Fails the Bechdel test
Hail, Caesar!
2016. Directed by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, written by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
18 women characters. 10 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
This movie follows a day in the life of Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), a Hollywood fixer for Capitol Pictures in the 1950s, who cleans up and solves problems for big names and stars in the industry. But when studio star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) disappears, Mannix has to deal with more than just the fix.
- Released
- 05 Feb 2016
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama, Mystery
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 6.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 72 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 Oscar. 15 wins & 45 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Eddie 209 lines, man
- Hobie 80 lines, man
- Baird 57 lines, man
- Natalie 44 lines, woman
- Laurence Laurentz 39 lines, man
- Herman 36 lines, man
- Voice 33 lines
- Thora Thacker 22 lines, woman
- Voice-Over 22 lines
- Autolochus 16 lines, man
Full cast, 97 people
- Josh Brolin as Eddie Mannix
- George Clooney as Baird Whitlock
- Alden Ehrenreich as Hobie Doyle
- Ralph Fiennes as Laurence Laurentz
- Scarlett Johansson as DeeAnna Moran
- Tilda Swinton as Thora Thacker / Thessaly Thacker
- Channing Tatum as Burt Gurney
- Frances McDormand as C. C. Calhoun
- Jonah Hill as Joe Silverman
- Veronica Osorio as Carlotta Valdez
- Heather Goldenhersh as Natalie (Secretary)
- Alison Pill as Mrs. Mannix
- Max Baker as Head Communist Writer
- Fisher Stevens as Communist Writer
- Patrick Fischler as Communist Writer
- Tom Musgrave as Communist Writer
- David Krumholtz as Communist Writer
- Greg Baldwin as Communist Writer
- Patrick Carroll as Communist Writer
- Fred Melamed as Communist Writer
- John Bluthal as Prof. Marcuse
- Alex Karpovsky as Mr. Smitrovich
- Armazd Stepanian as Eastern Orthodox Clergyman
- Allan Havey as Protestant Clergyman
- Robert Pike Daniel as Catholic Clergyman
- Robert Picardo as Rabbi
- Ian Blackman as Cuddahy
- Geoffrey Cantor as Sid Siegelstein
- Christopher Lambert as Arne Seslum
- Robert Trebor as Producer of "Hail, Caesar!"
- Michael Yama as Chinese Restaurant Maître D'
- Ming Zhao as Chinese Restaurant Waitress
- Helen Siff as Malibu Maid
- Basil Hoffman as Stu Schwartz (Accounting)
- Luke Spencer Roberts as Peanut
- Ralph P. Martin as Director of Action Western
- James Austin Johnson as Studio Assistant at Action Western
- Noah Baron as Water Ballet P.A.
- Timm Perry as Stage 8 Man at the Door
- Noel Conlon as Scotty at the Gate
- Natasha Bassett as Gloria DeLamour
- Richard Abraham as French Postcard Photographer
- Jon Daly as Cop at French Postcard House
- Dennis Cockrum as Cop at French Postcard House
- Clancy Brown as Gracchus
- Mather Zickel as Chunk Mulligan
- Tiffany Lonsdale as Ursulina
- Clement von Franckenstein as Sen. Sestimus Amydias
- Wayne Knight as Lurking Extra
- Jeff Lewis as Lurking Extra
- Kyle Bornheimer as Extras A.D.
- Josh Cooke as Box Breakfast A.D.
