Fails the Bechdel test
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
1969. Directed by George Roy Hill, written by William Goldman.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
3 women characters. 4 of them speak. -
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
Butch and Sundance are the two leaders of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. Butch is all ideas, Sundance is all action and skill. The West is becoming civilized, and when Butch and Sundance rob a train once too often, a special posse begins trailing them no matter where they run. Over rocks, through towns, across rivers, the group is always just behind them. When they finally escape through sheer luck, Butch has another idea, "Let's go to Bolivia". Based on the exploits of the historical characters.
- Released
- 24 Sep 1969
- Genres
- Adventure, Biography, Crime
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 8 / 10
- Metascore
- 66 / 100
- Awards
- Won 4 Oscars. 22 wins & 15 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Butch 249 lines, man
- Sundance 148 lines, man
- Cutto 83 lines
- Etta 53 lines, woman
- Garris 17 lines, man
- Macon 13 lines, man
- Woodcock 12 lines, man
- Botch 9 lines, man
- Man 9 lines, man
- News 9 lines, man
Full cast, 23 people
- Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy
- Robert Redford as The Sundance Kid
- Katharine Ross as Etta Place
- Strother Martin as Percy Garris
- Henry Jones as Bike Salesman
- Jeff Corey as Sheriff Bledsoe
- George Furth as Woodcock
- Cloris Leachman as Agnes
- Ted Cassidy as Harvey Logan
- Kenneth Mars as Marshal
- Donnelly Rhodes as Macon
- Jody Gilbert as Large Woman
- Timothy Scott as News Carver
- Don Keefer as Fireman
- Charles Dierkop as Flat Nose Curry
- Pancho Córdova as Bank Manager
- Nelson Olmsted as Photographer
- Paul Bryar as Card Player #1
- Sam Elliott as Card Player #2
- Charles Akins as Bank Teller
- Eric Sinclair as Tiffany's Salesman
- Douglas Bank as Citizen (uncredited)
- Percy Helton as Sweetface (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 23% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 42
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 | 115 |
| 2 to 2 | 0 | 6 |
| 3 to 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 4 to 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 5 to 5 | 12 | 54 |
| 6 to 6 | 5 | 44 |
| 7 to 7 | 0 | 6 |
| 8 to 8 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 to 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 to 10 | 1 | 2 |
| 11 to 11 | 0 | 0 |
| 12 to 12 | 2 | 10 |
| 13 to 13 | 0 | 15 |
| 14 to 14 | 0 | 31 |
| 15 to 15 | 0 | 65 |
| 16 to 16 | 3 | 5 |
| 17 to 17 | 5 | 17 |
| 18 to 18 | 0 | 3 |
| 19 to 19 | 2 | 6 |
| 20 to 20 | 0 | 3 |
| 21 to 21 | 0 | 0 |
| 22 to 22 | 10 | 20 |
| 23 to 23 | 0 | 0 |
| 24 to 24 | 0 | 0 |
| 25 to 25 | 1 | 1 |
| 26 to 26 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 to 27 | 0 | 2 |
| 28 to 28 | 0 | 0 |
| 29 to 29 | 0 | 0 |
| 30 to 30 | 0 | 7 |
| 31 to 31 | 1 | 0 |
| 32 to 32 | 2 | 4 |
| 33 to 33 | 0 | 15 |
| 34 to 34 | 0 | 33 |
| 35 to 35 | 19 | 17 |
| 36 to 36 | 0 | 15 |
| 37 to 37 | 0 | 0 |
| 38 to 38 | 0 | 1 |
| 39 to 39 | 0 | 5 |
| 40 to 40 | 1 | 0 |
| 41 to 41 | 0 | 2 |
| 42 to 42 | 0 | 26 |
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, 11 are women's.
65 lines from women, 537 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
3 women and 20 men in the cast. 4 women and 23 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 185 of 777.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 184 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 14% of the words (1,061), men 86% (6,364). Women have 11% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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
0
Two men
69
Exhibit E: behind the camera
1 of the 9 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 8% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- George Roy Hill (man)
- Written by
- William Goldman (man)
- Produced by
- John Foreman (man)
- Shot by
- Conrad Hall (man)
- Edited by
- John C. Howard (man), Richard C. Meyer (man)
- Music by
- Burt Bacharach (man)
- Costumes by
- Edith Head (woman)
- Cast by
- Michael McLean (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
0 women, 15 men, 5 not listed
-
Sound
3 women, 9 men, 2 not listed
-
Production
0 women, 6 men
-
Art
0 women, 4 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 3 men
-
Directing
0 women, 3 men
-
Editing
0 women, 2 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 36 on average. Men: 43 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Katharine Ross 29, Cloris Leachman 43
Men
Robert Redford 33, Kenneth Mars 34, George Furth 36, Ted Cassidy 37, Paul Newman 44, Strother Martin 50, Jeff Corey 55, Henry Jones 57
Exhibit G: the money
It made 17.1 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $6 million
- Box office
- $102 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 42 scenes and 777 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
