Fails the Bechdel test
Jaws
1975. Directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
8 women characters. 5 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
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
It's a hot summer on Amity Island, a small community whose primary business is its beaches. When new Police Chief Martin Brody discovers the remains of a shark attack victim, his first inclination is to close the beaches to swimmers. It doesn't sit well with Mayor Larry Vaughn and several local business people. Brody backs down to his regret of that weekend. A predator kills a young boy. The dead boy's mother puts out a bounty on the shark, and Amity is soon swamped with amateur hunters and fishermen hoping to cash in on the reward. A local fisherman with much experience hunting sharks, Quint, offers to hunt down the creature for a hefty fee. Soon, Quint, Brody, and Matt Hooper from the Oceanographic Institute are hunting the Great White shark at sea. As Brody succinctly surmises after their first encounter with the creature, they will need a bigger boat.
- Released
- 20 Jun 1975
- Genres
- Adventure, Drama, Horror
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 8.1 / 10
- Metascore
- 87 / 100
- Awards
- Won 3 Oscars. 16 wins & 21 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Brody 191 lines, man
- Quint 146 lines, man
- Hooper 134 lines, man
- Ellen 47 lines, woman
- Vaughn 46 lines, man
- Meadows 13 lines, man
- Denherder 12 lines, man
- Hendricks 11 lines, man
- Cassidy 8 lines, man
- Charlie 8 lines, man
Full cast, 41 people
- Roy Scheider as Brody
- Robert Shaw as Quint
- Richard Dreyfuss as Hooper
- Lorraine Gary as Ellen Brody
- Murray Hamilton as Vaughn
- Carl Gottlieb as Meadows
- Jeffrey Kramer as Hendricks
- Susan Backlinie as Chrissie
- Jonathan Filley as Cassidy
- Ted Grossman as Estuary Victim
- Chris Rebello as Michael Brody
- Jay Mello as Sean Brody
- Lee Fierro as Mrs. Kintner
- Jeffrey Voorhees as Alex Kintner
- Craig Kingsbury as Ben Gardner
- Phil Murray as Mr. Taft
- Robert Nevin as Medical Examiner
- Peter Benchley as Interviewer
- Fritzi Jane Courtney as Mrs. Taft (uncredited)
- David Engelbach as Research Assistant (uncredited)
- Dorothy Fielding as Girl in Music Store (uncredited)
- Joe La Creta as Barwood (uncredited)
- Belle McDonald as Mrs. Posner (uncredited)
- Joseph Oliveira as Swimmer (uncredited)
- Beverly Powers as Topless Swimmer (uncredited)
- Ayn Ruymen as Nurse (uncredited)
- Christopher Sands as Lifeguard (uncredited)
- Steven Spielberg as Amity Point Lifestation Worker (voice) (uncredited)
- Rex Trailer as Scout Master (uncredited)
- Chris Anastasio as Out of Towner (uncredited)
- Henry Carreiro as Felix (uncredited)
- Robert Carroll as Mr. Polk (uncredited)
- Edward Chalmers Jr. as Mr. Denherder (uncredited)
- David Daniel as Hippie on Beach (uncredited)
- Cyprian R. Dube as Mr. Posner (uncredited)
- Wally Hooper Jr. as Harry (uncredited)
- Duncan Inches as Townsperson (uncredited)
- John Moffet as At Bonfire with Mustache (uncredited)
- John Searle as Converted Man (uncredited)
- Hershel West as Salvatore (uncredited)
- Dick Young as Pratt (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 9% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 58
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 | 0 |
| 3 to 4 | 2 | 0 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 to 8 | 11 | 14 |
| 9 to 10 | 3 | 4 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 27 |
| 13 to 14 | 0 | 4 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 10 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 23 |
| 19 to 20 | 0 | 2 |
| 21 to 22 | 10 | 9 |
| 23 to 24 | 0 | 4 |
| 25 to 26 | 10 | 25 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 40 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 9 |
| 31 to 32 | 2 | 37 |
| 33 to 34 | 12 | 54 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 50 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 6 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 0 |
| 41 to 42 | 2 | 23 |
| 43 to 44 | 3 | 17 |
| 45 to 46 | 5 | 60 |
| 47 to 48 | 3 | 74 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 28 |
| 51 to 52 | 0 | 3 |
| 53 to 54 | 0 | 10 |
| 55 to 56 | 0 | 15 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 63 |
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, 9 are women's.
63 lines from women, 611 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
8 women and 22 men in the cast. 5 women and 14 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 5 of 738.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 136 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 8% of the words (655), men 92% (7,626). Women have 9% 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
55
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 11 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 13% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Steven Spielberg (man)
- Written by
- Carl Gottlieb (man), Peter Benchley (man)
- From the novel by
- Peter Benchley (man)
- Produced by
- Richard D. Zanuck (man), David Brown (man)
- Shot by
- Wilmer Butler (man)
- Edited by
- Verna Fields (woman)
- Music by
- John Williams (man)
- Production design by
- Joe Alves (man)
- Cast by
- Shari Rhodes (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
1 women, 22 men, 55 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 18 men, 13 not listed
-
Camera
2 women, 7 men, 8 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 6 men, 3 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 3 men, 4 not listed
-
Directing
2 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
-
Production
2 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
-
Editing
2 women, 2 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 33 on average. Men: 40 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Susan Backlinie 28, Lorraine Gary 37
Men
Richard Dreyfuss 27, Jeffrey Kramer 29, Carl Gottlieb 37, Roy Scheider 42, Ted Grossman 44, Robert Shaw 47, Murray Hamilton 52
Exhibit G: the money
It made 67.2 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $7 million
- Box office
- $471 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 58 scenes and 738 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
