Passes the Bechdel test
Martha Marcy May Marlene
2011. Directed by Sean Durkin, written by Sean Durkin.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
6 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 25 scenes out of 107. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
Martha has run away from an abusive hippie-like cult where she was living as Marcy May for two years. She turns to her sister and brother-in-law who take her in and want to help her. The problem is Martha is having a hard time separating dreams from reality and when haunting memories of her past keep resurfacing, she may need more help than anyone is able to give her.
- Released
- 21 Dec 2011
- Genres
- Drama, Mystery, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.8 / 10
- Metascore
- 75 / 100
- Awards
- 22 wins & 75 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Martha 263 lines, woman
- Lucy 217 lines, woman
- Ted 92 lines, man
- Patrick 50 lines, man
- Zoe 27 lines, woman
- Max 26 lines, man
- Watts 20 lines, man
- Sarah 15 lines, woman
- Katie 13 lines, woman
- Man 8 lines, man
Full cast, 16 people
- Elizabeth Olsen as Martha
- Sarah Paulson as Lucy
- Hugh Dancy as Ted
- John Hawkes as Patrick
- Brady Corbet as Watts
- Louisa Krause as Zoe
- Christopher Abbott as Max
- Maria Dizzia as Katie
- Julia Garner as Sarah
- Adam David Thompson as Bartender
- Allen McCullough as Man in Home #2
- Lauren Molina as Cult Member
- Louisa Braden Johnson as Cult Member
- Tobias Segal as Cult Member
- Gregg Burton as Man in Home #1
- Michael Chmiel as Scruffy Man (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 1% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 107
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 | 0 |
| 4 to 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 to 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 to 12 | 28 | 11 |
| 13 to 15 | 35 | 0 |
| 16 to 18 | 9 | 7 |
| 19 to 21 | 37 | 15 |
| 22 to 24 | 15 | 4 |
| 25 to 27 | 3 | 6 |
| 28 to 30 | 13 | 7 |
| 31 to 33 | 48 | 4 |
| 34 to 36 | 7 | 4 |
| 37 to 39 | 9 | 0 |
| 40 to 42 | 4 | 7 |
| 43 to 45 | 15 | 19 |
| 46 to 48 | 19 | 2 |
| 49 to 51 | 36 | 6 |
| 52 to 54 | 11 | 1 |
| 55 to 57 | 37 | 6 |
| 58 to 60 | 22 | 2 |
| 61 to 63 | 36 | 0 |
| 64 to 66 | 20 | 10 |
| 67 to 69 | 17 | 28 |
| 70 to 72 | 0 | 0 |
| 73 to 75 | 4 | 5 |
| 76 to 78 | 6 | 10 |
| 79 to 81 | 0 | 0 |
| 82 to 84 | 0 | 0 |
| 85 to 87 | 5 | 0 |
| 88 to 90 | 20 | 22 |
| 91 to 93 | 11 | 7 |
| 94 to 96 | 7 | 4 |
| 97 to 99 | 8 | 2 |
| 100 to 102 | 21 | 10 |
| 103 to 105 | 37 | 1 |
| 106 to 107 | 2 | 2 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
LUCY: Hello. Hello? MARTHA: Hi! LUCY: Martha? MARTHA: Yeah.
LUCY: Martha? Why are you on the floor? MARTHA: I'm sorry. LUCY: It's okay, you were in a deep sleep. Come have some breakfast.
MARTHA: Yeah. LUCY: How do you like the house?
LUCY: Okay, sorry, no more work talk. LUCY: Aren't you hungry? MARTHA: Not really, sorry.
MARTHA: Where are we? LUCY: Connecticut. MARTHA: How far are we? LUCY: From what?
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 73 are women's.
542 lines from women, 202 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
6 women and 8 men in the cast. 5 women and 5 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 2 of 751.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 18 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 68% of the words (3,494), men 32% (1,628). Women have 73% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit E: 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
44
Two men
7
Exhibit F: behind the camera
1 of the 14 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 25% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Sean Durkin (man)
- Written by
- Sean Durkin (man)
- Produced by
- Josh Mond (man), Chris Maybach (man), Patrick Cunningham (man), Antonio Campos (man)
- Shot by
- Jody Lee Lipes (man)
- Edited by
- Zachary Stuart-Pontier (man)
- Music by
- Danny Bensi (man), Saunder Jurriaans (man)
- Production design by
- Chad Keith (gender not listed)
- Costumes by
- David Tabbert (man)
- Cast by
- Susan Shopmaker (woman), Randi Glass (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
4 women, 8 men, 4 not listed
-
Directing
2 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 3 men, 3 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 6 men
-
Other crew
2 women, 3 men
-
Art
1 women, 1 men, 2 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 27 on average. Men: 32 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Julia Garner 17, Elizabeth Olsen 22, Louisa Krause 25, Sarah Paulson 36, Maria Dizzia 36
Men
Brady Corbet 23, Christopher Abbott 25, Adam David Thompson 25, Hugh Dancy 36, John Hawkes 52
Exhibit H: the money
It made 3.5 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $1 million
- Box office
- $3.5 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 107 scenes and 751 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
