Fails the Bechdel test

Fletch

Name: Fletch
Released: 1985

1985. Directed by Michael Ritchie, written by Gregory McDonald and Andrew Bergman and Phil Alden Robinson.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

2 / 3

Fails

Yes 1. At least two women
4 women characters. 3 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

Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher, Los Angeles journalist, really lives for his profession. As Jane Doe, he publishes articles that have caused several heads to roll in the past. Now, Fletch is at it again: In disguise as a bum, he lives at the beach, researching drugs and their dealing. One day, Fletch is addressed by Alan Stanwyk, a rich man, who asks him, the bum, a favour. For the sum of $50,000, Fletch should kill poor cancer-ridden Mr. Stanwyk with a gun, so that his wife will get the insurance money. What the guy didn't think of was Fletch's real profession. Returning into normal life, Fletch instantly takes up research not only to find out that Mr. Stanwyk is healthy as life itself but he also runs into certain connections between drug dealing at the beach, Alan Stanwyk, his private jet, the police and a very expensive piece of Land in Utah.

Released: 31 May 1985
Genres: Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Rated: PG
IMDb: 6.9 / 10
Metascore: 68 / 100
Awards: 1 nomination total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Fletch 466 lines, man
Mrs. Stanwyk 79 lines, woman
Walker 41 lines, man
Stanwyk 39 lines
Cummings 27 lines, man
Dr. Dolen 24 lines
Larry 18 lines, woman
Marvin 18 lines, man
Waiter 17 lines, man
Creasy 16 lines, man

Full cast, 27 people

Chevy Chase as Irwin 'Fletch' Fletcher
Tim Matheson as Alan Stanwyk
Dana Wheeler-Nicholson as Gail Stanwyk
Joe Don Baker as Chief Jerry Karlin
Richard Libertini as Frank Walker
Geena Davis as Larry
M. Emmet Walsh as Dr. Joseph Dolan
George Wendt as Fat Sam
Kenneth Mars as Stanton Boyd
Bill Henderson as Speaker
William Traylor as Ted Underhill
George Wyner as Marvin Gillet
Tony Longo as Detective #1
Larry Jenkins as Gummy
Ralph Seymour as Creasy
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
William Sanderson as Jim Swarthout
Beau Starr as Willy
James Avery as Detective #2
Peggy Doyle as Identification Nurse
David W. Harper as Teenager
Burton Gilliam as Bud
Chick Hearn as Chick Hearn
Alison La Placa as Pan Am Clerk
Merv Maruyama as Chinese Busboy
Robert Sorrells as Marvin Stanwyk
Rick Garcia as Waiter

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 11% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 94

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	2
3 to 4	0	41
5 to 6	0	1
7 to 8	0	0
9 to 10	0	5
11 to 12	1	27
13 to 14	6	16
15 to 16	5	60
17 to 18	0	0
19 to 20	0	28
21 to 22	0	0
23 to 24	0	29
25 to 26	18	49
27 to 28	0	27
29 to 30	5	21
31 to 32	0	2
33 to 34	0	3
35 to 36	0	2
37 to 38	0	6
39 to 40	0	2
41 to 42	0	1
43 to 44	0	3
45 to 46	0	8
47 to 48	0	40
49 to 50	0	26
51 to 52	15	17
53 to 54	16	23
55 to 56	7	9
57 to 58	13	17
59 to 60	0	1
61 to 62	0	0
63 to 64	0	0
65 to 66	0	1
67 to 68	0	7
69 to 70	0	4
71 to 72	0	8
73 to 74	7	6
75 to 76	0	1
77 to 78	0	25
79 to 80	0	15
81 to 82	0	32
83 to 84	2	4
85 to 86	13	18
87 to 88	0	67
89 to 90	0	0
91 to 92	0	0
93 to 94	14	54

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, 15 are women's.

122 lines from women, 708 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

4 women and 23 men in the cast. 3 women and 16 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 61 of 931. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 124 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 14% of the words (1,066), men 86% (6,349). Women have 15% 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

2 of the 11 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 18% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Michael Ritchie (man)
Written by: Andrew Bergman (man)
From the novel by: Gregory McDonald (man)
Produced by: Peter Douglas (man), Alan Greisman (man)
Shot by: Fred Schuler (man)
Edited by: Richard A. Harris (man)
Music by: Harold Faltermeyer (man)
Production design by: Boris Leven (man)
Costumes by: Gloria Gresham (woman)
Cast by: Patricia Mock (woman)

The crew, department by department

Other crew

1 women, 18 men, 4 not listed
Sound

5 women, 6 men, 3 not listed
Production

2 women, 6 men, 2 not listed
Camera

0 women, 3 men, 5 not listed
Art

0 women, 4 men, 2 not listed
Directing

0 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
Costume & Make-Up

1 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
Editing

1 women, 1 men, 1 not listed

Women
Men
Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit F: how old the stars were

Women: 27 on average. Men: 47 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Dana Wheeler-Nicholson 24, Geena Davis 29

Men

George Wendt 36, Tim Matheson 37, Chevy Chase 41, Joe Don Baker 49, M. Emmet Walsh 50, Kenneth Mars 50, Richard Libertini 52, Bill Henderson 58

Exhibit G: the money

It made 7.5 times what it cost.

Budget: $8 million
Box office: $59.6 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 94 scenes and 931 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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