Passes the Bechdel test

Days of Heaven

Name: Days of Heaven
Released: 1978

1978. Directed by Terrence Malick, written by Terrence Malick.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
2 women characters. 5 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 198.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

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

The film

Bill and Abby, a young couple who to the outside world pretend to be brother and sister are living and working in Chicago at the beginning of the century. They want to escape the poverty and hard labor of the city and travel south. Together with the girl Linda (who acts as the narrator in the movie) they find employment on a farm in the Texas panhandle. When the harvest is over the young, rich and handsome farmer invites them to stay because he has fallen in love with Abby. When Bill and Abby discover that the farmer is seriously ill and has only got a year left to live they decide that Abby will accept his wedding proposal in order to make some benefit out of the situation. When the expected death fails to come, jealousy and impatience are slowly setting in and accidents become eventually inevitable.

Released: 06 Oct 1978
Genres: Drama, Romance
Rated: PG
IMDb: 7.7 / 10
Metascore: 94 / 100
Awards: Won 1 Oscar. 13 wins & 13 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Bill 277 lines, man
Abby 232 lines, woman
Chuck 129 lines, man
Ursula 48 lines, woman
Benson 29 lines
Sam 5 lines
Steve 5 lines
Blackie 4 lines
George 3 lines
John 3 lines

Full cast, 18 people

Richard Gere as Bill
Brooke Adams as Abby
Sam Shepard as The Farmer
Linda Manz as Linda
Robert J. Wilke as The Farm Foreman
Jackie Shultis as Linda's Friend
Stuart Margolin as Mill Foreman
Timothy Scott as Harvest Hand
Gene Bell as Dancer
Doug Kershaw as Fiddler
Richard Libertini as Vaudeville Leader
Frenchie Lemond as Vaudeville Wrestler
Sahbra Markus as Vaudeville Dancer
Bob Wilson as Accountant
Muriel Jolliffe as Headmistress
John Wilkinson as Preacher
King Cole as Farm Worker
Terrence Malick as Mill Worker (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 5 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 13% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 198

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 5	3	6
6 to 10	1	5
11 to 15	9	17
16 to 20	1	2
21 to 25	8	15
26 to 30	0	6
31 to 35	14	17
36 to 40	0	3
41 to 45	9	19
46 to 50	15	13
51 to 55	7	7
56 to 60	9	7
61 to 65	0	1
66 to 70	13	16
71 to 75	5	5
76 to 80	13	30
81 to 85	9	21
86 to 90	16	44
91 to 95	7	10
96 to 100	6	8
101 to 105	10	6
106 to 110	19	41
111 to 115	4	7
116 to 120	15	19
121 to 125	3	0
126 to 130	5	4
131 to 135	9	0
136 to 140	13	14
141 to 145	17	19
146 to 150	4	2
151 to 155	0	1
156 to 160	0	1
161 to 165	3	13
166 to 170	10	11
171 to 175	6	18
176 to 180	1	0
181 to 185	3	5
186 to 190	6	3
191 to 195	8	0
196 to 198	4	0

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scene

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

URSULA: I like your hat. ABBY: It doesn't seem like a bird came down and landed on my head? Abby takes the hat off and gives it to Ursula, who lately has begun to take mor… ABBY: I hardly ever wear it. Be sure and write every week. Signals nod. A lamp winks. There are leave-takings up and down the platform as the trai… URSULA: You write me, too! They wave goodbye.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 41 are women's.

285 lines from women, 416 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

2 women and 9 men in the cast. 5 women and 7 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 4 of 808. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 26 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 34% of the words (5,259), men 66% (10,270). Women have 41% of the lines, so their lines run shorter 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

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

2 of the 10 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 23% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Terrence Malick (man)
Written by: Terrence Malick (man)
Produced by: Bert Schneider (man), Harold Schneider (man)
Shot by: Néstor Almendros (man)
Edited by: Billy Weber (man)
Music by: Ennio Morricone (man)
Costumes by: Jerry R. Allen (gender not listed), Patricia Norris (woman)
Cast by: Dianne Crittenden (woman)

The crew, department by department

Sound

1 women, 11 men, 19 not listed
Camera

0 women, 6 men, 13 not listed
Production

7 women, 5 men, 3 not listed
Other crew

0 women, 3 men, 9 not listed
Editing

2 women, 1 men, 9 not listed
Art

0 women, 3 men, 3 not listed
Directing

0 women, 4 men, 2 not listed
Costume & Make-Up

1 women, 0 men, 4 not listed

Women
Men
Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 23 on average. Men: 41 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Linda Manz 17, Brooke Adams 29

Men

Richard Gere 29, Sam Shepard 34, Stuart Margolin 38, Timothy Scott 41, Doug Kershaw 42, Robert J. Wilke 64

Exhibit H: the money

It made 1.2 times what it cost.

Budget: $3 million
Box office: $3.7 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 198 scenes and 808 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

Related films

Back to the whole shelf