Fails the Bechdel test
Notorious
2009. Directed by George Tillman Jr., written by Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
6 women characters. 7 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
Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.
The film
NOTORIOUS is the story of Christopher Wallace. Through raw talent and sheer determination, Wallace transforms himself from Brooklyn street hustler (once selling crack to pregnant women) to one of the greatest rappers of all time; THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. Follow his meteoric rise to fame and his refusal to succumb to expectations - redefining our notion of "The American Dream."
- Released
- 16 Jan 2009
- Genres
- Biography, Crime, Drama
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.7 / 10
- Metascore
- 60 / 100
- Awards
- 9 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Biggie 252 lines, man
- Voletta 100 lines, woman
- Faith 76 lines, woman
- Christopher 73 lines, man
- Puffy 71 lines, man
- Damien 51 lines, man
- Jan 47 lines, woman
- Mark 40 lines, man
- Cease 24 lines, man
- Kim 23 lines, woman
Full cast, 22 people
- Jamal Woolard as Christopher 'Biggie' Wallace
- Derek Luke as Sean 'Puffy' Combs
- Naturi Naughton as Lil' Kim
- Anthony Mackie as Tupac "2Pac" Shakur
- Antonique Smith as Faith Evans
- Angela Bassett as Voletta Wallace
- Marc John Jefferies as Lil Cease
- Sean Ringgold as Suge Knight
- C.J. Wallace as Biggie (age 8-13)
- Dennis L.A. White as Damion 'D-Roc' Butler
- Mohamed Dione as Record Executive at Party
- Menyone DeVeaux as Hot Girl
- Ginger Kroll as Debbie
- Ricky Smith as Wally
- Amanda Christopher as Keisha
- Jasper Briggs as Damion (age 8-13)
- Cyrus Farmer as Selwyn
- David Costabile as Mr. Webber
- Julia Pace Mitchell as Jan
- Taylor Dior as Tyanna Wallace - Age 2
- Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Sandy
- Edwin Freeman as Mister Cee
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 5 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 222
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 5 | 0 | 2 |
| 6 to 10 | 15 | 9 |
| 11 to 15 | 13 | 20 |
| 16 to 20 | 17 | 15 |
| 21 to 25 | 6 | 16 |
| 26 to 30 | 9 | 28 |
| 31 to 35 | 10 | 16 |
| 36 to 40 | 0 | 9 |
| 41 to 45 | 1 | 4 |
| 46 to 50 | 0 | 28 |
| 51 to 55 | 12 | 31 |
| 56 to 60 | 3 | 9 |
| 61 to 65 | 9 | 25 |
| 66 to 70 | 0 | 6 |
| 71 to 75 | 5 | 13 |
| 76 to 80 | 3 | 12 |
| 81 to 85 | 12 | 10 |
| 86 to 90 | 0 | 8 |
| 91 to 95 | 0 | 0 |
| 96 to 100 | 6 | 18 |
| 101 to 105 | 22 | 37 |
| 106 to 110 | 9 | 0 |
| 111 to 115 | 25 | 10 |
| 116 to 120 | 7 | 3 |
| 121 to 125 | 19 | 38 |
| 126 to 130 | 14 | 17 |
| 131 to 135 | 0 | 19 |
| 136 to 140 | 2 | 33 |
| 141 to 145 | 7 | 27 |
| 146 to 150 | 1 | 15 |
| 151 to 155 | 1 | 5 |
| 156 to 160 | 2 | 10 |
| 161 to 165 | 0 | 3 |
| 166 to 170 | 0 | 11 |
| 171 to 175 | 9 | 19 |
| 176 to 180 | 5 | 21 |
| 181 to 185 | 0 | 4 |
| 186 to 190 | 4 | 5 |
| 191 to 195 | 7 | 5 |
| 196 to 200 | 0 | 7 |
| 201 to 205 | 3 | 5 |
| 206 to 210 | 0 | 1 |
| 211 to 215 | 0 | 7 |
| 216 to 220 | 3 | 5 |
| 221 to 222 | 0 | 3 |
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, 31 are women's.
261 lines from women, 589 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
6 women and 12 men in the cast. 7 women and 8 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 5 of 909.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 55 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 27% of the words (2,465), men 73% (6,527). Women have 31% 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
4
Two men
54
Exhibit E: behind the camera
4 of the 17 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 28% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- George Tillman Jr. (man)
- Written by
- Reggie Rock Bythewood (man), Cheo Hodari Coker (man)
- Produced by
- George Paaswell (gender not listed), Voletta Wallace (woman), Mark Pitts (man), Wayne Barrow (man), Robert Teitel (man), Edward Bates (gender not listed) and 1 more
- Shot by
- Michael Grady (man)
- Edited by
- Dirk Westervelt (man), Steven Rosenblum (man)
- Music by
- Danny Elfman (man)
- Production design by
- Jane Musky (woman)
- Cast by
- Twinkie Byrd (woman), Pamela Frazier (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
3 women, 4 men, 3 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 2 men
-
Editing
0 women, 2 men
-
Writing
0 women, 2 men
-
Art
1 women, 0 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
-
Directing
0 women, 1 men
-
Sound
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 33 on average. Men: 26 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Naturi Naughton 24, Antonique Smith 25, Angela Bassett 50
Men
C.J. Wallace 12, Marc John Jefferies 18, Anthony Mackie 30, Sean Ringgold 31, Jamal Woolard 33, Derek Luke 34
Exhibit G: the money
It made 2.2 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $20 million
- Box office
- $44.4 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 222 scenes and 909 lines of dialogue. How the test works
