Fails the Bechdel test
Major League
1989. Directed by David S. Ward, written by David S. Ward.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
5 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
Rachel Phelps is the new owner of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. However, she has nefarious plans: She wants to move the team to Miami for the warmer climate and a new stadium. To justify the move, the team must lose--and lose badly. So she assembles the worst possible team. Among these are a past-his-prime catcher with bad knees, a shrewd but past-his-prime pitcher, a young tearaway pitcher--and felon--with a 100-mph fastball but absolutely no control, a third-baseman who is too wealthy and precious to dive, a voodoo-loving slugger who can't hit a curve ball, and an energetic-but-naive lead-off hitter and base-stealer who can't keep the ball on the ground. Against the odds, and after the inevitable initial failures, they iron out some of their faults and--much to Ms. Phelps' consternation--start to win.
- Released
- 07 Apr 1989
- Genres
- Comedy, Sport
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 62 / 100
- Awards
- 1 nomination total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Taylor 212 lines, man
- Brown 108 lines, man
- Lynn 67 lines, woman
- Donovan 53 lines, man
- Doyle 51 lines, man
- Vaughn 48 lines, man
- Rachel 46 lines, woman
- Hayes 45 lines, man
- Dorn 30 lines, man
- Pepper 17 lines, man
Full cast, 49 people
- Tom Berenger as Jake Taylor
- Charlie Sheen as Rick Vaughn
- Corbin Bernsen as Roger Dorn
- Margaret Whitton as Rachel Phelps
- James Gammon as Lou Brown
- Rene Russo as Lynn Wells
- Wesley Snipes as Willie Mays Hayes
- Charles Cyphers as Charlie Donovan
- Chelcie Ross as Eddie Harris
- Dennis Haysbert as Pedro Cerrano
- Andy Romano as Pepper Leach
- Bob Uecker as Harry Doyle
- Steve Yeager as Duke Temple
- Peter Vuckovich as Haywood
- Stacy Carroll as Suzanne Dorn
- Richard Pickren as Tom
- Kevin Crowley as Vic Bolito
- Mary Seibel as Thelma
- Bill Leff as Bobby James
- Mike Bacarella as Johnny Wynn
- Skip Griparis as Colorman
- Gary Houston as Ross Farmer
- Ward Ohrman as Arthur Holloway
- Marge Kotlisky as Claire Holloway
- Tony Mockus Jr. as Brent Bowden
- Deborah Wakeham as Janice Bowden
- Neil Flynn as Longshoreman
- Keith Uchima as Groundskeeper #1
- Kurt Uchima as Groundskeeper #2
- William M. Sinacore as Coleman
- Richard Baird as Hal Charles
- Julia Milaris as Arlene
- Roger Unice as Rexman
- Michael Thoma as Gentry
- Patrick Dollymore as French Waiter
- Joe Liss as Guy in Bar
- Gregory Alan Williams as Bull Pen Guard
- Peter Ruskin as Gateman
- Michael Hart as Burton
- James Deuter as Phil Butler
- Jack McLaughlin-Gray as Jerry Simmons
- Tim Bell as Body Building Assistant
- Joe Soto as Security
- Ted Noose as Lyle Matthews
- Lenny Rubin as Clubhouse Man
- Thomas P. Purdoff as Umpire #1
- Jeffrey J. Edwards as Umpire #2
- Alexandra Villa as Hostess
- Michelle Minyon as Working Class Bar Patron
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 5% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 94
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 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 to 6 | 10 | 10 |
| 7 to 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 to 10 | 12 | 9 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 15 |
| 13 to 14 | 0 | 21 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 10 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 24 |
| 19 to 20 | 0 | 12 |
| 21 to 22 | 0 | 1 |
| 23 to 24 | 0 | 5 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 38 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 26 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 9 |
| 31 to 32 | 1 | 2 |
| 33 to 34 | 0 | 2 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 19 |
| 37 to 38 | 12 | 14 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 10 |
| 41 to 42 | 3 | 43 |
| 43 to 44 | 0 | 8 |
| 45 to 46 | 21 | 21 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 10 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 26 |
| 51 to 52 | 0 | 11 |
| 53 to 54 | 8 | 36 |
| 55 to 56 | 0 | 49 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 8 |
| 59 to 60 | 7 | 13 |
| 61 to 62 | 0 | 2 |
| 63 to 64 | 6 | 16 |
| 65 to 66 | 20 | 20 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 0 |
| 69 to 70 | 3 | 2 |
| 71 to 72 | 0 | 6 |
| 73 to 74 | 0 | 6 |
| 75 to 76 | 0 | 9 |
| 77 to 78 | 0 | 26 |
| 79 to 80 | 0 | 1 |
| 81 to 82 | 0 | 5 |
| 83 to 84 | 0 | 9 |
| 85 to 86 | 7 | 5 |
| 87 to 88 | 0 | 6 |
| 89 to 90 | 5 | 16 |
| 91 to 92 | 9 | 9 |
| 93 to 94 | 1 | 57 |
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, 16 are women's.
126 lines from women, 649 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
5 women and 26 men in the cast. 5 women and 22 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
A woman speaks the first line.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 167 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 19% of the words (1,846), men 81% (7,802). Women have 16% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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
1
Two men
57
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 11 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 15% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- David S. Ward (man)
- Written by
- David S. Ward (man)
- Produced by
- Irby Smith (man), Chris Chesser (gender not listed)
- Shot by
- Reynaldo Villalobos (man)
- Edited by
- Tony Lombardo (man), Dennis M. Hill (man)
- Music by
- James Newton Howard (man)
- Production design by
- Jeffrey Howard (gender not listed)
- Costumes by
- Erica Edell Phillips (woman)
- Cast by
- Joanne Zaluski (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 1 men, 7 not listed
-
Production
2 women, 4 men, 2 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 4 men, 2 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 5 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 1 men, 4 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 2 men
-
Editing
0 women, 2 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 37 on average. Men: 37 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Rene Russo 34, Margaret Whitton 39
Men
Charlie Sheen 23, Wesley Snipes 26, Corbin Bernsen 34, Dennis Haysbert 34, Tom Berenger 39, Chelcie Ross 46, James Gammon 48, Charles Cyphers 49
Exhibit G: the money
It made 6.8 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $11 million
- Box office
- $75 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 94 scenes and 820 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
