Passes the Bechdel test

Precious

Name: Precious
Released: 2009

2009. Directed by Lee Daniels, written by Geoffrey Fletcher and Sapphire.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
17 women characters. 15 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 17 scenes out of 138.
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

In 1987 Harlem, 16-year-old Claireece Jones, who goes by her middle name, Precious, is illiterate, overweight, and pregnant--for the second time, by the same man: her biological father, who has molested and raped her since she was a child, but whom she doesn't see otherwise. Her infant daughter, nicknamed Mongo because she has Down Syndrome, lives with Precious' grandmother; Precious herself lives with her mother Mary, who abuses her physically and emotionally. Mary does nothing but smoke, watch TV, and collect welfare through fraud (she doesn't even look for jobs) and believes that education does nothing for Precious; she would rather have Precious also collect welfare, if only to bring money into the household. To escape her life, Precious daydreams of herself in glamorous situations. Because of her current pregnancy, Precious' principal transfers her into an alternative school, where sympathetic teacher Miss Blu Rain tries to convince her that she can have a future if she learns how to read and write, and Precious starts to believe her. Despite devastating news from her mother following her baby's birth, Precious also starts to believe that she can escape the grip of her abusive mother--who, up to this point, was Precious' only real support.

Released: 20 Nov 2009
Genres: Drama
Rated: Not Rated
IMDb: 7.3 / 10
Metascore: 78 / 100
Awards: Won 2 Oscars. 114 wins & 103 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Precious 307 lines, woman
Ms. Rain 126 lines, woman
Mary 59 lines, woman
Ms. Weiss 34 lines, woman
Cornrows 32 lines, woman
Mrs. Lichenstein 24 lines, woman
Jermaine 23 lines, woman
Jo Ann 16 lines, woman
John 11 lines, man
Rhonda 11 lines, woman

Full cast, 48 people

Gabourey Sidibe as Precious
Mo'Nique as Mary
Paula Patton as Ms. Rain
Mariah Carey as Ms. Weiss
Sherri Shepherd as Cornrows
Lenny Kravitz as Nurse John
Stephanie Andujar as Rita
Chyna Layne as Rhonda
Amina Robinson as Jermaine
Xosha Roquemore as Joann
Angelic Zambrana as Consuelo
Aunt Dot as Toosie
Nealla Gordon as Mrs. Lichenstein
Grace Hightower as Socialworker
Barret Helms as Tom Cruise
Kimberly Russell as Katherine
Bill Sage as Mr Wicher
Susan Taylor as Fairy Godmother
Kendall Toombs as Abdul, New Born
Alexander Toombs as Abdul, New Born
Cory Davis as Abdul, 9 Months
Rochelle McNaughton as Aids Clerk
Roy Anthony Tarell Harvey as Boy #1
Abigail Savage as Bunny
Rodney "Bear" Jackson as Carl
Sapphire as Day Care Woman
Linda Watson as Female Clerk
Emani Reid as Girl #1
Dashawn Robinson as Girl #2
AzMarie Livingston as Girl with Jermaine
Maurizio Arseni as Italian Language Instructor
Mugga as KFC Cashier
Chazz Menendez as Man #1 Exits Elevator (St)
Roy T. Anderson as Man #2 Exits Elevator (St)
Quisha Powell as Mongo
Vivien Eng as Nurse
Silje Vallevik as Pretty Blonde Girl
Matthew Bralow as Reggie
Shayla Stewart as Ruby
Erica Faye Watson as Sheila
Ephraim Benton as Skinny Boy #1
Shortee Red as Skinny Boy #2
Timothy Allen as Skinny Boy #3
Nigel Joaquin as Unruly Boy #1
Esley Tate as Unruly Boy #2
Alex Manette as Administrator Harris (uncredited)
Malcolm X as Self (archive footage)
Martin Luther King Jr. as Self (archive footage)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 4% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 138

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	39	9
4 to 6	3	0
7 to 9	11	0
10 to 12	8	0
13 to 15	13	0
16 to 18	2	0
19 to 21	17	2
22 to 24	0	0
25 to 27	45	0
28 to 30	7	4
31 to 33	3	0
34 to 36	10	0
37 to 39	9	1
40 to 42	0	0
43 to 45	76	0
46 to 48	38	0
49 to 51	27	0
52 to 54	23	0
55 to 57	6	0
58 to 60	6	0
61 to 63	4	0
64 to 66	6	3
67 to 69	4	0
70 to 72	6	0
73 to 75	4	0
76 to 78	1	0
79 to 81	1	0
82 to 84	15	0
85 to 87	0	0
88 to 90	6	1
91 to 93	6	0
94 to 96	1	0
97 to 99	17	0
100 to 102	19	0
103 to 105	22	0
106 to 108	20	6
109 to 111	40	1
112 to 114	5	0
115 to 117	16	0
118 to 120	28	0
121 to 123	27	0
124 to 126	24	0
127 to 129	29	0
130 to 132	13	0
133 to 135	27	0
136 to 138	1	0

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.

MARY: You get my cigarettes? PRECIOUS: No Mama, I dropped some of my thangs on the way to school.

MARY: Tell them assholes to stop ringing my bell. PRECIOUS: No one ever ring the bell but crack addicts. I hates crack addicts. Give the ghetto a bad name. PRECIOUS: Stop ringing the goddam buzzer motherfucker! PRECIOUS: Stop ringing the goddam buzzer.

MARY: Who that Precious? PRECIOUS: White bitch from school.

MARY: What she want? PRECIOUS: I don't know. MARY: Ask her stupid. PRECIOUS: What you want?

CORNROWS: Why do you say that shit when you don't mean it Trey? I'm not playing with you and I know that wasn't your damn sister neither....because yo… PRECIOUS: This the alternative? CORNROWS: The what? PRECIOUS: This the alternative?

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 96 are women's.

685 lines from women, 27 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

17 women and 9 men in the cast. 15 women and 2 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 4 of 745. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 5 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 98% of the words (8,562), men 2% (161). Women have 96% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Run the other way, for men, the film scores 0 out of 3.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

3 of the 11 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 48% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Lee Daniels (man)
Written by: Geoffrey S. Fletcher (man)
From the novel by: Sapphire (woman)
Produced by: Lee Daniels (man), Gary Magness (man), Sarah Siegel-Magness (woman)
Shot by: Andrew Dunn (man)
Edited by: Joe Klotz (man)
Music by: Mario Grigorov (man)
Production design by: Roshelle Berliner (woman)
Costumes by: Marina Draghici (gender not listed)