Passes the Bechdel test
High Fidelity
2000. Directed by Stephen Frears, written by Nick Hornby and D.V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
16 women characters. 9 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 105. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 2 out of 3.
The film
Thirty-something Rob Gordon, a former club DJ, owns a not-so-lucrative used record store in Chicago. He not so much employs Barry and Dick, but rather keeps them around as they showed up at the store one day and never left. All three are vinyl and music snobs, but in different ways. Rob has a penchant for compiling top-five lists. The latest of these lists is his top-five break-ups, it spurred by the fact that his latest girlfriend, Laura, a lawyer, has just broken up with him. He believed that Laura would be the one who would last, partly as an expectation of where he would be at this stage in his life. Rob admits that there have been a few incidents in their relationship which in and of themselves could be grounds for her to want to break up. To his satisfaction, Laura is not on this top-five list. Rob feels a need not only to review the five relationships, which go back as far as middle school when he was 12, and try to come to terms with why the woman, or girl as the case may be, left him, but also, in the words of Charlie Nicholson, number four on the list, "what it all means" for why he has ended up where he is, which is nowhere, personally or professionally, close to what he envisioned. He also has to come to terms with what it means that Laura has moved on to Ian Raymond, a man for whom neither had any respect when they were together.
- Released
- 31 Mar 2000
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama, Music
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.4 / 10
- Metascore
- 79 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award. 3 wins & 22 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Rob 511 lines, man
- Laura 186 lines, woman
- Barry 123 lines, man
- Dick 51 lines, man
- Marie 30 lines, woman
- Caroline 22 lines, woman
- Liz 17 lines, woman
- Ian 16 lines, man
- Woman 16 lines, woman
- Customer 13 lines, man
Full cast, 53 people
- John Cusack as Rob
- Iben Hjejle as Laura
- Todd Louiso as Dick
- Jack Black as Barry
- Lisa Bonet as Marie De Salle
- Catherine Zeta-Jones as Charlie
- Joan Cusack as Liz
- Tim Robbins as Ian
- Chris Rehmann as Vince
- Ben Carr as Justin
- Lili Taylor as Sarah
- Joelle Carter as Penny
- Natasha Gregson Wagner as Caroline
- Shannon Stillo as Alison Jr. High
- Drake Bell as Rob Jr. High
- Laura Whyte as Laura's Mom
- Sara Gilbert as Anaugh
- Rich Talarico as Barry's Customer
- Matthew O'Neill as Beta Band Customer
- Brian Powell as Middle Aged Customer
- Margaret Travolta as Rob's Mom
- Jillian Peterson as Laura's Sister Jo
- Dick Cusack as Minister
- Susan Yoo as Girl - 19 year old
- Chris Bauer as Paul
- K.K. Dodds as Miranda
- Marilyn Dodds Frank as Alison's Mom
- Duke Doyle as Kevin Bannister
- Aaron Himelstein as Boy In Park
- Jonathan Herrington as Chris Thompson
- Daniel Lee Smith as Rock Guy
- Leah Gale as Mourner
- David Darlow as Mourner
- Erik Gundersen as Marco
- Bruce Springsteen as Bruce Springsteen
- Alex Désert as Louis
- Alan S. Johnson as Man In Store
- Ian Belknap as Party Guest
- Andrew Micheli as Party Guest
- Polly Noonan as Party Guest
- Philip Rayburn Smith as Party Guest
- Michele Graff as Party Guest
- Susie Cusack as Party Guest
- Liam Hayes as Piano Player
- Damian Rogers as Greenday Girl
- Robert A. Villanueva as Skateboarder
- Joe Spaulding as Flea Market Musician
- Scott A. Martin as Bartender
- Heather Norris as Laura's Friend
- Timothy W. Tiedje as Operator (uncredited)
- James Azrael as Glam Rocker (uncredited)
- Ian Michaels as Guy in Chem Lab (uncredited)
- Susan Hegarty as Laura's Mom (voice) (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 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 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 | 2 | 7 |
| 4 to 6 | 0 | 4 |
| 7 to 9 | 0 | 5 |
| 10 to 12 | 0 | 4 |
| 13 to 15 | 0 | 15 |
| 16 to 18 | 0 | 84 |
| 19 to 21 | 0 | 4 |
| 22 to 24 | 0 | 3 |
| 25 to 27 | 1 | 2 |
| 28 to 30 | 13 | 21 |
| 31 to 33 | 7 | 32 |
| 34 to 36 | 6 | 27 |
| 37 to 39 | 17 | 18 |
| 40 to 42 | 3 | 5 |
| 43 to 45 | 0 | 51 |
| 46 to 48 | 44 | 47 |
| 49 to 51 | 5 | 8 |
| 52 to 54 | 14 | 17 |
| 55 to 57 | 6 | 58 |
| 58 to 60 | 5 | 5 |
| 61 to 63 | 18 | 21 |
| 64 to 66 | 6 | 12 |
| 67 to 69 | 1 | 8 |
| 70 to 72 | 2 | 3 |
| 73 to 75 | 0 | 26 |
| 76 to 78 | 9 | 9 |
| 79 to 81 | 18 | 41 |
| 82 to 84 | 15 | 41 |
| 85 to 87 | 7 | 6 |
| 88 to 90 | 20 | 21 |
| 91 to 93 | 28 | 55 |
| 94 to 96 | 3 | 7 |
| 97 to 99 | 10 | 24 |
| 100 to 102 | 24 | 27 |
| 103 to 105 | 20 | 21 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scene
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
LIZ: How are you? JO: I'm all right, I suppose. And Mom's not too bad. But Laura... I dunno. LIZ: She's had a pretty rough few weeks already, without this. It's hard when you're putting all of your efforts into one part of your life and i…
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 29 are women's.
304 lines from women, 739 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
16 women and 21 men in the cast. 9 women and 10 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 5 of 1,050.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 123 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 26% of the words (4,285), men 74% (12,147). Women have 29% 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
Two women
1
Two men
27
Exhibit F: behind the camera
3 of the 14 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 32% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Stephen Frears (man)
- Written by
- Scott Rosenberg (man), D.V. DeVincentis (man), Steve Pink (man), John Cusack (man)
- Produced by
- Rudd Simmons (man), Tim Bevan (man)
- Shot by
- Seamus McGarvey (man)
- Edited by
- Mick Audsley (man)
- Music by
- Howard Shore (man)
- Production design by
- Thérèse DePrez (woman), David Chapman (man)
- Cast by
- Victoria Thomas (woman), Claire Simon (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
15 women, 19 men, 8 not listed
-
Sound
2 women, 14 men, 9 not listed
-
Other crew
4 women, 8 men, 6 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 5 men, 4 not listed
-
Camera
1 women, 8 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
5 women, 0 men, 4 not listed
-
Directing
2 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Writing
0 women, 5 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 32 on average. Men: 34 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Iben Hjejle 28, Catherine Zeta-Jones 30, Lisa Bonet 32, Joan Cusack 37
Men
Todd Louiso 30, Jack Black 30, John Cusack 33, Tim Robbins 41
Exhibit H: the money
It made 1.6 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $30 million
- Box office
- $47.1 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 105 scenes and 1,050 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
