Passes the Bechdel test
Frozen River
2008. Directed by Courtney Hunt, written by Courtney Hunt.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
3 women characters. 2 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 26 scenes out of 155. -
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
Takes place in the days before Christmas near a little-known border crossing on the Mohawk reservation between New York State and Quebec. Here, the lure of fast money from smuggling presents a daily challenge to single moms who would otherwise be earning minimum wage. Two women - one white, one Mohawk, both single mothers faced with desperate circumstances - are drawn into the world of border smuggling across the frozen water of the St. Lawrence River. Ray and Lila - and a New York State Trooper as opponent in an evolving cat-and-mouse game.
- Released
- 05 Sep 2008
- Genres
- Crime, Drama
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.1 / 10
- Metascore
- 82 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 2 Oscars. 32 wins & 39 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Ray 349 lines, woman
- Lila 216 lines, woman
- Bernie 35 lines, man
- Trooper Napoli 27 lines, man
- Ricky 21 lines, man
- Bruno 17 lines, man
- Jimmy 15 lines, man
- T.J 15 lines
- Rosalie 14 lines, woman
- Versailles 11 lines, man
Full cast, 10 people
- Melissa Leo as Ray Eddy
- Misty Upham as Lila Littlewolf
- Charlie McDermott as TJ
- John Canoe as Bernie Littlewolf
- Jay Klaitz as Guy Versailles
- Dylan Carusona as Jimmy
- James Reilly as Ricky
- Michael O'Keefe as Trooper Finnerty
- Mark Boone Junior as Jacques Bruno
- Betty Ouyang as Chinese woman
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 9% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 155
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 4 | 17 | 0 |
| 5 to 8 | 33 | 13 |
| 9 to 12 | 6 | 0 |
| 13 to 16 | 20 | 0 |
| 17 to 20 | 25 | 0 |
| 21 to 24 | 19 | 0 |
| 25 to 28 | 24 | 5 |
| 29 to 32 | 9 | 0 |
| 33 to 36 | 30 | 0 |
| 37 to 40 | 23 | 5 |
| 41 to 44 | 32 | 3 |
| 45 to 48 | 19 | 2 |
| 49 to 52 | 16 | 0 |
| 53 to 56 | 9 | 4 |
| 57 to 60 | 10 | 1 |
| 61 to 64 | 14 | 15 |
| 65 to 68 | 14 | 1 |
| 69 to 72 | 26 | 2 |
| 73 to 76 | 12 | 1 |
| 77 to 80 | 10 | 0 |
| 81 to 84 | 0 | 0 |
| 85 to 88 | 7 | 0 |
| 89 to 92 | 18 | 0 |
| 93 to 96 | 11 | 10 |
| 97 to 100 | 16 | 0 |
| 101 to 104 | 12 | 0 |
| 105 to 108 | 30 | 14 |
| 109 to 112 | 17 | 0 |
| 113 to 116 | 9 | 6 |
| 117 to 120 | 10 | 7 |
| 121 to 124 | 33 | 11 |
| 125 to 128 | 3 | 0 |
| 129 to 132 | 1 | 0 |
| 133 to 136 | 7 | 2 |
| 137 to 140 | 24 | 18 |
| 141 to 144 | 9 | 4 |
| 145 to 148 | 10 | 6 |
| 149 to 152 | 0 | 0 |
| 153 to 155 | 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.
RAY: That's my car. LILA: Huh? RAY: What are you doing with my car? LILA: That? I found it.
LILA: The Tribal police don't like people shooting holes in other people's houses. RAY: This is New York State so quit the bullshit and give me my damn keys!
LILA: Turn up there. RAY: Where? LILA: Where that stump is. RAY: There's no road.
LILA: Not too fast. There's ruts. RAY: I'm not crossing that! LILA: Don't worry they already put out the Christmas trees. There's no black ice. RAY: That's Canada.
LILA: Count it. RAY: What's going on here? LILA: Just count it. LILA: How much is there?
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 82 are women's.
586 lines from women, 130 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
3 women and 7 men in the cast. 2 women and 7 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
A woman speaks the first line.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 6 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 80% of the words (4,067), men 20% (1,017). Women have 82% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Run the other way, for men, the film scores 2 out of 3.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
43
Two men
1
Exhibit F: behind the camera
6 of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 64% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Courtney Hunt (woman)
- Written by
- Courtney Hunt (woman)
- Produced by
- Heather Rae (woman), Chip Hourihan (man)
- Shot by
- Reed Morano (woman)
- Edited by
- Kate Williams (woman)
- Music by
- Peter Golub (man), Shahzad Ismaily (man)
- Production design by
- Inbal Weinberg (woman)
- Costumes by
- Abby O'Sullivan (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
3 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
2 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 0 men, 3 not listed
-
Camera
1 women, 0 men, 1 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 2 men
-
Directing
1 women, 0 men
-
Editing
1 women, 0 men
-
Writing
1 women, 0 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 36 on average. Men: 38 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Misty Upham 25, Melissa Leo 47
Men
Charlie McDermott 17, Jay Klaitz 29, Michael O'Keefe 52, Mark Boone Junior 53
Exhibit H: the money
It made 5.5 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $1 million
- Box office
- $5.5 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 155 scenes and 788 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