- Peter Jason as Director
- Stephen Ellis as Clapper Boy
- Jillian Armenante as Script Girl
- Jacob Witkin as Saul of Tarsus
- Jack Huston as Cad in Cab
- Agyness Deyn as Woman in Cab
- Emily Beecham as Dierdre
- Benjamin Beatty as Clapper Boy
- J.R. Horne as Curly
- Caitlin Muelder as Cookhouse Woman
- E.E. Bell as Bartender
- Kate Morgan Chadwick as Departing Woman
- Brian Michael Jones as Sailor
- Peter Banifaz as Sailor
- Clifton Samuels as Sailor / Dancer
- K.C. Reischerl as Sailor
- Jeremy Davis as Dancer
- Marcos Ochoa as Dancer
- Colin Bradbury as Dancer
- Ryan Breslin as Dancer
- Tyler Hanes as Dancer
- Casey Garvin as Dancer
- Luke Hawkins as Dancer
- Evan Kasprzak as Dancer
- Patrick Lavallee as Dancer
- Adam Perry as Dancer
- Ryan VanDenBoom as Dancer
- Alex Demkin as Dancer
- Dax Hock as Dancer
- Shesha Marvin as Dancer
- Mark Stuart as Dancer
- Forrest Walsh as Dancer
- Michael Gambon as Narrator (voice)
- Tomoko Karina as Imperial Garden Waitress (uncredited)
- Dolph Lundgren as Submarine Commander (uncredited)
- Dean England as Animal Handler (uncredited)
- Sandy Mansson as Israelite (uncredited)
- Jessee Foudray as Jonah's Daughter Harpist (uncredited)
- Ryan Izay as 'Merrily We Dance' Performer (uncredited)
- Johnny Otto as Roman Officer (uncredited)
- Sergio Kato as Roman Officer (uncredited)
- Anibal Silveyra as Roman Officer
- James Gregory as Slave (uncredited)
- Josiah Black as Electrician (uncredited)
- Bryson Jones Allman as Office Worker
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 78
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 | 6 |
| 3 to 4 | 4 | 10 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 3 |
| 7 to 8 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | 19 |
| 11 to 12 | 1 | 14 |
| 13 to 14 | 0 | 60 |
| 15 to 16 | 7 | 7 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 2 |
| 19 to 20 | 12 | 8 |
| 21 to 22 | 4 | 69 |
| 23 to 24 | 2 | 31 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 2 |
| 27 to 28 | 1 | 22 |
| 29 to 30 | 2 | 49 |
| 31 to 32 | 2 | 5 |
| 33 to 34 | 2 | 9 |
| 35 to 36 | 14 | 16 |
| 37 to 38 | 14 | 36 |
| 39 to 40 | 1 | 7 |
| 41 to 42 | 0 | 46 |
| 43 to 44 | 8 | 25 |
| 45 to 46 | 3 | 17 |
| 47 to 48 | 3 | 3 |
| 49 to 50 | 8 | 8 |
| 51 to 52 | 0 | 2 |
| 53 to 54 | 1 | 6 |
| 55 to 56 | 0 | 0 |
| 57 to 58 | 6 | 18 |
| 59 to 60 | 3 | 12 |
| 61 to 62 | 11 | 16 |
| 63 to 64 | 0 | 0 |
| 65 to 66 | 0 | 0 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 6 |
| 69 to 70 | 0 | 16 |
| 71 to 72 | 0 | 0 |
| 73 to 74 | 9 | 28 |
| 75 to 76 | 3 | 16 |
| 77 to 78 | 5 | 24 |
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, 18 are women's.
133 lines from women, 626 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
18 women and 64 men in the cast. 10 women and 32 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 18 of 855.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 76 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 15% of the words (1,375), men 85% (7,615). Women have 18% 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
1
Two men
50
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 15 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 38% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Joel Coen (man), Ethan Coen (man)
- Written by
- Joel Coen (man), Ethan Coen (man)
- Produced by
- Eric Fellner (man), Joel Coen (man), Tim Bevan (man), Ethan Coen (man)
- Shot by
- Roger Deakins (man)
- Edited by
- Joel Coen (man), Ethan Coen (man)
- Music by
- Carter Burwell (man)
- Production design by
- Jess Gonchor (man)
- Costumes by
- Mary Zophres (woman)
- Cast by
- Ellen Chenoweth (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
3 women, 23 men, 3 not listed
-
Art
8 women, 6 men, 12 not listed
-
Production
4 women, 12 men, 7 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
12 women, 0 men, 6 not listed
-
Other crew
2 women, 5 men, 6 not listed
-
Camera
3 women, 1 men, 8 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 5 men, 4 not listed
-
Directing
3 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 48 on average. Men: 41 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Scarlett Johansson 31, Tilda Swinton 55, Frances McDormand 58
Men
Alden Ehrenreich 26, Jonah Hill 32, Channing Tatum 35, Josh Brolin 47, Ralph Fiennes 53, George Clooney 54
Exhibit G: the money
It made 2.9 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $22 million
- Box office
- $63.6 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 78 scenes and 855 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
