Passes the Bechdel test
Beasts of the Southern Wild
2012. Directed by Benh Zeitlin, written by Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
4 women characters. 2 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 2 scenes out of 124. -
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, though someone marked that rating as dubious.
The film
Hushpuppy, an intrepid six-year-old girl, lives with her father, Wink, in the Bathtub, a southern Delta community at the edge of the world. Wink's tough love prepares her for the unraveling of the universe; for a time when he's no longer there to protect her. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, nature flies out of whack, temperatures rise, and the ice caps melt, unleashing an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs. With the waters rising, the aurochs coming, and Wink's health fading, Hushpuppy goes in search of her lost mother.
- Released
- 05 Jul 2012
- Genres
- Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 7.2 / 10
- Metascore
- 86 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 4 Oscars. 90 wins & 135 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Wink 123 lines, man
- Hushpuppy 67 lines, woman
- Cook 14 lines, woman
- Miss Bathsheba 14 lines, woman
- Walrus 11 lines, man
- Jean Battiste 8 lines, man
- Little Jo 8 lines, woman
- Peter T 7 lines
- Sergeant Major 5 lines
- Marietta 4 lines, woman
Full cast, 16 people
- Quvenzhané Wallis as Hushpuppy
- Dwight Henry as Wink
- Levy Easterly as Jean Battiste
- Gina Montana as Miss Bathsheeba
- Lowell Landes as Walrus
- Pamela Harper as Little Jo
- Amber Henry as LZA
- Jonshel Alexander as Joy Strong
- Nicholas Clark as Boy with Bell
- Joseph Brown as Winston
- Henry D. Coleman as Peter T
- Kaliana Brower as T-Lou
- Phillip Lawrence as Dr. Maloney
- Hannah Holby as Open Arms Babysitter
- Jimmy Lee Moore as Sgt. Major
- Jovan Hathaway as The Cook
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 8% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 124
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 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 to 6 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 to 9 | 1 | 4 |
| 10 to 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 to 15 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 to 18 | 4 | 0 |
| 19 to 21 | 2 | 0 |
| 22 to 24 | 16 | 3 |
| 25 to 27 | 0 | 2 |
| 28 to 30 | 4 | 5 |
| 31 to 33 | 2 | 0 |
| 34 to 36 | 3 | 12 |
| 37 to 39 | 1 | 12 |
| 40 to 42 | 0 | 0 |
| 43 to 45 | 2 | 10 |
| 46 to 48 | 3 | 0 |
| 49 to 51 | 1 | 11 |
| 52 to 54 | 0 | 2 |
| 55 to 57 | 0 | 0 |
| 58 to 60 | 1 | 0 |
| 61 to 63 | 7 | 10 |
| 64 to 66 | 0 | 3 |
| 67 to 69 | 2 | 12 |
| 70 to 72 | 4 | 8 |
| 73 to 75 | 0 | 0 |
| 76 to 78 | 0 | 0 |
| 79 to 81 | 14 | 30 |
| 82 to 84 | 3 | 1 |
| 85 to 87 | 0 | 1 |
| 88 to 90 | 2 | 3 |
| 91 to 93 | 1 | 0 |
| 94 to 96 | 2 | 2 |
| 97 to 99 | 9 | 10 |
| 100 to 102 | 0 | 0 |
| 103 to 105 | 4 | 0 |
| 106 to 108 | 11 | 0 |
| 109 to 111 | 8 | 1 |
| 112 to 114 | 1 | 0 |
| 115 to 117 | 0 | 0 |
| 118 to 120 | 2 | 0 |
| 121 to 123 | 1 | 0 |
| 124 to 124 | 0 | 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.
MARIETTA: Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY: Hi momma. MARIETTA: Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY: Yes, mamma.
LITTLE JO: You ain't drinkin' no water. MISS BATHSHEBA: Yea, tastes like more, alright!
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 44 are women's.
111 lines from women, 143 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
4 women and 5 men in the cast. 2 women and 3 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 3 of 276.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 14 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 37% of the words (699), men 63% (1,175). Women have 44% of the lines, so their lines run shorter 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
4
Two men
11
Exhibit F: behind the camera
2 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
- Benh Zeitlin (man)
- Written by
- Benh Zeitlin (man), Lucy Alibar (woman)
- Produced by
- Michael Gottwald (man), Dan Janvey (man), Josh Penn (man)
- Shot by
- Ben Richardson (man)
- Edited by
- Crockett Doob (gender not listed), Affonso Gonçalves (man)
- Music by
- Benh Zeitlin (man), Dan Romer (man)
- Production design by
- Alex DiGerlando (man)
- Costumes by
- Stephani Lewis (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
0 women, 10 men
-
Production
0 women, 6 men, 1 not listed
-
Other crew
2 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 3 men
-
Editing
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Writing
2 women, 1 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 11 on average. Men: 49 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Quvenzhané Wallis 8, Jonshel Alexander 13
Men
Dwight Henry 49
Exhibit H: the money
It made 11.7 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $1.8 million
- Box office
- $21.1 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 124 scenes and 276 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
