Fails the Bechdel test

Jarhead

Name: Jarhead
Released: 2005

2005. Directed by Sam Mendes, written by William Broyles Jr. and Anthony Swofford.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

0 / 3

Fails

No 1. At least two women
Fewer than two women characters.
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 0 out of 3.

The film

Anthony "Swoff" Swofford, a Camus-reading kid from Sacramento, enlists in the Marines in the late 1980s. He malingers during boot camp, but makes it through as a sniper, paired with the usually-reliable Troy. The Gulf War breaks out, and his unit goes to Saudi Arabia for Desert Shield. After 175 days of boredom, adrenaline, heat, worry about his girlfriend finding someone else, losing it and nearly killing a mate, demotion, latrine cleaning, faulty gas masks, and desert football, Desert Storm begins. In less than five days, it's over, but not before Swoff sees burned bodies, flaming oil derricks, an oil-drenched horse, and maybe a chance at killing. Where does all the testosterone go?

Released: 04 Nov 2005
Genres: Biography, Drama, War
Rated: R
IMDb: 7 / 10
Metascore: 58 / 100
Awards: 6 wins & 12 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Swoff 214 lines, man
Troy 137 lines, man
Sergeant Siek 48 lines, man
Kuehn 39 lines, man
Fergus 17 lines, man
Escobar 15 lines, man
Cortez 14 lines, man
Di Burke 13 lines
Gunnery Sergeant Hiers 13 lines
Fowler 11 lines, man

Full cast, 32 people

Jake Gyllenhaal as Anthony Swofford
Jamie Foxx as Staff Sgt. Sykes
Peter Sarsgaard as Alan Troy
Scott MacDonald as D.I. Fitch
Chris Cooper as Lt. Col. Kazinski
Laz Alonso as Ramon Escobar
Lucas Black as Kruger
Brian Geraghty as Fergus O'Donnell
Damion Poitier as Poitier
Jocko Sims as Julius
Dennis Haysbert as Major Lincoln
John Krasinski as Corporal Harrigan
Kevin Foster as Branded Marine
Riad Galayini as Nurse
Craig Coyne as Young Mr. Swofford
Katherine Randolph as Young Mrs. Swofford
Rini Bell as Swoff's Sister
Dendrie Taylor as Mrs. Swofford
James Morrison as Mr. Swofford
Ming Lo as Bored Gunny
Brianne Davis as Kristina
Evan Jones as PFC Dave Fowler
Todd Jensen as Lieutenant
Nick Dash as Corp Marine
Jacob Vargas as Juan Cortez
Iván Fenyő as Pinko
Martin Papazian as Brian Dettman
Becky Boxer as Dettman's Wife
Mark Davis as Dettman's Neighbor
Kareem J. Grimes as Welty
Merik Tadros as Marine Sniper (uncredited)
Alexis Hernandez as Marine (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 13% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 140

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	0	12
4 to 6	1	6
7 to 9	0	6
10 to 12	1	2
13 to 15	0	21
16 to 18	0	17
19 to 21	0	9
22 to 24	0	14
25 to 27	0	4
28 to 30	0	7
31 to 33	0	4
34 to 36	0	3
37 to 39	3	12
40 to 42	0	19
43 to 45	0	4
46 to 48	0	1
49 to 51	0	37
52 to 54	0	13
55 to 57	0	14
58 to 60	0	20
61 to 63	0	30
64 to 66	0	10
67 to 69	0	8
70 to 72	0	6
73 to 75	0	9
76 to 78	0	8
79 to 81	0	12
82 to 84	0	32
85 to 87	0	27
88 to 90	0	13
91 to 93	0	43
94 to 96	0	20
97 to 99	0	15
100 to 102	0	15
103 to 105	0	2
106 to 108	0	8
109 to 111	0	5
112 to 114	0	4
115 to 117	0	29
118 to 120	0	1
121 to 123	0	17
124 to 126	0	6
127 to 129	0	7
130 to 132	0	1
133 to 135	0	2
136 to 138	0	2
139 to 140	0	6

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, 1 are women's.

5 lines from women, 563 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

6 women and 26 men in the cast. 2 women and 14 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 34 of 655. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 486 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 1% of the words (52), men 99% (6,004).

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

Two men

Exhibit E: behind the camera

2 of the 10 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 23% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Sam Mendes (man)
Written by: William Broyles Jr. (man)
Produced by: Lucy Fisher (woman), Douglas Wick (man)
Shot by: Roger Deakins (man)
Edited by: Walter Murch (man)
Music by: Thomas Newman (man)
Production design by: Dennis Gassner (man)
Costumes by: Albert Wolsky (man)
Cast by: Debra Zane (woman)

The crew, department by department

Other crew

0 women, 14 men, 17 not listed
Production

7 women, 8 men, 16 not listed
Sound

5 women, 11 men, 7 not listed
Art

3 women, 8 men, 10 not listed
Costume & Make-Up

1 women, 8 men, 6 not listed
Camera

0 women, 5 men, 7 not listed
Visual Effects

2 women, 2 men, 7 not listed
Editing

1 women, 3 men, 5 not listed

Women
Men
Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit F: how old the stars were

Men: 33 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Men

Lucas Black 22, Jake Gyllenhaal 24, Jocko Sims 24, Damion Poitier 29, Laz Alonso 31, Brian Geraghty 31, Peter Sarsgaard 34, Jamie Foxx 37, Scott MacDonald 46, Chris Cooper 54

Exhibit G: the money

It made 1.3 times what it cost.

Budget: $72 million
Box office: $97.1 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 140 scenes and 655 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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