Fails the Bechdel test
A Few Good Men
1992. Directed by Rob Reiner, written by Aaron Sorkin.
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 1 out of 3.
The film
In this dramatic courtroom thriller, Lieutenant Junior Grade Daniel Kaffee, a Navy lawyer who has never seen the inside of the courtroom, defends two stubborn Marines who have been accused of murdering a colleague. Kaffee is known as being lazy and had arranged for a plea bargain. Downey's Aunt Ginny appoints Lieutenant Commander Galloway to represent him. Also on the legal staff is LTJG Sam Weinberg. The team rounds up many facts and Kaffee is discovering that he is really cut out for trial work. The defense is originally based upon the fact that PFC Santiago, the victim, was given a "CODE RED". Santiago was basically a screw-up. At Gitmo, screw-ups aren't tolerated. Especially by Col. Nathan Jessup. In Cuba, Jessup and two senior officers try to give all the help they can, but Kaffee knows something's fishy. In the conclusion of the film, the fireworks are set off by a confrontation between Jessup and Kaffee.
- Released
- 11 Dec 1992
- Genres
- Drama, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.8 / 10
- Metascore
- 62 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 4 Oscars. 11 wins & 30 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Kaffee 557 lines, man
- Jo 211 lines, woman
- Ross 129 lines, man
- Jessep 107 lines, man
- Sam 88 lines, man
- Dawson 54 lines, man
- Randolph 50 lines, man
- Kendrick 35 lines, man
- Downey 32 lines, man
- Markinson 32 lines, man
Full cast, 35 people
- Tom Cruise as Lt. Daniel Kaffee
- Jack Nicholson as Col. Nathan R. Jessep
- Demi Moore as Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway
- Kevin Bacon as Capt. Jack Ross
- Kevin Pollak as Lt. Sam Weinberg
- James Marshall as Pfc. Louden Downey
- J.T. Walsh as Lt. Col. Matthew Markinson
- Kiefer Sutherland as Lt. Jonathan Kendrick
- Christopher Guest as Dr. Stone
- J.A. Preston as Judge Randolph
- Matt Craven as Lt. Dave Spradling
- Wolfgang Bodison as Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson
- Xander Berkeley as Capt. Whitaker
- John M. Jackson as Capt. West
- Noah Wyle as Cpl. Jeffrey Barnes
- Cuba Gooding Jr. as Cpl. Carl Hammaker
- Lawrence Lowe as Bailiff
- Joshua Malina as Orderly
- Oscar Jordan as Steward
- John M. Mathews as Guard #1
- Aaron Sorkin as Man in Bar
- Alex Wexo as Guard #2
- Frank Cavestani as Agent #1
- Jan Munroe as Jury Foreman
- Ron Ostrow as M.P.
- Matthew Saks as David
- Harry Caesar as Luther
- Michael DeLorenzo as Pfc. William T. Santiago
- Geoffrey Nauffts as Lt. Sherby
- Arthur Senzy as Robert C. McGuire
- Cameron Thor as Cdr. Lawrence
- David Bowe as Cdr. Gibbs
- Gene Whittington as Mr. Dawson
- Maud Winchester as Aunt Ginny
- Jack Serino as Navy Officer (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 80
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 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 to 6 | 1 | 0 |
| 7 to 8 | 10 | 48 |
| 9 to 10 | 26 | 64 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 to 14 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 34 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 2 |
| 19 to 20 | 17 | 80 |
| 21 to 22 | 12 | 32 |
| 23 to 24 | 0 | 34 |
| 25 to 26 | 5 | 23 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 7 |
| 29 to 30 | 12 | 65 |
| 31 to 32 | 8 | 7 |
| 33 to 34 | 4 | 25 |
| 35 to 36 | 5 | 48 |
| 37 to 38 | 7 | 11 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 0 |
| 41 to 42 | 2 | 23 |
| 43 to 44 | 3 | 8 |
| 45 to 46 | 3 | 11 |
| 47 to 48 | 2 | 2 |
| 49 to 50 | 6 | 15 |
| 51 to 52 | 3 | 74 |
| 53 to 54 | 11 | 76 |
| 55 to 56 | 7 | 33 |
| 57 to 58 | 9 | 44 |
| 59 to 60 | 0 | 14 |
| 61 to 62 | 0 | 63 |
| 63 to 64 | 0 | 10 |
| 65 to 66 | 4 | 6 |
| 67 to 68 | 8 | 14 |
| 69 to 70 | 24 | 73 |
| 71 to 72 | 5 | 26 |
| 73 to 74 | 0 | 1 |
| 75 to 76 | 4 | 4 |
| 77 to 78 | 6 | 175 |
| 79 to 80 | 9 | 37 |
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, 15 are women's.
213 lines from women, 1190 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
2 women and 33 men in the cast. 1 women and 25 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 5 of 1,451.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 183 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 14% of the words (2,409), men 86% (15,118). Women have 15% 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
84
Exhibit E: behind the camera
3 of the 13 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 17% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Rob Reiner (man)
- Written by
- Aaron Sorkin (man)
- Produced by
- Andrew Scheinman (man), Rob Reiner (man), David Brown (man)
- Shot by
- Robert Richardson (man)
- Edited by
- Robert Leighton (man), Steven Nevius (man)
- Music by
- Marc Shaiman (man)
- Production design by
- J. Michael Riva (man)
- Costumes by
- Gloria Gresham (woman)
- Cast by
- Jane Jenkins (woman), Janet Hirshenson (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
6 women, 9 men
-
Sound
0 women, 10 men, 2 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 8 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 7 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 3 men, 3 not listed
-
Other crew
0 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
-
Editing
1 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 30 on average. Men: 40 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Demi Moore 30
Men
James Marshall 25, Kiefer Sutherland 25, Tom Cruise 30, Kevin Bacon 34, Kevin Pollak 35, Christopher Guest 44, J.T. Walsh 49, Jack Nicholson 55, J.A. Preston 60
Exhibit G: the money
It made 6.1 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $40 million
- Box office
- $243 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 80 scenes and 1,451 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
