Fails the Bechdel test
Big
1988. Directed by Penny Marshall, written by Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg.
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
Josh Baskin would do anything to be big to hang out with his crush, Cynthia, at the carnival. He finds a Zoltar machine, and he wishes to be big. After Zoltar tells him, "Your wish is granted," he notices that it's unplugged. He wakes up the next morning in an adult's body, but he still has the same personality. With the help of his best friend, Billy, he learns how to act like an adult. But as he gets a girlfriend and a fun job, he doesn't want to be a kid again. Will Josh stay big or become a 13-year-old boy again?
- Released
- 03 Jun 1988
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 7.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 73 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 2 Oscars. 12 wins & 15 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Josh 313 lines, man
- Susan 143 lines, woman
- Billy 100 lines, man
- Paul 62 lines, man
- Man 45 lines, man
- Mr. M 36 lines, man
- Mom 35 lines, woman
- Woman 21 lines, woman
- Cynthia 12 lines, woman
- Boy 9 lines, man
Full cast, 63 people
- Tom Hanks as Josh
- Elizabeth Perkins as Susan
- Robert Loggia as MacMillan
- John Heard as Paul
- Jared Rushton as Billy
- Jon Lovitz as Scotty Brennen
- David Moscow as Young Josh
- Mercedes Ruehl as Mrs. Baskin
- Harvey Miller as Personnel Director
- Debra Jo Rupp as Miss Patterson
- Josh Clark as Mr. Baskin
- Kimberlee M. Davis as Cynthia Benson
- Oliver Block as Freddie Benson
- Erika Katz as Cynthia's Friend
- Allan Wasserman as Gym Teacher
- Mark Ballou as Derek
- Gary Klar as Ticket Taker
- Alec Von Sommer as First Brother
- Chris Dowden as Second Brother
- Rockets Redglare as Motel Clerk
- Jamie Tirelli as Spanish Voice (voice)
- Paul Herman as Schizo
- Nancy Giles as Administrative Woman
- Jordan Thaler as Administrative Clerk
- Dana Kaminski as Personnel Receptionist
- Tracy Reiner as Test Market Researcher
- James Eckhouse as Supervisor
- Linda Gillen as Woman in Red Dress
- Mildred R. Vandever as Receptionist
- Bert Goldstein as First Executive
- Kevin Meaney as Executive #2
- Peter McRobbie as Executive #3
- Paul J.Q. Lee as Executive #4
- Keith Reddin as Payroll Clerk
- Lela Ivey as Bank Teller
- Dolores Messina as Real Estate Agent
- Gordon Press as Moving Man
- George J. Manos as Limousine Driver
- Vince Cupone as Photon Laser Gunfighter
- Susan Wilder as Karen
- John Rothman as Phil
- Judd Trichter as Adam
- Pasquale Pugliese as Tenor / Dough Man
- Tom Coviello as Singing Waiter
- Richard Devia as Singing Waiter
- Teddy Holiavko as Singing Waiter
- Augusto Mariani as Singing Waiter
- Alfredo Monti as Singing Waiter
- Sergio Mosetti as Singing Waiter
- Armando Penso as Singing Waiter
- Edward Schick as Piano Player
- F. Benjamin Stimler as Boy in Leaves
- Jonathan Isaac Landau as Boy in Leaves
- Samantha Larkin as Girl Friend of Cynthia
- Bruce Jarchow as Photographer
- Vaughn Sandman as Boy on Baseball Field
- Victor Competiello as Bartender (uncredited)
- Brian J. Cano as Basketball Player (uncredited)
- Frances Fisher as Billy's Mother (uncredited)
- Pawl Bazile as Child at Taxi Stand (uncredited)
- Matt Mindell as Friend (uncredited)
- Kevin Fennessy as Handball Spectator (uncredited)
- Brooke Marie Procida as Student (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
We couldn't read who says what in this film's script, so there's no dialogue chart for it yet.
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, 27 are women's.
211 lines from women, 570 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
15 women and 45 men in the cast. 2 women and 4 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 2 of 799.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 42 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 26% of the words (1,752), men 74% (4,966). Women have 27% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Run the other way, for men, the film scores 0 out of 3.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
0
Two men
0
Exhibit E: behind the camera
3 of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 25% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Penny Marshall (woman)
- Written by
- Anne Spielberg (woman), Gary Ross (man)
- Produced by
- James L. Brooks (man), Robert Greenhut (man)
- Shot by
- Barry Sonnenfeld (man)
- Edited by
- Barry Malkin (man)
- Music by
- Howard Shore (man)
- Production design by
- Santo Loquasto (man)
- Costumes by
- Judianna Makovsky (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
4 women, 18 men, 10 not listed
-
Production
6 women, 8 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 9 men, 2 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 6 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
2 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 35 on average. Men: 34 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Elizabeth Perkins 27, Debra Jo Rupp 37, Mercedes Ruehl 40
Men
David Moscow 13, Jared Rushton 14, Jon Lovitz 30, Tom Hanks 31, John Heard 42, Harvey Miller 52, Robert Loggia 58
Exhibit G: the money
It made 8.4 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $18 million
- Box office
- $152 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 1 scenes and 799 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
