Passes the Bechdel test

August: Osage County

Name: August: Osage County
Released: 2014

2014. Directed by John Wells, written by Tracy Letts.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
7 women characters. 18 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 20 scenes out of 79.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

Violet Weston (Meryl Streep) has cancer and a propensity for pills and alcohol. She's a difficult woman to deal with and her husband has finally had enough. Violet's family gathers including middle daughter Ivy, youngest daughter Karen (with her new fiancé), eldest daughter Barbara (with her separated husband and teenage daughter), and her sister Mattie Fae (with her husband and son in tow). A family tragedy causes tensions to run high and secrets to come out. The Weston women will be forced to examine themselves and their lives whether they want to or not. Welcome to Osage County, Oklahoma in the sweltering heat of August.

Released: 10 Jan 2014
Genres: Comedy, Drama
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.2 / 10
Metascore: 58 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 2 Oscars. 16 wins & 67 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Barbara 334 lines, woman
Violet 284 lines, woman
Ivy 153 lines, woman
Bill 103 lines, man
Mattie Fae 85 lines, woman
Jean 77 lines, woman
Charlie 74 lines, man
Karen 54 lines, woman
Steve 53 lines, man
Johnna 40 lines, woman

Full cast, 22 people

Meryl Streep as Violet Weston
Julia Roberts as Barbara Weston
Julianne Nicholson as Ivy Weston
Juliette Lewis as Karen Weston
Ewan McGregor as Bill Fordham
Margo Martindale as Mattie Fae Aiken
Abigail Breslin as Jean Fordham
Chris Cooper as Charlie Aiken
Dermot Mulroney as Steve Huberbrecht
Benedict Cumberbatch as Little Charles Aiken
Misty Upham as Johnna Monevata
Sam Shepard as Beverly Weston
Will Coffey as Sheriff Deon Gilbeau
Newell Alexander as Dr. Burke
Jerry Stahl as Liquor Store Owner
Dale Dye as Radio Announcer
Ivan Allen as Radio Announcer
Arlin Miller as Baseball Announcer
J. Alan Davidson as Young Soldier (uncredited)
Michael Graham as Restaurant Patron (uncredited)
Maria Gus as Funeral Attendee (uncredited)
Leland Prater as Funeral Attendee (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 1% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 79

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	9
3 to 4	0	1
5 to 6	38	23
7 to 8	0	0
9 to 10	63	5
11 to 12	31	16
13 to 14	53	18
15 to 16	80	11
17 to 18	22	0
19 to 20	37	13
21 to 22	7	7
23 to 24	0	0
25 to 26	0	0
27 to 28	7	2
29 to 30	2	5
31 to 32	9	0
33 to 34	6	1
35 to 36	0	0
37 to 38	0	0
39 to 40	14	0
41 to 42	28	0
43 to 44	25	16
45 to 46	27	11
47 to 48	11	29
49 to 50	11	10
51 to 52	12	8
53 to 54	8	8
55 to 56	161	57
57 to 58	67	0
59 to 60	20	0
61 to 62	20	9
63 to 64	30	0
65 to 66	54	23
67 to 68	0	0
69 to 70	38	15
71 to 72	25	13
73 to 74	95	0
75 to 76	40	0
77 to 78	3	0
79 to 79	2	0

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

VIOLET: Hello. JOHNNA: Hello. VIOLET: I'm sorry. Like this. JOHNNA: Yes, ma'am.

MATTIE FAE: Where's your mother? IVY: Upstairs.

MATTIE FAE: Sweat's just dripping... MATTIE FAE: Ivy, when did this start? This business with taping the shades? IVY: Been a couple of years now. "August" 9/21/12 FINAL WHITE Draft 18. MATTIE FAE: Is it that long since we've been here?

JEAN: I'm gonna grab a smoke. BARBARA: You've encouraged that.

MATTIE FAE: Then get your own beer. JOHNNA: I'll get it. MATTIE FAE: I don't believe you. Watchin' a ball game, drinkin' beers. You have any sense of what's going on around you?

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 77 are women's.

1046 lines from women, 310 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

7 women and 11 men in the cast. 18 women and 7 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 17 of 1,372. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 26 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 78% of the words (11,493), men 22% (3,196). Women have 77% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.

Exhibit E: 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

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

2 of the 14 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 29% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: John Wells (man)
Written by: Tracy Letts (man)
Produced by: Jean Doumanian (woman), Grant Heslov (man), George Clooney (man), Steve Traxler (man), Patrick Daly (gender not listed)
Shot by: Adriano Goldman (man)
Edited by: Stephen Mirrione (man)
Music by: Gustavo Santaolalla (man)
Production design by: David Gropman (man)
Costumes by: Cindy Evans (woman)
Cast by: Kerry Barden (man), Paul Schnee (man)