Fails the Bechdel test
Live by Night
2017. Directed by Ben Affleck, written by Ben Affleck and Dennis Lehane.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
7 women characters. 2 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
Boston, 1926. The '20s are roaring. Liquor is flowing, bullets are flying, and one man sets out to make his mark on the world. Prohibition has given rise to an endless network of underground distilleries, speakeasies, gangsters, and corrupt cops. Joe Coughlin, the youngest son of a prominent Boston police captain, has long since turned his back on his strict and proper upbringing. Now having graduated from a childhood of petty theft to a career in the pay of the city's most fearsome mobsters, Joe enjoys the spoils, thrills, and notoriety of being an outlaw. But life on the dark side carries a heavy price. In a time when ruthless men of ambition, armed with cash, illegal booze, and guns, battle for control, no one-neither family nor friend, enemy nor lover-can be trusted. Beyond money and power, even the threat of prison, one fate seems most likely for men like Joe: an early death. But until that day, he and his friends are determined to live life to the hilt. Joe embarks on a dizzying journey up the ladder of organized crime that takes him from the flash of Jazz Age Boston to the sensual shimmer of Tampa's Latin Quarter to the sizzling streets of Cuba. Live by Night is a riveting epic layered with a diverse cast of loyal friends and callous enemies, tough rumrunners and sultry femmes fatales, Bible-quoting evangelists and cruel Klansmen, all battling for survival and their piece of the American dream. At once a sweeping love story and a compelling saga of revenge, it is a spellbinding tour de force of betrayal and redemption, music and murder, that brings fully to life a bygone era when sin was cause for celebration and vice was a national virtue.
- Released
- 13 Jan 2017
- Genres
- Action, Crime, Drama
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.4 / 10
- Metascore
- 49 / 100
- Awards
- 4 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Joe 646 lines, man
- Maso 120 lines, man
- Dion 101 lines, man
- Emma 77 lines, woman
- Graciela 75 lines, woman
- Thomas Coughlin 70 lines, man
- Loretta Figgis 48 lines, woman
- Chief Figgis 39 lines
- Albert 38 lines, man
- Rd Pruitt 37 lines, man
Full cast, 41 people
- Ben Affleck as Joe Coughlin
- Elle Fanning as Loretta Figgis
- Remo Girone as Maso Pescatore
- Brendan Gleeson as Thomas Coughlin
- Robert Glenister as Albert White
- Matthew Maher as RD Pruitt
- Chris Messina as Dion Bartolo
- Sienna Miller as Emma Gould
- Miguel as Esteban Suarez
- Zoe Saldaña as Graciella Suarez
- Chris Cooper as Chief Irving Figgis
- Titus Welliver as Tim Hickey
- Max Casella as Digger Pescatore
- Christian Clemenson as Ritz Investor
- J.D. Evermore as Virgil Beauregard
- Clark Gregg as Calvin Bondurant
- Anthony Michael Hall as Gary L. Smith
- Chris Sullivan as Brendan Loomis
- Derek Mears as Donnie Gishler
- Tom Virtue as Doctor
- Benny Ciaramello as Paulo Bartolo
- Bruno Amato as Jeff
- Michael Mantell as Jack Jarvis
- Michael Chieffo as Pastor
- Andrew Bongiorno as Fasani
- Austin Swift as Mayweather
- Derrick Dover as Bodyguard
- Mark Burzenski as Statler Guest (uncredited)
- Lucy Angelo as Train Passenger (uncredited)
- Larry Eudene as Northend Newspaper Vendor (uncredited)
- Lexie Roth as Gillette Factory Worker (uncredited)
- Katie O'Malley as Cigarette Girl (uncredited)
- John Bishop as Disheveled Man (uncredited)
- Lewis D. Wheeler as Herald Reporter
- Heidi Moneymaker as Assassin (uncredited)
- Michael Papajohn as Maso's Crew (uncredited)
- Bill Blair as Factory Worker (uncredited)
- Lucien Spelman as Statler Party Guest (uncredited)
- Anthony Molinari as Maso's Crew (uncredited)
- Tony Sagastizado I as Migrant worker (uncredited)
- Jan Haley as Cigar Woman (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 4% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 152
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 4 | 5 | 29 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 4 |
| 9 to 12 | 13 | 35 |
| 13 to 16 | 20 | 37 |
| 17 to 20 | 11 | 25 |
| 21 to 24 | 0 | 8 |
| 25 to 28 | 3 | 5 |
| 29 to 32 | 9 | 29 |
| 33 to 36 | 0 | 47 |
| 37 to 40 | 0 | 15 |
| 41 to 44 | 0 | 27 |
| 45 to 48 | 0 | 15 |
| 49 to 52 | 0 | 3 |
| 53 to 56 | 0 | 40 |
| 57 to 60 | 0 | 73 |
| 61 to 64 | 0 | 65 |
| 65 to 68 | 0 | 31 |
| 69 to 72 | 0 | 20 |
| 73 to 76 | 0 | 61 |
| 77 to 80 | 5 | 23 |
| 81 to 84 | 8 | 65 |
| 85 to 88 | 20 | 22 |
| 89 to 92 | 14 | 16 |
| 93 to 96 | 0 | 20 |
| 97 to 100 | 0 | 13 |
| 101 to 104 | 0 | 59 |
| 105 to 108 | 0 | 59 |
| 109 to 112 | 16 | 16 |
| 113 to 116 | 15 | 20 |
| 117 to 120 | 14 | 34 |
| 121 to 124 | 26 | 49 |
| 125 to 128 | 5 | 22 |
| 129 to 132 | 0 | 9 |
| 133 to 136 | 0 | 113 |
| 137 to 140 | 0 | 21 |
| 141 to 144 | 16 | 38 |
| 145 to 148 | 0 | 2 |
| 149 to 152 | 0 | 5 |
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, 15 are women's.
200 lines from women, 1175 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
7 women and 32 men in the cast. 2 women and 22 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 11 of 1,431.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 452 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 15% of the words (2,091), men 85% (11,463).
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
72
Exhibit E: behind the camera
6 of the 17 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 35% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Ben Affleck (man)
- Written by
- Ben Affleck (man)
- From the novel by
- Dennis Lehane (man)
- Produced by
- Ben Affleck (man), Leonardo DiCaprio (man), Jennifer Todd (woman), Jennifer Davisson (woman), Madison Ainley (man)
- Shot by
- Robert Richardson (man)
- Edited by
- William Goldenberg (man)
- Music by
- Harry Gregson-Williams (man)
- Production design by
- Jess Gonchor (man)
- Costumes by
- Jacqueline West (woman)
- Cast by
- Lora Kennedy (woman), Mindy Marin (woman), Carolyn Pickman (woman), Armando Pizzuti (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Costume & Make-Up
8 women, 2 men, 5 not listed
-
Production
5 women, 7 men, 1 not listed
-
Other crew
2 women, 9 men
-
Art
4 women, 5 men, 1 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
1 women, 1 men
-
Directing
0 women, 2 men
-
Editing
0 women, 2 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 30 on average. Men: 50 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Elle Fanning 18, Sienna Miller 34, Zoe Saldaña 38
Men
Miguel 31, Chris Messina 42, Ben Affleck 44, Matthew Maher 45, Robert Glenister 56, Brendan Gleeson 61, Remo Girone 68
Exhibit G: the money
It made 25% of what it cost.
- Budget
- $90 million
- Box office
- $22.7 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 152 scenes and 1,431 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
