Passes the Bechdel test
Flashdance
1983. Directed by Adrian Lyne, written by Thomas Hedley Jr. and Joe Eszterhas.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
13 women characters. 3 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 8 scenes out of 105. -
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
Alex Owens is a female dynamo: steel worker by day, exotic dancer by night. Her dream is to get into a real dance company, though, and with encouragement from her boss/boyfriend, she may get her chance. The city of Pittsburgh co-stars. What a feeling!
- Released
- 15 Apr 1983
- Genres
- Drama, Music, Romance
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.2 / 10
- Metascore
- 39 / 100
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 14 wins & 17 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Raven 178 lines, woman
- Howard 73 lines, man
- Paul 71 lines, man
- Junior Jean 56 lines
- Vera 50 lines
- Elaine 29 lines
- Jill 28 lines, woman
- Frank 20 lines, man
- Neighborhood 17 lines
- Tina 17 lines, woman
Full cast, 31 people
- Jennifer Beals as Alex Owens
- Michael Nouri as Nick Hurley
- Sunny Johnson as Jeanie Szabo
- Kyle T. Heffner as Richie
- Cynthia Rhodes as Tina Tech
- Lee Ving as Johnny C.
- Ron Karabatsos as Jake Mawby
- Lilia Skala as Hanna Long
- Philip Bruns as Frank Szabo
- Micole Mercurio as Rosemary Szabo
- Malcolm Danare as Cecil
- Belinda Bauer as Katie Hurley
- Lucy Lee Flippin as Secretary
- Durga McBroom as Heels
- Liz Sagal as Sunny
- Stacey Pickren as Margo
- Robert Wuhl as Mawby's Regular
- Matt Landers as Mawby's Regular
- Steve Price as Mawby's Regular
- Frank Pesce as Mawby's Regular
- Don Brockett as Pete
- Marc Lemberger as Mr. Freeze
- Wayne 'Frosty Freeze' Frost as Frosty Freeze
- Debra Gordon as Dancer at Repertory
- Tony De Santis as Waiter
- Ann Muffly as Woman at Hanna Long's
- Monique Gabrielle as Stripper (uncredited)
- Larry John Meyers as Welder #1
- Deirdre L. Cowden as Stripper #2
- Colin Hamilton as Maitre D'
- Bob Harks as Priest
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 35% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 105
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 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 to 6 | 5 | 6 |
| 7 to 9 | 16 | 3 |
| 10 to 12 | 8 | 7 |
| 13 to 15 | 0 | 11 |
| 16 to 18 | 0 | 4 |
| 19 to 21 | 14 | 6 |
| 22 to 24 | 7 | 0 |
| 25 to 27 | 3 | 4 |
| 28 to 30 | 13 | 3 |
| 31 to 33 | 1 | 2 |
| 34 to 36 | 8 | 1 |
| 37 to 39 | 36 | 37 |
| 40 to 42 | 40 | 15 |
| 43 to 45 | 1 | 3 |
| 46 to 48 | 6 | 8 |
| 49 to 51 | 6 | 2 |
| 52 to 54 | 18 | 1 |
| 55 to 57 | 12 | 5 |
| 58 to 60 | 6 | 4 |
| 61 to 63 | 19 | 1 |
| 64 to 66 | 4 | 1 |
| 67 to 69 | 13 | 5 |
| 70 to 72 | 8 | 21 |
| 73 to 75 | 0 | 0 |
| 76 to 78 | 3 | 6 |
| 79 to 81 | 0 | 1 |
| 82 to 84 | 0 | 1 |
| 85 to 87 | 9 | 3 |
| 88 to 90 | 7 | 4 |
| 91 to 93 | 3 | 6 |
| 94 to 96 | 0 | 1 |
| 97 to 99 | 3 | 2 |
| 100 to 102 | 6 | 0 |
| 103 to 105 | 1 | 0 |
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.
RAVEN: Tina, you•r~ crazy, Look at those bi~ep cuts,,, TINA: f God Raven. What's female? I'm into Hi-Tech. That's 1 me. Tina Tech ••• • RAVEN: Hi-Tack is more like it. TINA: Look. See these wrist curls. One at a time. Fifteen pounds,. I do ninety percent angle work ( with my arms and shoulders. After seven times …
RAVEN: They're not steps. They're hot poses that move. See that ••• That's the Conga Press ••• and that ••• that's LORRAINE: How do you know about stuff like that? • RAVEN: From library books. Anyway it's better when you make it up.•
RAMOS: How did you know? It must be true. RAVEN: You told me ••• Tina, don't you feel weird about killing those goldfish TINA: They're just goldfish ••• A.rrywa1· , they' re cheap.
RAVEN: ( M, calm down, Nadia. I'm h= over. The car finally pulls up behind the truck. TINA TECH: Not that shi thou_se?
LORRAINE: Not that long. It's real cute ••• :RAVEN is pulling up a piece of linoleum. The rest of the girls despite being stylishly turned out, move a… RAVEN: There's a pine floor under this. It'd look great stripped. Hell of a job though.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 61 are women's.
276 lines from women, 174 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
13 women and 15 men in the cast. 3 women and 4 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 4 of 695.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 47 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 63% of the words (4,081), men 37% (2,385). Women have 61% 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
13
Two men
6
Exhibit F: behind the camera
1 of the 14 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 14% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Adrian Lyne (man)
- Written by
- Thomas Hedley Jr. (man), Joe Eszterhas (man)
- Story by
- Thomas Hedley Jr. (man)
- Produced by
- Jerry Bruckheimer (man), Don Simpson (man)
- Shot by
- Donald Peterman (man)
- Edited by
- Bud S. Smith (man), Walt Mulconery (man)
- Music by
- Giorgio Moroder (man), Keith Forsey (man)
- Production design by
- Charles Rosen (man)
- Costumes by
- Michael Kaplan (man)
- Cast by
- Gretchen Rennell (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
2 women, 13 men, 2 not listed
-
Production
4 women, 8 men, 3 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 11 men
-
Camera
0 women, 3 men, 3 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 4 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 41 on average. Men: 39 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Jennifer Beals 19, Cynthia Rhodes 26, Sunny Johnson 29, Micole Mercurio 45, Lilia Skala 86
Men
Kyle T. Heffner 25, Lee Ving 33, Michael Nouri 37, Ron Karabatsos 49, Philip Bruns 51
Exhibit H: the money
It made 28.8 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $7 million
- Box office
- $202 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 105 scenes and 695 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
