Fails the Bechdel test
Dog Day Afternoon
1975. Directed by Sidney Lumet, written by Frank Pierson and P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
10 women characters. 6 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
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3, though someone marked that rating as dubious.
The film
Based upon a real-life incident that occurred in August 1972 in which a Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Gravesend, Brooklyn, New York, was held siege by Sonny, a Vietnam veteran turned bank robber determined to steal enough money ($2500) for his wife (Leon, a transvestite; the two were, according to an onscreen TV news report, married in a church by a priest who was defrocked shortly afterwards, although Leon tells the police that Sal is "married and has children") to undergo a sex change operation. The real-life character upon whom Leon is based did, in fact, get the operation. On a hot summer afternoon, Sonny and two cohorts, Stevie and Sal, go to rob the (fictional) First Savings Bank of Brooklyn. Stevie soon gets nervous and flees. Although the bank manager and female tellers agree not to interfere with the robbery, Sonny finds there is not much to steal, as most of the cash has been picked up for the day. Sonny then gets an unexpected phone call from Captain Moretti of the NYPD, who tells him the place is surrounded by the city's entire police force. Having few options under the circumstances, Sonny nervously bargains with Moretti, demanding safe escort to the airport and a plane out of the country in return for the bank employee hostages.
- Released
- 25 Dec 1975
- Genres
- Biography, Crime, Drama
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 8 / 10
- Metascore
- 86 / 100
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 15 wins & 20 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Sonny 368 lines, man
- Moretti 88 lines, man
- Mulvaney 81 lines, man
- Leon 65 lines, man
- Sal 59 lines, man
- Sylvia 47 lines, woman
- Sheldon 31 lines, man
- Vi 20 lines
- Tv Newsman 19 lines, man
- Heidi 18 lines, woman
Full cast, 39 people
- Al Pacino as Sonny
- John Cazale as Sal
- Charles Durning as Moretti
- Chris Sarandon as Leon
- James Broderick as Sheldon
- Penelope Allen as Sylvia
- Sully Boyar as Mulvaney
- Beulah Garrick as Margaret
- Carol Kane as Jenny
- Sandra Kazan as Deborah
- Marcia Jean Kurtz as Miriam
- Amy Levitt as Maria
- John Marriott as Howard
- Estelle Omens as Edna
- Gary Springer as Stevie
- Carmine Foresta as Carmine
- Lance Henriksen as Murphy
- Floyd Levine as Phone Cop
- Dick Anthony Williams as Limo Driver
- Dominic Chianese as Father
- Marcia Haufrecht as Neighbor
- Judith Malina as Mother
- Susan Peretz as Angie
- William Bogert as TV Anchorman
- Ron Cummins as TV Reporter
- Jay Gerber as Sam
- Philip Charles MacKenzie as Doctor
- Chu Chu Malave as Maria's Boyfriend
- Lionel Pina as Pizza Boy
- Robert Costanzo as New York Policeman (uncredited)
- Ron Gilbert as Detective (uncredited)
- Kenneth McMillan as Commissioner (uncredited)
- Ed Metzger as Sgt. Murray (uncredited)
- Lynette Sheldon as Sadie (uncredited)
- Alan Berger as Lout (uncredited)
- James Bulleit as Sgt. Gillis (uncredited)
- Todd Everett as Cop (uncredited)
- Raymond Serra as New York Plainclothes Cop (uncredited)
- Tom Towles as Cop (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 5% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 74
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 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 to 8 | 1 | 21 |
| 9 to 10 | 23 | 165 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 4 |
| 13 to 14 | 5 | 63 |
| 15 to 16 | 7 | 7 |
| 17 to 18 | 4 | 58 |
| 19 to 20 | 1 | 20 |
| 21 to 22 | 2 | 0 |
| 23 to 24 | 3 | 1 |
| 25 to 26 | 3 | 22 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 31 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 8 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 14 |
| 33 to 34 | 14 | 15 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 6 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 5 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 33 |
| 41 to 42 | 0 | 0 |
| 43 to 44 | 0 | 7 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 3 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 17 |
| 49 to 50 | 2 | 11 |
| 51 to 52 | 0 | 4 |
| 53 to 54 | 2 | 12 |
| 55 to 56 | 0 | 3 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 101 |
| 59 to 60 | 8 | 20 |
| 61 to 62 | 8 | 44 |
| 63 to 64 | 1 | 11 |
| 65 to 66 | 2 | 33 |
| 67 to 68 | 1 | 6 |
| 69 to 70 | 0 | 1 |
| 71 to 72 | 0 | 0 |
| 73 to 74 | 9 | 30 |
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.
96 lines from women, 777 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
10 women and 27 men in the cast. 6 women and 20 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 16 of 923.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 109 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 13% of the words (1,423), men 87% (9,187). 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
3
Two men
64
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 11% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Sidney Lumet (man)
- Written by
- Frank Pierson (man)
- Produced by
- Martin Elfand (man), Martin Bregman (man)
- Shot by
- Victor J. Kemper (man)
- Edited by
- Dede Allen (woman)
- Production design by
- Charles Bailey (man)
- Costumes by
- Anna Hill Johnstone (woman)
- Cast by
- Don Phillips (man), Michael Chinich (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
0 women, 6 men, 1 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 1 men, 3 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 5 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 4 men
-
Directing
0 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Writing
0 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 2 men
-
Other crew
0 women, 2 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 39 on average. Men: 43 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Carol Kane 23, Beulah Garrick 54
Men
Chris Sarandon 33, Al Pacino 35, John Cazale 39, James Broderick 48, Sully Boyar 51, Charles Durning 52
Exhibit G: the money
It made 31.5 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $1.8 million
- Box office
- $56.7 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 74 scenes and 923 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
