Passes the Bechdel test
Rounders
1998. Directed by John Dahl, written by David Levien and Brian Koppelman.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
6 women characters. 6 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 84. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
John Dahl directed this exploration of New York private clubs devoted to high-stakes poker, with first-person narration from the film's central figure, law student Mike McDermott (Matt Damon), who loses his entire savings to Russian club owner Teddy KGB (John Malkovich). Mike then turns away from cards, devoting his attentions to his law studies and his live-in girlfriend Jo (Gretchen Mol), who's concerned when Mike's former gambling buddy Worm (Edward Norton) is released from prison. She has good reason to worry, since it takes Worm only a matter of minutes to draw Mike back into poker action. When she learns Mike has returned to the poker clubs, she moves out, and Mike begins to lose interest in his studies. Worm has a prison debt, and the threatening Grama (Michael Rispoli) wants the money. Mike not only indulges the irresponsible Worm, he gets involved in Worm's debts. When Grama demands $15,000 on a five-day deadline, the two buddies go into high gear with a non-stop, no-sleep gambling binge that spirals downward toward an ultimate confrontation with Teddy KGB.
- Released
- 11 Sep 1998
- Genres
- Crime, Drama
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 53 / 100
- Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Matt 389 lines, man
- Worm 200 lines, man
- Jo 58 lines, woman
- Knish 58 lines, man
- Teddy Kgb 53 lines, man
- Petrovsky 37 lines, man
- Grama 36 lines, man
- Petra 25 lines, woman
- Ma'It 14 lines, woman
- Mati' 12 lines, man
Full cast, 59 people
- Matt Damon as Mike McDermott
- Edward Norton as Lester 'Worm' Murphy
- John Turturro as Joey Knish
- Gretchen Mol as Jo
- John Malkovich as Teddy KGB
- Famke Janssen as Petra
- Martin Landau as Abe Petrovsky
- Michael Rispoli as Grama
- Goran Višnjić as Maurice
- Mal Z. Lawrence as Irving
- Paul Cicero as Russian Thug
- Ray Iannicelli as Kenny
- Merwin Goldsmith as Sy
- Sonny Zito as Tony
- Josh Mostel as Zagosh
- Lenny Clarke as Savino
- Peter Yoshida as Henry Lin
- Jay Boryea as Russian Thug #2
- Lenny Venito as Moogie
- Richard Mawe as Professor Eisen
- Michael Lombardi as D.A. Shields
- Tom Aldredge as Judge Marinacci
- Beeson Carroll as Judge Kaplan
- E. Matthew Yavne as Professor Green
- Erik LaRay Harvey as Roy
- Dominic Marcus as Dowling
- Brian Anthony Wilson as Derald
- George Kmeck as Prison Guard
- Joseph Parisi as Property Guard
- Melina Kanakaredes as Barbara
- Kohl Sudduth as Wagner
- Charlie Matthes as Birch
- Hank Jacobs as Steiny
- Chris Messina as Higgins
- Michael Ryan Segal as Griggs
- Kerry O'Malley as Kelly
- Slava Schoot as Roman
- Michele Zanes as Taj Dealer
- Allan Havey as Guberman
- Joey Vega as Freddy Face
- Neal Hemphill as Claude
- Vernon E. Jordan Jr. as Judge McKinnon
- Johnny Chan as Johnny Chan
- Lisa Gorlitsky as Sherry
- John Di Benedetto as LaRossa
- Nicole Brier as Sunshine
- Tony Hoty as Taki
- Mario Mendoza as Zizzo
- Joe Zaloom as Cronos
- Sal Richards as Johnny Gold
- Josh Pais as Weitz
- Adam LeFevre as Sean Frye
- P.J. Brown as Vitter
- David Zayas as Osborne
- Michael Arkin as Bear
- Murphy Guyer as Detweiler
- Alan Davidson as Cabbie
- Bill Camp as Eisenberg
- Maria Soccor as Atlantic City Call Girl (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 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 84
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 2 | 0 | 24 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 37 |
| 5 to 6 | 2 | 26 |
| 7 to 8 | 0 | 4 |
| 9 to 10 | 7 | 28 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 to 14 | 17 | 26 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 33 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 29 |
| 19 to 20 | 4 | 4 |
| 21 to 22 | 3 | 9 |
| 23 to 24 | 3 | 7 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 10 |
| 27 to 28 | 8 | 16 |
| 29 to 30 | 5 | 7 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 27 |
| 33 to 34 | 5 | 41 |
| 35 to 36 | 12 | 13 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 49 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 29 |
| 41 to 42 | 0 | 0 |
| 43 to 44 | 3 | 13 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 10 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 33 |
| 49 to 50 | 9 | 12 |
| 51 to 52 | 1 | 1 |
| 53 to 54 | 16 | 57 |
| 55 to 56 | 4 | 6 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 40 |
| 59 to 60 | 1 | 11 |
| 61 to 62 | 0 | 7 |
| 63 to 64 | 0 | 8 |
| 65 to 66 | 0 | 18 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 22 |
| 69 to 70 | 0 | 20 |
| 71 to 72 | 0 | 70 |
| 73 to 74 | 8 | 68 |
| 75 to 76 | 0 | 13 |
| 77 to 78 | 0 | 30 |
| 79 to 80 | 3 | 21 |
| 81 to 82 | 7 | 5 |
| 83 to 84 | 0 | 3 |
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.
JO -: The most important thing to remember is to be respectful to the judges, but not KELLY: Now wait a minute, make sure to be deferential--
KELLY: I'll act as lead counsel •.• JO: we were about take a break anyway, Kelly, no big deal.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 12 are women's.
118 lines from women, 887 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
6 women and 43 men in the cast. 6 women and 34 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 82 of 1,044.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 166 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 13% of the words (1,712), men 87% (11,934). Women have 12% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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
2
Two men
77
Exhibit F: behind the camera
1 of the 11 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 16% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- John Dahl (man)
- Written by
- David Levien (man), Brian Koppelman (man)
- Produced by
- Ted Demme (man), Joel Stillerman (man)
- Shot by
- Jean-Yves Escoffier (man)
- Edited by
- Scott Chestnut (man)
- Music by
- Christopher Young (man)
- Production design by
- Robert Pearson (man)
- Costumes by
- Terry Dresbach (gender not listed)
- Cast by
- Avy Kaufman (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
2 women, 13 men, 7 not listed
-
Production
4 women, 8 men
-
Art
1 women, 6 men, 3 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 0 men, 6 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 4 men
-
Editing
0 women, 4 men
-
Other crew
0 women, 1 men, 2 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 29 on average. Men: 39 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Gretchen Mol 25, Famke Janssen 33
Men
Goran Višnjić 26, Matt Damon 27, Edward Norton 29, Michael Rispoli 37, John Turturro 41, John Malkovich 44, Martin Landau 70
Exhibit H: the money
It made 1.9 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $12 million
- Box office
- $22.9 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 84 scenes and 1,044 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
