Passes the Bechdel test
Being There
1980. Directed by Hal Ashby, written by Jerzy Kosinski and Robert C. Jones.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
5 women characters. 6 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 157. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 2 out of 3.
The film
Simple-minded gardener Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. home of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television. After a run-in with a limousine, he ends up a guest of Eve and her husband Ben, an influential but sickly businessman. Now called Chauncey Gardiner, Chance becomes friend and confidante to Ben, and an unlikely political insider.
- Released
- 08 Feb 1980
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 7.9 / 10
- Metascore
- 83 / 100
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 14 wins & 15 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Chance 321 lines, man
- Eve 124 lines, woman
- Rand 90 lines, man
- President 65 lines, man
- Allenby 57 lines, man
- Franklin 50 lines, man
- Skrapinov 30 lines, man
- Dupont 19 lines, man
- Louise 18 lines, woman
- Kaufman 17 lines, man
Full cast, 22 people
- Peter Sellers as Chance
- Shirley MacLaine as Eve Rand
- Melvyn Douglas as Benjamin Rand
- Jack Warden as President 'Bobby'
- Richard Dysart as Dr. Robert Allenby
- Richard Basehart as Vladimir Skrapinov
- Ruth Attaway as Louise
- David Clennon as Thomas Franklin
- Fran Brill as Sally Hayes
- Denise DuBarry as Johanna Franklin
- Alice Hirson as First Lady
- Jerome Hellman as Gary Burns
- John Harkins as Sidney Courtney
- James Noble as Kaufman
- Mitch Kreindel as Dennis Watson
- Oteil Burbridge as Lolo
- Richard Venture as Wilson
- Sam Weisman as Colson
- Elya Baskin as Karpatov
- Hal Ashby as Man at File Cabinet at the Washington Post (uncredited)
- Kenneth Patterson as Perkins
- Stanley Grover as Baldwin
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 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 157
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 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 to 8 | 5 | 3 |
| 9 to 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 to 16 | 8 | 8 |
| 17 to 20 | 4 | 2 |
| 21 to 24 | 2 | 2 |
| 25 to 28 | 9 | 54 |
| 29 to 32 | 4 | 22 |
| 33 to 36 | 0 | 11 |
| 37 to 40 | 0 | 2 |
| 41 to 44 | 19 | 28 |
| 45 to 48 | 4 | 3 |
| 49 to 52 | 7 | 17 |
| 53 to 56 | 6 | 56 |
| 57 to 60 | 11 | 52 |
| 61 to 64 | 0 | 40 |
| 65 to 68 | 1 | 3 |
| 69 to 72 | 1 | 36 |
| 73 to 76 | 0 | 34 |
| 77 to 80 | 19 | 29 |
| 81 to 84 | 0 | 15 |
| 85 to 88 | 6 | 5 |
| 89 to 92 | 5 | 17 |
| 93 to 96 | 0 | 7 |
| 97 to 100 | 0 | 27 |
| 101 to 104 | 2 | 8 |
| 105 to 108 | 1 | 8 |
| 109 to 112 | 1 | 10 |
| 113 to 116 | 6 | 15 |
| 117 to 120 | 5 | 15 |
| 121 to 124 | 10 | 24 |
| 125 to 128 | 14 | 79 |
| 129 to 132 | 0 | 28 |
| 133 to 136 | 3 | 30 |
| 137 to 140 | 14 | 17 |
| 141 to 144 | 2 | 28 |
| 145 to 148 | 5 | 3 |
| 149 to 152 | 2 | 1 |
| 153 to 156 | 3 | 2 |
| 157 to 157 | 3 | 2 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scene
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
FIRST LADY: Of course... I'm so sorry for you, Eve... EVE: Thank you, Nancy. FIRST LADY: I'll call you soon.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 20 are women's.
182 lines from women, 743 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
5 women and 17 men in the cast. 6 women and 14 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
A woman speaks the first line.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 76 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 21% of the words (2,615), men 79% (9,571). Women have 20% 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
1
Two men
61
Exhibit F: behind the camera
None of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 4% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Hal Ashby (man)
- Written by
- Jerzy Kosiński (man)
- From the novel by
- Jerzy Kosiński (man)
- Produced by
- Charles Mulvehill (man), Andrew Braunsberg (man)
- Shot by
- Caleb Deschanel (man)
- Edited by
- Don Zimmerman (man)
- Music by
- Johnny Mandel (man)
- Production design by
- Michael D. Haller (man)
- Cast by
- Lynn Stalmaster (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
0 women, 5 men
-
Art
0 women, 4 men
-
Sound
0 women, 4 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 2 men
-
Directing
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 2 men
-
Writing
0 women, 2 men
-
Editing
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 43 on average. Men: 57 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Denise DuBarry 23, Fran Brill 33, Shirley MacLaine 45, Ruth Attaway 69
Men
David Clennon 36, Richard Dysart 50, Peter Sellers 54, Jack Warden 59, Richard Basehart 65, Melvyn Douglas 78
Exhibit H: the money
What it cost and made, where TMDB lists it.
- Budget
- Not listed
- Box office
- $30.2 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 157 scenes and 994 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
