Passes the Bechdel test
Chasing Amy
1997. Directed by Kevin Smith, written by Kevin Smith.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
4 women characters. 6 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 3 scenes out of 37. -
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.
The film
A pair of comic book authors named Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards, who live in New Jersey, have been best friends for 20 years. They spend their time working in their studio, and in the evenings they are going out. But their friendship is about to be disputed for the first time in their life, when a beautiful young lesbian woman named Alyssa Jones enters their life and Holden falls in love with her. Now Holden has to deal with Banky's jealousy, and with his new girlfriend's very rich past.
- Released
- 18 Apr 1997
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.2 / 10
- Metascore
- 71 / 100
- Awards
- 5 wins & 16 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Holden 374 lines, man
- Alyssa 258 lines, woman
- Banky 184 lines, man
- Hooper 66 lines, man
- Jay 35 lines, man
- Sloss 13 lines
- Collector 12 lines, man
- Walt 12 lines
- Bob 11 lines, man
- Fan 10 lines, man
Full cast, 17 people
- Ben Affleck as Holden McNeil
- Joey Lauren Adams as Alyssa Jones
- Jason Lee as Banky Edwards
- King Mustafa Obafemi as Hooper LaMont
- Jason Mewes as Jay
- Kevin Smith as Silent Bob
- Ethan Suplee as Fan
- Scott Mosier as Collector
- Casey Affleck as Little Kid
- Matt Damon as Shawn Oran
- Brian O'Halloran as Jim Hicks
- Carmen Llywelyn as Kim
- Guinevere Turner as Singer
- Joe Quesada as Joe Quesada
- Welker White as Jane
- Mike Allred as Mike Allred
- Vincent Pereira as Startled Pinball Player (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 6% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 37
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 | 0 | 20 |
| 3 to 3 | 0 | 34 |
| 4 to 4 | 5 | 36 |
| 5 to 5 | 29 | 59 |
| 6 to 6 | 0 | 35 |
| 7 to 7 | 25 | 47 |
| 8 to 8 | 24 | 30 |
| 9 to 9 | 0 | 7 |
| 10 to 10 | 0 | 18 |
| 11 to 11 | 1 | 0 |
| 12 to 12 | 37 | 36 |
| 13 to 13 | 10 | 32 |
| 14 to 14 | 12 | 6 |
| 15 to 15 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 to 16 | 10 | 10 |
| 17 to 17 | 1 | 13 |
| 18 to 18 | 22 | 22 |
| 19 to 19 | 0 | 41 |
| 20 to 20 | 11 | 4 |
| 21 to 21 | 5 | 5 |
| 22 to 22 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 to 23 | 3 | 4 |
| 24 to 24 | 8 | 8 |
| 25 to 25 | 0 | 0 |
| 26 to 26 | 1 | 1 |
| 27 to 27 | 0 | 22 |
| 28 to 28 | 13 | 0 |
| 29 to 29 | 9 | 10 |
| 30 to 30 | 0 | 27 |
| 31 to 31 | 0 | 39 |
| 32 to 32 | 20 | 16 |
| 33 to 33 | 8 | 8 |
| 34 to 34 | 0 | 1 |
| 35 to 35 | 1 | 73 |
| 36 to 36 | 12 | 26 |
| 37 to 37 | 18 | 33 |
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.
ALYSSA: Coulda been worse - we could have not met at all. OC SINGER: Thank you. Thanks. SINGER: A long time ago, we used to have this bass player who took off one day to draw funny books or something. Maybe you've seen her stuff - it's … SINGER: But what a lot of people don't know is that she used to harbor these delusions that she could sing. And she used to subject us to these thro…
ALYSSA: No, I should apologize. I don't usually get all mushy in public. But it's been awhile since I've seen Kim here. KIM: Tell me you didn't set that gross display up with the band just so you could nail me. ALYSSA: Like I'd have to go through that much effort KIM: You know what! I want to dance.
JANE: Yeah Alyssa - who've you been shacking up with? ALYSSA: 'Shacking up!' Please. I'm so in love! ALYSSA: I know. I know -I feel like such a goon. But I can't help it - we have such a great time together.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 28 are women's.
285 lines from women, 723 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
4 women and 12 men in the cast. 6 women and 13 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 94 of 1,072.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 93 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 32% of the words (4,815), men 68% (10,404). Women have 28% 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
4
Two men
41
Exhibit F: behind the camera
None of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 27% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Kevin Smith (man)
- Written by
- Kevin Smith (man)
- Produced by
- Scott Mosier (man)
- Shot by
- David Klein (man)
- Edited by
- Kevin Smith (man), Scott Mosier (man)
- Music by
- David Pirner (man)
- Production design by
- Robert Holtzman (man)
- Costumes by
- Christopher Del Coro (man)
- Cast by
- Shana Lory (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
1 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Sound
2 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 1 men
-
Other crew
1 women, 0 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 29 on average. Men: 24 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Joey Lauren Adams 29
Men
Ethan Suplee 20, Casey Affleck 21, Jason Mewes 22, Ben Affleck 24, Jason Lee 26, Kevin Smith 26, Scott Mosier 26, Matt Damon 26, King Mustafa Obafemi 29
Exhibit H: the money
It made 48.1 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $250,000
- Box office
- $12 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 37 scenes and 1,072 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
