Fails the Bechdel test
Napoleon Dynamite
2004. Directed by Jared Hess, written by Jared Hess and Jerusha Hess.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
7 women characters. 3 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
Preston, Idaho's most curious resident, Napoleon Dynamite, lives with his grandma and his 32-year-old brother (who cruises chat rooms for ladies) and works to help his best friend, Pedro, snatch the Student Body President title from mean teen Summer Wheatley.
- Released
- 27 Aug 2004
- Genres
- Comedy
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 7 / 10
- Metascore
- 64 / 100
- Awards
- 10 wins & 23 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Napoleon 85 lines, man
- Kip 45 lines, man
- Rico 28 lines, man
- Pedro 17 lines, man
- Deb 12 lines, woman
- Grandma 6 lines, woman
- Rex 5 lines, man
- Don 3 lines, man
- Randy 3 lines, man
- Summer 3 lines, woman
Full cast, 38 people
- Jon Heder as Napoleon Dynamite
- Efren Ramirez as Pedro Sanchez
- Tina Majorino as Deb
- Aaron Ruell as Kip
- Jon Gries as Uncle Rico
- Sandy Martin as Grandma
- Diedrich Bader as Rex
- Haylie Duff as Summer Wheatley
- Trevor Snarr as Don
- Shondrella Avery as Lafawnduh
- Bracken Johnson as Randy
- Carmen Brady as Starla
- Ellen Dubin as Ilene
- J.C. Cunningham as Jock #1
- James Smooth as Jock #2
- Brian Petersen as Lance
- Brent Taylor as Nathan
- Tom Lefler as Principal Svadean
- Elizabeth Miklavcic as Renae
- Emily Kennard Dunn as Trisha
- Samantha Marsden as School Kid
- Jamen Gunnell as Vern
- Nanette Young as Corrina
- Walter Platz as Cashier
- Nano De Silva as Cholo #1
- Arturo De Silva as Cholo #2
- Pat Donahue as Farmer
- Dale Critchlow as Lyle
- Tom Adams as FFA Judge #1
- Eldean Holliday as FFA Judge #2
- Arlando Larsen as FFA Judge #3
- Mari Molefe van Heerden as Teacher
- T.J. Adams as Farm Boy #1
- Jake Visser as Farm Boy #2
- Brady Stokes as Farm Boy #3
- Theodora Peeterborg as Secretary #1
- Becky Demke as Secretary #2
- Julia Ruell as Girl on Bike
Who talks, scene by scene
We couldn't read who says what in this film's script, so there's no dialogue chart for it yet.
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, 10 are women's.
21 lines from women, 186 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
7 women and 8 men in the cast. 3 women and 7 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 42 of 207.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 50 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 (165), men 92% (1,997). Women have 10% 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
6
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 12 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 21% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Jared Hess (man)
- Written by
- Jared Hess (man), Jerusha Hess (woman)
- Produced by
- Sean Covel (man), Jeremy Coon (man), Chris Wyatt (man)
- Shot by
- Munn Powell (man)
- Edited by
- Jeremy Coon (man)
- Music by
- John Swihart (man)
- Production design by
- Cory Lorenzen (gender not listed)
- Costumes by
- Jerusha Hess (woman)
- Cast by
- Jory Weitz (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
3 women, 7 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Production
0 women, 4 men
-
Art
0 women, 1 men, 2 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Writing
1 women, 1 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
-
Other crew
0 women, 0 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 32 on average. Men: 32 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Tina Majorino 19, Haylie Duff 19, Shondrella Avery 33, Sandy Martin 55
Men
Jon Heder 26, Trevor Snarr 26, Aaron Ruell 27, Efren Ramirez 30, Diedrich Bader 37, Jon Gries 46
Exhibit G: the money
It made 115.3 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $400,000
- Box office
- $46.1 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 1 scenes and 207 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
