Passes the Bechdel test
Music of the Heart
1999. Directed by Wes Craven, written by Pamela Gray.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
17 women characters. 11 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 22 scenes out of 153. -
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
The true story of a young teacher who fights against the board of education in her bid to teach underprivileged kids in a Harlem school the beauty of music through the violin. In her struggle she loses everything as the system comes down on her with all their might but her determination for the kids happiness helps her to battle back with wonderfully inspirational results.
- Released
- 29 Oct 1999
- Genres
- Drama, Music
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 6.7 / 10
- Metascore
- 54 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 2 Oscars. 5 wins & 11 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Roberta 472 lines, woman
- Brian 73 lines, man
- Nick 64 lines, man
- Janet 54 lines, woman
- Lexi 34 lines, man
- Assunta 26 lines, woman
- Dennis 19 lines, man
- Ramon 19 lines, man
- Dorothea 18 lines, woman
- Isabel 18 lines, woman
Full cast, 96 people
- Meryl Streep as Roberta
- Aidan Quinn as Brian
- Angela Bassett as Janet
- Gloria Estefan as Isabel
- Cloris Leachman as Assunta
- Josh Pais as Dennis
- Jane Leeves as Dorothea
- Kieran Culkin as Lexi at 15
- Charlie Hofheimer as Nick at 17
- Jay O. Sanders as Dan Paxton
- Henry Dinhofer as Lexi at 5
- Michael Angarano as Nick at 7
- Robert Ari as Supervisor
- Teddy Coluca as Taxi Driver
- Barbara Gonzalez as Janet's Secretary
- Jade Yorker as DeSean at 11
- Victoria Gómez as Lucy at 10
- Justin Pierre Edmund as Bongo Kid
- Justin 'DJ' Spaulding as Naeem at 9
- Zoe Sternbach-Taubman as Guadalupe at 9
- Christopher Lopez as Adam
- Ruben Jared Seraballs as James
- Lucy Nonas-Barnes as Becky
- Rosalyn Coleman as Mrs. Adisa
- Kevin Miller as Hall Boy
- Hazel Medina as Alice
- Iraida Polanco as Landlady
- Asha Sapp as Tanisha
- Betsy Aidem as Mrs. Lamb
- Julie Janney as Flight Attendant
- Cole Hawkins as Lawrence at 5
- Arthur French as Ernie
- Edmund Wilkinson as Sheetrock Man
- French Napier as Painter
- Socorro Santiago as Lucy's Mother
- Dominic Walters as Justin
- Jean-Luke Figueroa as Ramon
- Sam Fox Royston as Leonard
- Eva Loomis as Vanessa
- Melay Araya as Rachel
- Asease Korankyi as Shandra
- Myra Lucretia Taylor as Beverly
- Olga Merediz as Ramon's Mother
- Christian Berreondo as Ramon's Brother
- Leilani Irvin as Myesha
- Sophia Guaspari as Rosario
- Adam LeFevre as Mr. Klein
- Rafael John Alan Hines as Simon
- Jordan Ware as Kenny
- Amanda Muchnick as Stephanie
- Ian Quinlan as Carlos
- Naeem Jones as Toussaint
- Mateo Gómez as Ramon's Father
- Rosalyn Benniman as Woman at Opus Meeting
- Leon Addison Brown as Mr. Adams
- Arnold Steinhardt as Self
- Scott Cumberbatch as Lawrence at 15
- Majid R. Khaliq as Naeem Adisa at 19
- Molly Gia Foresta as Guadalupe at 19
- Cristina Gómez as Lucy at 20
- Omari Toomer as DeSean at 21
- Tarik Lowe as Teammate #1
- Justin Daly as Teammate #2
- Isaac Stern as Self
- Isaiah Sheffer as Carnegie Hall Concert Director
- Mark O'Connor as Self
- Michael Tree as Self
- Charles Veal Jr. as Self
- Karen Briggs as Self
- Itzhak Perlman as Self
- Sandra Park as Self
- Diane Monroe as Self
- Joshua Bell as Self
- Jonathan Feldman as Self
- Dyllon Rogers as Horse Hair Boy
- April Davis as First Grade Girl
- Anibal Crooklyn Cuevas as Frog Hair Boy
- Sam Deutsch as Violin Student
- Lucy Little as Violin Student
- Jose Miguel Rojas as Violin Student
- Andrew Mayer as Violin Student
- Rebecca Dinhofer as Violin Student
- Christopher Katrandjian as Violin Student
- Ama Korankyi as Violin Student
- Chantilly Mariani as Violin Student
- Thomas Martin as Violin Student
- Derek Ambrosi as Audience Member (uncredited)
- Ruth Barrie as Woman Shopper (uncredited)
- David Chen as Parent (uncredited)
- Gideon Jacobs as Headlock Boy (uncredited)
- Emily Johnson as Mother of Student (uncredited)
- Gabriella Loutfi as Violin Student (uncredited)
- John P. McGinty as Naval Officer (uncredited)
