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Passes the Bechdel test

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2009. Directed by David Yates, written by Steve Kloves and J.K. Rowling.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    25 women characters. 12 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 4 scenes out of 160.
  3. 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.

Poster for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The film

Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort's defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague, the well-connected and unsuspecting bon vivant Professor Horace Slughorn, whom he believes holds crucial information. Meanwhile, the students are under attack from a very different adversary. As romance blossoms, one student remains aloof. He is determined to make his mark, albeit a dark one. Love is in the air, but tragedy lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same again.

Released
15 Jul 2009
Genres
Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Rated
PG
IMDb
7.6 / 10
Metascore
78 / 100
Awards
Nominated for 1 Oscar. 9 wins & 39 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Harry 266 lines, man
  2. Dumbledore 144 lines, man
  3. Slughorn 126 lines, man
  4. Hermione 107 lines, woman
  5. Ron 96 lines, man
  6. Snape 38 lines, man
  7. Ginny 35 lines, woman
  8. Tom Riddle 29 lines, man
  9. Malfoy 27 lines, man
  10. Hagrid 22 lines, man
Full cast, 60 people
  • Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter
  • Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley
  • Emma Watson as Hermione Granger
  • Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn
  • Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore
  • Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy
  • Alan Rickman as Severus Snape
  • Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley
  • Jessie Cave as Lavender Brown
  • Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood
  • Freddie Stroma as Cormac McLaggen
  • Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid
  • Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange
  • Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagall
  • Timothy Spall as Peter Pettigrew
  • David Thewlis as Remus Lupin
  • Julie Walters as Molly Weasley
  • David Bradley as Argus Filch
  • Warwick Davis as Filius Flitwick
  • Gemma Jones as Poppy Pomfrey
  • Helen McCrory as Narcissa Malfoy
  • Natalia Tena as Nymphadora Tonks
  • Mark Williams as Arthur Weasley
  • Dave Legeno as Fenrir Greyback
  • Elarica Johnson as Waitress
  • Geraldine Somerville as Lily Potter
  • Oliver Phelps as George Weasley
  • James Phelps as Fred Weasley
  • Alfred Enoch as Dean Thomas
  • Robert Knox as Marcus Belby
  • Amber Evans as Twin Girl 1
  • Ruby Evans as Twin Girl 2
  • Louis Cordice as Blaise Zabini
  • Scarlett Hefner as Pansy Parkinson
  • Jamie Waylett as Vincent Crabbe
  • Josh Herdman as Gregory Goyle
  • Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom
  • William Melling as Nigel Wolpert
  • Anna Shaffer as Romilda Vane
  • Devon Murray as Seamus Finnigan
  • Georgina Leonidas as Katie Bell
  • Isabella Laughland as Leanne
  • Afshan Azad as Padma Patil
  • Shefali Chowdhury as Parvati Patil
  • Amelda Brown as Mrs Cole
  • Hero Fiennes Tiffin as Tom Riddle (11 Years)
  • Jack Pryor as Skinny Kid
  • Mark Lockyer as Waiter
  • Paul Ritter as Eldred Worple
  • Frank Dillane as Tom Riddle (16 Years)
  • Joerg Stadler as Male Inferi
  • Caroline Wildi as Female Inferi
  • Ralph Ineson as Amycus Carrow
  • Suzie Toase as Alecto Carrow
  • Rod Hunt as Thorfinn Rowle
  • Katie Leung as Cho Chang
  • Nathan Clarke as Gryffindor Student (uncredited)
  • Olivia Jewson as Slug Club Party Member (uncredited)
  • Freddie Rose as Year 7 Schoolboy (uncredited)
  • Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 1% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 160

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 400
5 to 860
9 to 121513
13 to 1649
17 to 20032
21 to 2418
25 to 282742
29 to 3205
33 to 361010
37 to 4025
41 to 4415
45 to 481934
49 to 52936
53 to 56848
57 to 603156
61 to 641556
65 to 6896
69 to 7267
73 to 7649
77 to 80022
81 to 84533
85 to 8882
89 to 92108
93 to 96036
97 to 10000
101 to 104357
105 to 1081718
109 to 11289
113 to 11634
117 to 120087
121 to 124445
125 to 128012
129 to 132037
133 to 13610
137 to 140536
141 to 14410
145 to 14810
149 to 152017
153 to 15600
157 to 1601110

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.
GINNY: None of your business. HERMIONE: These are adorable.
LEANNE: Katie. You don’t know what it could be! HERMIONE: What’s up? LEANNE: I warned her! I warned her not to touch it!
HERMIONE: Really. But seeing as you have such a distaste for the idea -- LAVENDER BROWN: Good luck today, Ron! I know you’ll be brilliant!
LAVENDER BROWN: That’s my Won-Won. HERMIONE: Excuse me, I have to go vomit.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 23 are women's.

244 lines from women, 814 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

25 women and 34 men in the cast. 12 women and 25 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 108 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 20% of the words (2,458), men 80% (9,594). Women have 23% of the lines, so their lines run shorter 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

Exhibit F: behind the camera

3 of the 11 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 34% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
David Yates (man)
Written by
Steve Kloves (man)
From the novel by
J.K. Rowling (woman)
Produced by
David Barron (man), David Heyman (man)
Shot by
Bruno Delbonnel (man)
Edited by
Mark Day (man)
Music by
Nicholas Hooper (man)
Production design by
Stuart Craig (man)
Costumes by
Jany Temime (woman)
Cast by
Fiona Weir (woman)

The crew, department by department

  • Visual Effects

    4 women, 14 men, 7 not listed

  • Other crew

    15 women, 6 men, 1 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    5 women, 5 men, 9 not listed

  • Sound

    0 women, 14 men, 4 not listed

  • Art

    4 women, 6 men, 3 not listed

  • Production

    2 women, 7 men, 1 not listed

  • Directing

    1 women, 4 men, 1 not listed

  • Camera

    0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 19 on average. Men: 42 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Evanna Lynch 17, Bonnie Wright 18, Emma Watson 19, Jessie Cave 22

Men

Daniel Radcliffe 19, Rupert Grint 20, Tom Felton 21, Jim Broadbent 60, Alan Rickman 63, Michael Gambon 68

Exhibit H: the money

It made 3.7 times what it cost.

Budget
$250 million
Box office
$934 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 160 scenes and 1,064 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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