Passes the Bechdel test
Purple Rain
1984. Directed by Albert Magnoli, written by Albert Magnoli and William Blinn.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
7 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 1. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
A young man with a talent for music has begun a career with much promise. He meets an aspiring singer, Apollonia, and finds that talent alone isn't all that he needs. A complicated tale of his repeating his father's self destructive behavior, losing Apollonia to another singer (Morris Day), and his coming to grips with his own connection to other people ensues.
- Released
- 27 Jul 1984
- Genres
- Drama, Music, Romance
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.5 / 10
- Metascore
- 55 / 100
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 10 wins & 6 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Vanity 153 lines, woman
- Morris 134 lines, man
- Prince 128 lines, man
- Jerome 48 lines, man
- Billy 33 lines, man
- Jill 26 lines, woman
- Mother 26 lines, woman
- Father 17 lines, man
- Wendy 11 lines, woman
- Chick 7 lines, woman
Full cast, 24 people
- Prince as The Kid
- Apollonia Kotero as Apollonia
- Morris Day as Morris
- Jerome Benton as Jerome
- Olga Karlatos as Mother
- Clarence Williams III as Father
- Billy Sparks as Billy
- Wendy Melvoin as Wendy
- Lisa Coleman as Lisa
- Bobby Z as Bobby
- Dr. Fink as Matt
- Brown Mark as Mark
- Jill Jones as Jill
- Susan Moonsie as Susan
- Brenda Bennett as Brenda
- Sandra Claire Gershman as Beautiful Babe
- Alan Leeds as Stage Hand
- Garry Johnson as "Jellybean" Johnson - The Time
- Jesse Johnson as Jesse Johnson - The Time
- Marc Cardenas as Mark Cardenas - The Time
- Gerald E. Hubbard Jr. as Jerry Hubbard - The Time
- Paul Peterson as Paul Peterson - The Time
- Israel Gordon as Taste M.C.
- Joel Thingvall as Club Techie (uncredited)
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: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
LISA: -- Fuck it, Wendy -- let's break! WENDY: Do you know you can really, really hurt people? Doesn't that mean anything to you? Doesn't that make you feel like shit? LISA: C'mon ... WENDY: I'm tired of this ... I'm really tired...
WENDY: Oh, my God -- look at this! JILL: Notice anything?
JILL: Hi. VANITY: I love you.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 38 are women's.
237 lines from women, 395 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
7 women and 15 men in the cast. 5 women and 11 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 10 of 661.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 65 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 36% of the words (2,011), men 64% (3,611). Women have 38% 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
11
Two men
22
Exhibit F: behind the camera
1 of the 14 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 9% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Albert Magnoli (man)
- Written by
- William Blinn (man), Albert Magnoli (man)
- Produced by
- Steven Fargnoli (gender not listed), Robert Cavallo (man), Joseph Ruffalo (gender not listed)
- Shot by
- Donald E. Thorin (man)
- Edited by
- Ken Robinson (gender not listed), Albert Magnoli (man)
- Music by
- Michel Colombier (man)
- Production design by
- Ward Preston (man)
- Costumes by
- Marie France (woman)
- Cast by
- David Graham (gender not listed), Peter Golden (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
0 women, 6 men, 9 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 11 men, 4 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 5 men, 8 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 4 men, 7 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 1 men, 8 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 1 men, 5 not listed
-
Editing
1 women, 4 men, 2 not listed
-
Other crew
0 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 27 on average. Men: 29 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Wendy Melvoin 20, Lisa Coleman 23, Apollonia Kotero 24, Olga Karlatos 39
Men
Jerome Benton 21, Prince 26, Morris Day 26, Bobby Z 28, Clarence Williams III 44
Exhibit H: the money
It made 9.5 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $7.2 million
- Box office
- $68.4 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 1 scenes and 661 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
