Fails the Bechdel test

Conan the Barbarian

Name: Conan the Barbarian
Released: 1982

1982. Directed by John Milius, written by Robert E. Howard and John Milius and Oliver Stone.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

1 / 3

Fails

Yes 1. At least two women
11 women characters. 1 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

Beyond the mists of time, having witnessed the brutal death of his blacksmith father and the massacre of the entire village by the murderous followers of Thulsa Doom, the undead evil wizard and servant of the serpent-god, Set, Conan, the orphaned young Cimmerian, is condemned to a life of slavery. Chained to the perpetual Wheel of Pain, the helpless boy grows into a man, and after years of rigorous training as a fierce gladiator, Conan, now an unstoppable mountain of muscle, regains his precious freedom. But, with the image of the blood-soaked raid etched on his mind, Conan teams up with Subotai, the Hyrkanian thief, and Valeria, the Queen of the Bandits, and embarks on a peril-laden journey to the mysterious Mountain of Power, and the impregnable Snake Cult Temple. Will Conan avenge his parents?

Released: 14 May 1982
Genres: Adventure, Fantasy
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.9 / 10
Metascore: 43 / 100
Awards: 3 wins & 10 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Conan 167 lines, man
Tamara 118 lines
Khalar Singh 49 lines, man
Corin 30 lines, man
Fariq 28 lines, man
Artus 22 lines, man
Lucius 16 lines, man
Ukafa 15 lines, man
Remo 11 lines, man
Fassir 9 lines

Full cast, 35 people

Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan
James Earl Jones as Thulsa Doom
Sandahl Bergman as Valeria
Ben Davidson as Rexor
Cassandra Gava as The Witch
Gerry Lopez as Subotai
Mako as The Wizard
Valérie Quennessen as The Princess
William Smith as Conan's Father
Max von Sydow as King Osric
Franco Columbu as Pictish Scout
Sven-Ole Thorsen as Thorgrim
Nadiuska as Conan's Mother
Jorge Sanz as Young Conan
Luis Barboo as Red Hair
Leslie Foldvary as Sacrificial Snake Girl
Gary Herman as Osric's Guard
Erik Holmey as Turanian War Officer
Akio Mitamura as Mongol General
Jack Taylor as Priest
Kiyoshi Yamasaki as Sword Master
Corrie Jansen as Beautiful Woman Jumping to her Death (uncredited)
Ron Cobb as Black Lotus Street Peddler (uncredited)
Andrea Guzon as Breeding Woman (uncredited)
John Milius as Foodseller in Old City (uncredited)
Olvido Lorente as Guerrera (uncredited)
Celia Milius as High Priestess (uncredited)
Florencio Amarilla as Man (uncredited)
Fabián Conde as Merchant at Tavern (uncredited)
Pilar Alcón as Orgy Slave Girl (uncredited)
Donald Gibb as Osric's Guard (uncredited)
Dragon Dronet as Pit Fighter (uncredited)
Sab Shimono as Subotai (voice) (uncredited)
Isabel Luque as Woman (uncredited)
Diamanda Galás as Witch (voice)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 31% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 84

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 2	6	4
3 to 4	0	8
5 to 6	0	7
7 to 8	0	6
9 to 10	0	4
11 to 12	0	4
13 to 14	0	3
15 to 16	0	19
17 to 18	0	1
19 to 20	0	14
21 to 22	0	5
23 to 24	0	32
25 to 26	3	0
27 to 28	0	2
29 to 30	1	0
31 to 32	0	4
33 to 34	5	18
35 to 36	0	14
37 to 38	0	1
39 to 40	0	11
41 to 42	0	9
43 to 44	0	15
45 to 46	0	23
47 to 48	0	7
49 to 50	0	18
51 to 52	0	13
53 to 54	0	16
55 to 56	0	32
57 to 58	0	4
59 to 60	0	3
61 to 62	0	5
63 to 64	0	6
65 to 66	0	2
67 to 68	0	7
69 to 70	0	1
71 to 72	0	17
73 to 74	0	2
75 to 76	0	16
77 to 78	0	2
79 to 80	0	1
81 to 82	0	27
83 to 84	0	0

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, 4 are women's.

15 lines from women, 383 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

11 women and 23 men in the cast. 1 women and 6 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 4 of 578. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 400 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 3% of the words (125), men 97% (4,369). Women have 4% 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

1 of the 13 people in these jobs is a woman. Across the whole crew, 13% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: John Milius (man)
Written by: Edward Summer (man), Oliver Stone (man), John Milius (man)
Produced by: Raffaella De Laurentiis (woman), Buzz Feitshans (man), Dino De Laurentiis (man), Bill Damaschke (man)
Shot by: Duke Callaghan (man)
Edited by: Carroll Timothy O'Meara (man)
Music by: Basil Poledouris (man)
Production design by: Ron Cobb (man)
Costumes by: John Bloomfield (man)