Fails the Bechdel test
In Bruges
2008. Directed by Martin McDonagh, written by Martin McDonagh.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
9 women characters. 4 of them speak. -
No
2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
London based hit men Ray and Ken are told by their boss Harry Waters to lie low in Bruges, Belgium for up to two weeks following their latest hit, which resulted in the death of an innocent bystander. Harry will be in touch with further instructions. While they wait for Harry's call, Ken, following Harry's advice, takes in the sights of the medieval city with great appreciation. But the charms of Bruges are lost on the simpler Ray, who is already despondent over the innocent death, especially as it was his first job. Things change for Ray when he meets Chloe, part of a film crew shooting a movie starring an American dwarf named Jimmy. When Harry's instructions arrive, Ken, for whom the job is directed, isn't sure if he can carry out the new job, especially as he has gained a new appreciation of life from his stay in the fairytale Bruges. While Ken waits for the inevitable arrival into Bruges of an angry Harry, who feels he must clean up matters on his own, Ray is dealing with his own problems, not only with Harry, but with a Canadian couple and a half-blind thief named Eirik. Ray hopes he can count on both Chloe and Ken to help him carve out a new life for himself. In the end, Harry, involved in an incident with Jimmy, may have to keep to his own principles.
- Released
- 29 Feb 2008
- Genres
- Comedy, Crime, Drama
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.9 / 10
- Metascore
- 67 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 Oscar. 25 wins & 55 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Ray 325 lines, man
- Ken 164 lines, man
- Harry 103 lines, man
- Chloe 79 lines, woman
- Jimmy 30 lines, man
- Barry 16 lines
- Icen 15 lines
- Kbn 12 lines
- Un 12 lines
- Yuri 12 lines, man
Full cast, 28 people
- Colin Farrell as Ray
- Brendan Gleeson as Ken
- Ralph Fiennes as Harry
- Clémence Poésy as Chloë
- Thekla Reuten as Marie
- Jordan Prentice as Jimmy
- Elizabeth Berrington as Natalie
- Jérémie Renier as Eirik
- Mark Donovan as Overweight Man
- Éric Godon as Yuri
- Anna Madeley as Denise
- Theo Stevenson as Boy in Church
- Olivier Bonjour as Film Director
- Željko Ivanek as Canadian Guy
- Rudy Blomme as Ticket Seller
- Jamie Edgell as Boat Driver
- Sachi Kimura as Imamoto
- Jean-Marc Favorin as Policeman
- Emily Thorling as Overweight Woman
- Ann Elsley as Overweight Woman #2
- Inez Stinton as Kelli
- Ran Yaniv as Barman
- Stephanie Carey as Canadian Girl
- Bonnie Witney as Harry's Child #1
- Angel Witney as Harry's Child #2
- Louis Nummy as Harry's Child #3
- Ciarán Hinds as Priest (uncredited)
- Susan Ateh as Ken's Wife (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 15% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 95
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 | 6 |
| 5 to 6 | 3 | 8 |
| 7 to 8 | 0 | 10 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | 11 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 25 |
| 13 to 14 | 0 | 16 |
| 15 to 16 | 6 | 11 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 18 |
| 19 to 20 | 0 | 16 |
| 21 to 22 | 1 | 13 |
| 23 to 24 | 0 | 36 |
| 25 to 26 | 2 | 17 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 14 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 20 |
| 31 to 32 | 19 | 38 |
| 33 to 34 | 4 | 67 |
| 35 to 36 | 13 | 46 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 50 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 2 |
| 41 to 42 | 7 | 12 |
| 43 to 44 | 1 | 5 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 4 |
| 47 to 48 | 3 | 12 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 23 |
| 51 to 52 | 1 | 24 |
| 53 to 54 | 9 | 10 |
| 55 to 56 | 0 | 0 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 0 |
| 59 to 60 | 0 | 21 |
| 61 to 62 | 2 | 19 |
| 63 to 64 | 4 | 6 |
| 65 to 66 | 2 | 13 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 4 |
| 69 to 70 | 0 | 3 |
| 71 to 72 | 3 | 20 |
| 73 to 74 | 1 | 10 |
| 75 to 76 | 0 | 0 |
| 77 to 78 | 0 | 1 |
| 79 to 80 | 0 | 0 |
| 81 to 82 | 0 | 8 |
| 83 to 84 | 1 | 2 |
| 85 to 86 | 2 | 15 |
| 87 to 88 | 0 | 2 |
| 89 to 90 | 0 | 1 |
| 91 to 92 | 0 | 0 |
| 93 to 94 | 0 | 7 |
| 95 to 95 | 21 | 23 |
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, 14 are women's.
105 lines from women, 671 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
9 women and 14 men in the cast. 4 women and 9 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 17 of 910.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 90 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 12% of the words (1,045), men 88% (7,638). Women have 14% 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
0
Two men
82
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 31% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Martin McDonagh (man)
- Written by
- Martin McDonagh (man)
- Produced by
- Peter Czernin (man), Graham Broadbent (man)
- Shot by
- Eigil Bryld (man)
- Edited by
- Jon Gregory (man)
- Music by
- Carter Burwell (man)
- Production design by
- Michael Carlin (man)
- Costumes by
- Jany Temime (woman)
- Cast by
- Jina Jay (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
5 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 6 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 3 men, 4 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 0 men, 5 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 3 men
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 2 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 31 on average. Men: 40 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Clémence Poésy 25, Thekla Reuten 32, Elizabeth Berrington 37
Men
Jérémie Renier 27, Colin Farrell 31, Jordan Prentice 35, Mark Donovan 39, Ralph Fiennes 45, Éric Godon 49, Brendan Gleeson 52
Exhibit G: the money
It made 2.3 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $15 million
- Box office
- $34.5 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 95 scenes and 910 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
