Fails the Bechdel test

Blood Simple

Name: Blood Simple
Released: 1985

1985. Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, written by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

2 / 3

Fails

Yes 1. At least two women
4 women characters. 1 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other.
No 3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.

The film

Texas bar owner Julian Marty, who is generally regarded as not a nice person, hires shady private detective Loren Visser, who is able to obtain what Marty requests evidence - in this instance, photographic - that his wife, Abby, and one of his bartenders, Ray, are having an affair. As Ray and Abby realize that Marty has found out about them, it allows them to plan for their future away from Marty, while being up front with Marty about the situation. Marty, in turn, decides to hire Visser once again, this time to kill Abby and Ray, and dispose of their bodies so that they won't be found. The out-in-the-open affair and the contract hit lead to some actions based on self-interest and a standoff of sorts between the four players, which is compounded in complexity by some wrong assumptions of what has happened, with an innocent bystander, another of the Marty's bartenders, Meurice, potentially, and unwittingly, adding to the scenario.

Released: 18 Jan 1985
Genres: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.5 / 10
Metascore: 84 / 100
Awards: 5 wins & 7 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Ray 100 lines, man
Marty 91 lines, man
Abby 87 lines, woman
Meurice 70 lines, man
Visser 57 lines, man
Woman 22 lines, woman
Man 17 lines, man
Landlady 12 lines, woman
Debra 11 lines, man
Rhodes 8 lines

Full cast, 17 people

John Getz as Ray
Frances McDormand as Abby
Dan Hedaya as Julian Marty
Samm-Art Williams as Meurice
M. Emmet Walsh as Private Detective
Deborah Neumann as Debra
Raquel Gavia as Landlady
Van Brooks as Man from Lubbock
Señor Marco as Mr. Garcia
William Creamer as Old Cracker
Loren Bivens as Strip Bar Exhorter
Bob McAdams as Strip Bar Senator
Shannon Sedwick as Stripper
Nancy Finger as Girl on Overlook
William Preston Robertson as Radio Evangelist (voice)
Holly Hunter as Helene Trend (voice) (uncredited)
Barry Sonnenfeld as Marty's Vomiting (voice) (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 4% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 44

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 1	0	0
2 to 2	8	6
3 to 3	0	0
4 to 4	17	105
5 to 5	0	26
6 to 6	10	12
7 to 7	0	3
8 to 8	0	31
9 to 9	33	19
10 to 10	0	0
11 to 11	2	48
12 to 12	0	0
13 to 13	0	3
14 to 14	0	0
15 to 15	0	0
16 to 16	0	0
17 to 17	0	0
18 to 18	4	4
19 to 19	20	26
20 to 20	3	2
21 to 21	0	0
22 to 22	0	13
23 to 23	0	0
24 to 24	0	0
25 to 25	3	6
26 to 26	1	0
27 to 27	5	9
28 to 28	1	3
29 to 29	6	14
30 to 30	0	0
31 to 31	0	1
32 to 32	0	2
33 to 33	0	0
34 to 34	1	1
35 to 35	0	0
36 to 36	0	1
37 to 37	0	0
38 to 38	2	3
39 to 39	0	0
40 to 40	2	3
41 to 41	0	0
42 to 42	4	4
43 to 43	0	0
44 to 44	1	7

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, 26 are women's.

123 lines from women, 352 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

4 women and 11 men in the cast. 1 women and 5 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 3 of 497. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 52 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 23% of the words (893), men 77% (2,972). Women have 26% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

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

Two men

Exhibit E: behind the camera

2 of the 14 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 18% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Joel Coen (man)
Written by: Joel Coen (man), Ethan Coen (man)
Produced by: Ethan Coen (man)
Shot by: Barry Sonnenfeld (man)
Edited by: Ethan Coen (man), Don Wiegmann (gender not listed), Joel Coen (man)
Music by: Carter Burwell (man)
Production design by: Jane Musky (woman)
Costumes by: Sara Medina-Pape (gender not listed)
Cast by: Edith M. Clark (gender not listed), Julie Hughes (woman), Barry Moss (man)