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Passes the Bechdel test

Respect

2021. Directed by Liesl Tommy, written by Tracey Scott Wilson and Callie Khouri.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    11 women characters. 12 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 19 scenes out of 130.
  3. 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.

Poster for Respect

The film

Detroit, Michigan, 1952. Blessed with a lovely singing voice and powerful stage presence, child prodigy Aretha Franklin, daughter of the Baptist pastor and renowned minister of national influence C.L. Franklin, begins to understand her god-given gift. As her controlling father takes over her career, seeing her more than a gospel singer, Aretha Franklin moves to New York to sign with Columbia Records, only to realise that having a good voice is not enough to make hits. As a result, while in search of a breakthrough, Aretha must confront her father, her abusive husband Ted White, and summon up the strength to cover and rearrange Otis Redding's hit song titled Respect, to finally find her signature sound and eventually become the undisputed Queen of Soul.

Released
13 Aug 2021
Genres
Biography, Drama, Music
Rated
PG-13
IMDb
6.6 / 10
Metascore
61 / 100
Awards
6 wins & 41 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Aretha 287 lines, woman
  2. Ted 100 lines, man
  3. Jerry 62 lines, man
  4. Ken 43 lines, man
  5. Erma 31 lines, woman
  6. Mama Franklin 29 lines, woman
  7. C.L 28 lines
  8. Carolyn 28 lines, woman
  9. Rick 24 lines, man
  10. James 22 lines, man
Full cast, 28 people
  • Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin
  • Forest Whitaker as C. L. Franklin
  • Marlon Wayans as Ted White
  • Audra McDonald as Barbara Franklin
  • Mary J. Blige as Dinah Washington
  • Marc Maron as Jerry Wexler
  • Tituss Burgess as Reverend Dr. James Cleveland
  • Saycon Sengbloh as Erma Franklin
  • Hailey Kilgore as Carolyn Franklin
  • Tate Donovan as John Hammond
  • Skye Dakota Turner as Aretha Franklin (young)
  • Heather Headley as Clara Ward
  • Leroy McClain as Cecil Franklin
  • Lodric D. Collins as Smokey Robinson
  • Brenda Nicole Moorer as Brenda Franklin
  • Brandon Gilpin as Teenager
  • Tangela Large as Grieving Mother
  • Albert Jones as Ken Cunningham
  • Myk Watford as Rick Hall
  • Gilbert Glenn Brown as Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Kimberly Scott as Mama Franklin
  • Peyton Jackson as Young Cecil
  • Nevaeh Moore as Young Carolyn
  • Victoria Paige Watkins as Teen #2
  • Christopher Daniel as Edward
  • Zach Strum as David Hood
  • Abri as Ted White's Prostitute (uncredited)
  • Chris Williams as Tyrell/Bellhop (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 9% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 130

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 3112
4 to 6330
7 to 930
10 to 12155
13 to 15101
16 to 1807
19 to 212212
22 to 242015
25 to 2748
28 to 30210
31 to 3320
34 to 3600
37 to 3983
40 to 421213
43 to 4596
46 to 482711
49 to 51416
52 to 54116
55 to 57928
58 to 60523
61 to 6360
64 to 66124
67 to 6933
70 to 7263
73 to 75260
76 to 78222
79 to 8141
82 to 8421
85 to 8724
88 to 90101
91 to 931247
94 to 9601
97 to 9923
100 to 10297
103 to 10520
106 to 10810
109 to 11138
112 to 114262
115 to 1174635
118 to 12011
121 to 1231111
124 to 12689
127 to 12963
130 to 13000

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.
CLARA: Ten, but her voice is going on thirty, honey. DINAH: Damn, I was gonna record that on my next album. Can we do a duet?
ARETHA: Oh, when the saints go marching in... MAMA FRANKLIN: Those white folks don’t know what to do with her. Sock it to ‘em, Clara! ARETHA: Momma’s here! BARBARA: Oh... I missed you so much.
BARBARA: Don’t cry, Ree. I’ll see you for your birthday. ARETHA: Three weeks is a long time. BARBARA: I know. But I’m with you all the time. Even when I’m not there.
ERMA: I’m the oldest. I should be in front. MAMA FRANKLIN: Hush.
ARETHA: What if I wasn’t here? ARETHA: I don’t know. MAMA FRANKLIN: Clarence, come to the phone. ARETHA: Ok.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 58 are women's.

436 lines from women, 312 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

11 women and 13 men in the cast. 12 women and 13 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 2 of 820. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 38 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 52% of the words (3,408), men 48% (3,189). Women have 58% 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

Exhibit F: behind the camera

7 of the 15 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 38% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Liesl Tommy (woman)
Written by
Tracey Scott Wilson (woman)
Story by
Tracey Scott Wilson (woman), Callie Khouri (woman)
Produced by
Jonathan Glickman (man), Harvey Mason Jr. (man), Scott Bernstein (man)
Shot by
Kramer Morgenthau (man)
Edited by
Avril Beukes (woman)
Music by
Kris Bowers (man)
Production design by
Ina Mayhew (woman)
Costumes by
Clint Ramos (man)
Cast by
David Vaccari (gender not listed), Bernard Telsey (man), Tiffany Little Canfield (woman)

The crew, department by department

  • Costume & Make-Up

    4 women, 4 men, 20 not listed

  • Sound

    2 women, 8 men, 7 not listed

  • Visual Effects

    1 women, 7 men, 9 not listed

  • Other crew

    2 women, 7 men, 4 not listed

  • Production

    5 women, 6 men, 2 not listed

  • Art

    4 women, 2 men, 5 not listed

  • Camera

    0 women, 3 men

  • Writing

    3 women, 0 men

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 41 on average. Men: 53 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Hailey Kilgore 22, Jennifer Hudson 39, Saycon Sengbloh 43, Mary J. Blige 50, Audra McDonald 51

Men

Tituss Burgess 42, Marlon Wayans 49, Marc Maron 57, Tate Donovan 57, Forest Whitaker 60

Exhibit H: the money

It made 57% of what it cost.

Budget
$55 million
Box office
$31.2 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 130 scenes and 820 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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