- Kirby Mitchell as New York Times Reporter (uncredited)
- Sarallen as Old Woman in Tenement Building (uncredited)
- Ronald Sylvers as Parent (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 6% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 153
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 | 7 | 3 |
| 5 to 8 | 17 | 8 |
| 9 to 12 | 13 | 8 |
| 13 to 16 | 38 | 12 |
| 17 to 20 | 23 | 22 |
| 21 to 24 | 28 | 15 |
| 25 to 28 | 25 | 3 |
| 29 to 32 | 16 | 1 |
| 33 to 36 | 11 | 8 |
| 37 to 40 | 47 | 12 |
| 41 to 44 | 13 | 1 |
| 45 to 48 | 38 | 2 |
| 49 to 52 | 21 | 5 |
| 53 to 56 | 15 | 12 |
| 57 to 60 | 9 | 11 |
| 61 to 64 | 34 | 25 |
| 65 to 68 | 19 | 12 |
| 69 to 72 | 15 | 15 |
| 73 to 76 | 9 | 4 |
| 77 to 80 | 29 | 4 |
| 81 to 84 | 6 | 3 |
| 85 to 88 | 16 | 6 |
| 89 to 92 | 13 | 9 |
| 93 to 96 | 9 | 12 |
| 97 to 100 | 1 | 8 |
| 101 to 104 | 22 | 11 |
| 105 to 108 | 15 | 7 |
| 109 to 112 | 21 | 0 |
| 113 to 116 | 24 | 13 |
| 117 to 120 | 10 | 8 |
| 121 to 124 | 28 | 3 |
| 125 to 128 | 28 | 13 |
| 129 to 132 | 8 | 6 |
| 133 to 136 | 4 | 1 |
| 137 to 140 | 20 | 7 |
| 141 to 144 | 4 | 0 |
| 145 to 148 | 0 | 0 |
| 149 to 152 | 1 | 0 |
| 153 to 153 | 5 | 1 |
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.
ROBERTA: Watch it, you idiots! Be careful with those! ASSUNTA: Why so many?
JANET: If you could teach our students to play like that, I'd be thrilled, but -- ROBERTA: I can. Any child can learn the violin.
ROBERTA: I'll teach them to have discipline. JANET: A lot of our parents are struggling to feed their kids and pay the rent -- they don't have time to help them learn violin. ROBERTA: They don't have to. If they can help, great -- but these kids will be committed. They'll practice on their own, they'll help each other in t…
ROBERTA: You will. JANET: For now I'll put you down as a sub, but I have to warn you -- even if it works out, the Board may not let me create a permanent position for… ROBERTA: That's O.K. I'll worry about that later. Thank you.
ROBERTA: Anyone remember what this is? ROBERTA: Lucy! Do you like people snapping their fingers when you're talking? LUCY: Yeah! ROBERTA: What is this called?
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 69 are women's.
662 lines from women, 291 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
17 women and 33 men in the cast. 11 women and 19 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 2 of 1,010.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 9 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 75% of the words (7,554), men 25% (2,532). Women have 69% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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
51
Two men
21
Exhibit F: behind the camera
5 of the 13 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 35% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Wes Craven (man)
- Written by
- Pamela Gray (woman)
- Produced by
- Susan Kaplan (woman), Walter Scheuer (man), Marianne Maddalena (woman), Allan Miller (man)
- Shot by
- Peter Deming (man)
- Edited by
- Gregg Featherman (man), Patrick Lussier (man)
- Music by
- Mason Daring (man)
- Production design by
- Bruce Alan Miller (man)
- Costumes by
- Susan Lyall (woman)
- Cast by
- Avy Kaufman (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
4 women, 7 men, 2 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
4 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 3 men
-
Art
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Other crew
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 1 men
-
Editing
0 women, 2 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 49 on average. Men: 31 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Jane Leeves 38, Angela Bassett 41, Gloria Estefan 42, Meryl Streep 50, Cloris Leachman 73
Men
Kieran Culkin 17, Charlie Hofheimer 18, Josh Pais 35, Aidan Quinn 40, Jay O. Sanders 46
Exhibit H: the money
It made 55% of what it cost.
- Budget
- $27 million
- Box office
- $14.9 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 153 scenes and 1,010 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
