (man), Louis Mellis (man)
- Produced by
- Steve Golin (man), Richard Brown (man), Peter Heslop (man)
- Shot by
- Daniel Landin (man)
- Edited by
- Rick Russell (gender not listed)
- Music by
- Angelo Badalamenti (man)
- Production design by
- John Stevenson (gender not listed)
- Costumes by
- Caroline Harris (woman)
- Cast by
- Gary Davy (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
1 women, 13 men, 3 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
4 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 4 men, 5 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 3 men, 4 not listed
-
Camera
1 women, 2 men, 4 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 0 men, 6 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 48 on average. Men: 58 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Joanne Whalley 48
Men
Melvil Poupaud 36, Ray Winstone 52, Stephen Dillane 52, Tom Wilkinson 61, Ian McShane 67, John Hurt 69, Steven Berkoff 72
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 83 scenes and 750 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
