Fails the Bechdel test
Christine
1983. Directed by John Carpenter, written by Stephen King and Bill Phillips.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
4 women characters. 4 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
In September, 1957, in Detroit, a red 1958 Plymouth Fury is built and is the cause of two accidents, one of them fatal, still on the assembly line. Twenty-one years later, the outcast and bullied nerd Arnold "Arnie" Cunningham is getting a ride with his best and only friend Dennis Guilder and he sees the wrecked car for sale in a garden. Arnie immediately falls in love with the car. The car was given the name Christine by its first owner. He brings the car to a repair shop of the despicable Will Darnell and works hard to restore the classic car. While he works in the restoration, he changes his personality to a cocky teenager and he dates the most beautiful girl in the high-school, Leigh Cabot. Soon Arnie becomes selfish and jealous of the supernatural Christine that kills everyone that is a threat to them.
- Released
- 09 Dec 1983
- Genres
- Horror, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.8 / 10
- Metascore
- 57 / 100
- Awards
- 1 win & 3 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Arnie 202 lines, man
- Dennis 172 lines, man
- Leigh 85 lines, woman
- Junkins 46 lines, man
- Buddy 28 lines, man
- Regina 25 lines, woman
- Darnell 23 lines, man
- Lebay 19 lines, man
- Casey 14 lines, man
- Bemis 12 lines, man
Full cast, 36 people
- Keith Gordon as Arnie Cunningham
- John Stockwell as Dennis Guilder
- Alexandra Paul as Leigh Cabot
- Robert Prosky as Will Darnell
- Harry Dean Stanton as Rudolph Junkins
- Christine Belford as Regina Cunningham
- Roberts Blossom as George LeBay
- William Ostrander as Buddy Repperton
- David Spielberg as Mr. Casey
- Malcolm Danare as Moochie Welch
- Steven Tash as Richard Trelawney
- Stuart Charno as Don Vandenberg
- Kelly Preston as Roseanne
- Marc Poppel as Chuck
- Robert Darnell as Michael Cunningham
- Richard Collier as Pepper Boyd
- Bruce French as Mr. Smith
- Douglas Warhit as Bemis
- Keri Montgomery as Ellie
- Jan Burrell as Librarian
- Charles Steak as Shoppie
- Art Evans as Auto Assembly Worker (uncredited)
- Charles Gallant as Football Fan (uncredited)
- Katheryn Gallant as Football Fan (uncredited)
- Kelly Gallant as Football Fan (uncredited)
- Mohhib Jivan as Auto Shop Clerk (uncredited)
- Carey Loftin as Truck Driver (uncredited)
- Daniel A. Lomino as Liquor Store Clerk (uncredited)
- John Madden as Self (uncredited)
- Dawna Oak as Girl at Football Game (uncredited)
- John Richard Petersen as High School Student (uncredited)
- Bill Phillips as Wrecker's Yard Guy (uncredited)
- John Michael Quinn as Football Fan (uncredited)
- Joel S. Rice as Student in Shop Room (uncredited)
- Barry Tubb as Football Player (uncredited)
- Joe Unger as Auto Assembly Worker (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 47
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 | 1 |
| 3 to 3 | 6 | 7 |
| 4 to 4 | 0 | 14 |
| 5 to 5 | 5 | 30 |
| 6 to 6 | 0 | 3 |
| 7 to 7 | 0 | 91 |
| 8 to 8 | 8 | 9 |
| 9 to 9 | 1 | 31 |
| 10 to 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 to 11 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 to 12 | 0 | 23 |
| 13 to 13 | 5 | 12 |
| 14 to 14 | 6 | 14 |
| 15 to 15 | 0 | 12 |
| 16 to 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 to 17 | 0 | 2 |
| 18 to 18 | 11 | 38 |
| 19 to 19 | 9 | 12 |
| 20 to 20 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 to 21 | 5 | 4 |
| 22 to 22 | 5 | 4 |
| 23 to 23 | 3 | 7 |
| 24 to 24 | 8 | 9 |
| 25 to 25 | 0 | 2 |
| 26 to 26 | 1 | 5 |
| 27 to 27 | 0 | 28 |
| 28 to 28 | 0 | 49 |
| 29 to 29 | 5 | 8 |
| 30 to 30 | 0 | 15 |
| 31 to 31 | 0 | 4 |
| 32 to 32 | 0 | 1 |
| 33 to 33 | 0 | 3 |
| 34 to 34 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 to 35 | 0 | 33 |
| 36 to 36 | 1 | 0 |
| 37 to 37 | 2 | 3 |
| 38 to 38 | 12 | 12 |
| 39 to 39 | 0 | 6 |
| 40 to 40 | 0 | 9 |
| 41 to 41 | 0 | 0 |
| 42 to 42 | 9 | 26 |
| 43 to 43 | 0 | 0 |
| 44 to 44 | 3 | 4 |
| 45 to 45 | 1 | 1 |
| 46 to 46 | 10 | 17 |
| 47 to 47 | 2 | 4 |
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, 18 are women's.
118 lines from women, 554 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
4 women and 25 men in the cast. 4 women and 19 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 2 of 712.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 113 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 16% of the words (1,370), men 84% (6,976). Women have 18% 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
1
Two men
42
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 11 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 10% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- John Carpenter (man)
- Written by
- Bill Phillips (man)
- From the novel by
- Stephen King (man)
- Produced by
- Richard Kobritz (man)
- Shot by
- Donald M. Morgan (man)
- Edited by
- Marion Rothman (woman)
- Music by
- John Carpenter (man), Alan Howarth (man)
- Production design by
- Daniel A. Lomino (man)
- Costumes by
- Darryl Levine (gender not listed)
- Cast by
- Karen Rea (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
2 women, 32 men, 11 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 16 men, 3 not listed
-
Production
4 women, 4 men, 9 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 8 men, 6 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 6 men, 5 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 4 men, 5 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 3 men, 3 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 1 men, 4 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 27 on average. Men: 38 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Alexandra Paul 20, Christine Belford 34
Men
Malcolm Danare 21, Keith Gordon 22, John Stockwell 22, William Ostrander 24, David Spielberg 44, Robert Prosky 52, Harry Dean Stanton 57, Roberts Blossom 59
Exhibit G: the money
It made 2.2 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $9.7 million
- Box office
- $21.2 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 47 scenes and 712 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
