Fails the Bechdel test
A Soldier's Story
1984. Directed by Norman Jewison, written by Charles Fuller.
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 0 out of 3.
The film
A black soldier is killed while returning to his base in the deep south. The white people of the area are suspected at first. A tough black army attorney is brought in to find out the truth. We find out a bit more about the dead soldier in flashbacks - and that he was unpopular. Will the attorney find the killer ?
- Released
- 02 Nov 1984
- Genres
- Crime, Drama, Mystery
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 7.2 / 10
- Metascore
- 66 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 3 Oscars. 6 wins & 10 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Davenport 150 lines, man
- Waters 95 lines, man
- Taylor 65 lines, man
- Peterson 39 lines, man
- Ellis 30 lines, man
- Memphis 27 lines, man
- Cobb 25 lines, man
- Wilkie 25 lines, man
- Henson 22 lines, man
- Byrd 20 lines, man
Full cast, 37 people
- Howard Rollins as Captain Davenport
- Adolph Caesar as Sergeant Waters
- Art Evans as Private Wilkie
- Robert Townsend as Corporal Ellis
- Denzel Washington as Private First Class Peterson
- David Alan Grier as Corporal Cobb
- David Harris as Private Smalls
- Dennis Lipscomb as Captain Taylor
- Patti LaBelle as Big Mary
- Wings Hauser as Lieutenant Byrd
- Larry Riley as C.J. Memphis
- William Allen Young as Private Henson
- Scott Paulin as Captain Wilcox
- John Hancock as Sergeant Washington
- Robert Tyler as Private Seymour
- Trey Wilson as Colonel Nivens
- Patricia Brandkamp as Ida Nivens
- Carl Dreher as Bus driver
- Vaughn Reeves as Captain Estes
- Michael Anthony Williams as Barracks Soldier
- Bobby McGee as Barracks Soldier
- Rick Ramey as Barracks Soldier
- Pat Grabe as White Lieutenant #1
- Terry Dodd as White Lieutenant #2
- Warren Clements as Sergeant Hooks
- James W. Bryant as Chaplain
- John Valentine as Umpire
- Ronald E. Greenfield as M.P. Sergeant
- Anthony C. Sanders as M.P. at Gate
- Traftin E. Thompson as M.P. in Barracks
- Roy Wells as Training Field Sergeant
- Tommy G. Liggins as Solider Painting
- Calvin Franklin as Barracks Soldier
- Kevin T. Mosley as Barracks Soldier
- David Ashley as Barracks Soldier
- Thomas Howard as Barracks Soldier
- Lacarnist Hiriams as Barracks Soldier
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 7% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 55
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 | 2 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 21 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 4 |
| 7 to 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | 19 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 5 |
| 13 to 14 | 0 | 1 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 24 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 11 |
| 19 to 20 | 0 | 11 |
| 21 to 22 | 2 | 19 |
| 23 to 24 | 0 | 22 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 14 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 1 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 76 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 7 |
| 33 to 34 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 0 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 13 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 29 |
| 41 to 42 | 3 | 93 |
| 43 to 44 | 0 | 38 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 64 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 45 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 3 |
| 51 to 52 | 0 | 40 |
| 53 to 54 | 0 | 6 |
| 55 to 55 | 0 | 6 |
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, 574 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
2 women and 19 men in the cast. 2 women and 25 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 121 of 621.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 306 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 1% of the words (159), men 99% (10,873).
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
54
Exhibit E: behind the camera
1 of the 10 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 23% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Norman Jewison (man)
- Written by
- Charles Fuller (man)
- Produced by
- Norman Jewison (man), Patrick J. Palmer (man), Ronald L. Schwary (man)
- Shot by
- Russell Boyd (man)
- Edited by
- Caroline Biggerstaff (woman), Mark Warner (man)
- Music by
- Herbie Hancock (man)
- Production design by
- Walter Scott Herndon (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
3 women, 2 men, 4 not listed
-
Production
0 women, 6 men, 2 not listed
-
Editing
1 women, 2 men
-
Art
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Other crew
0 women, 2 men
-
Directing
1 women, 1 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 0 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 40 on average. Men: 35 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Patti LaBelle 40
Men
David Harris 25, Robert Townsend 27, David Alan Grier 28, Denzel Washington 29, Howard Rollins 33, Wings Hauser 36, Art Evans 42, Dennis Lipscomb 42, Adolph Caesar 50
Exhibit G: the money
It made 3.6 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $6 million
- Box office
- $21.8 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 55 scenes and 621 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
