Fails the Bechdel test
Rushmore
1999. Directed by Wes Anderson, written by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
6 women characters. 4 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
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
Max Fischer is a precocious 15-year-old whose reason for living is his attendance at Rushmore, a private school where he's not doing well in any of his classes, but where he's the king of extracurricular activities - from being in the beekeeping society to writing and producing plays, there's very little after school he doesn't do. His life begins to change, however, when he finds out he's on academic probation, and when he stumbles into love with Miss Cross, a pretty teacher of the elementary school at Rushmore. Added to the mix is his friendship with Herman Blume, wealthy industrialist and father to boys who attend the school, and who also finds himself attracted to Miss Cross. Max's fate becomes inextricably tied to this odd love triangle, and how he sets about resolving it is the story in the film.
- Released
- 19 Feb 1999
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.6 / 10
- Metascore
- 87 / 100
- Awards
- 17 wins & 16 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Max 424 lines, man
- Miss Cross 142 lines, woman
- Mr. Blume 130 lines, man
- Dirk 38 lines, man
- Mr. Fischer 27 lines, man
- Dr. Guggenheim 24 lines, man
- Magnus 24 lines, man
- Margaret 23 lines, woman
- Mrs. Blume 11 lines, woman
- Frank 10 lines, man
Full cast, 53 people
- Jason Schwartzman as Max Fischer
- Bill Murray as Herman Blume
- Olivia Williams as Rosemary Cross
- Seymour Cassel as Bert Fischer
- Brian Cox as Dr. Nelson Guggenheim
- Mason Gamble as Dirk Calloway
- Sara Tanaka as Margaret Yang
- Stephen McCole as Magnus Buchan
- Luke Wilson as Dr. Peter Flynn
- Dipak Pallana as Mr. Adams
- Andrew Wilson as Coach Beck
- Marietta Marich as Mrs. Guggenheim
- Ronnie McCawley as Ronny Blume
- Keith McCawley as Donny Blume
- Hae Joon Lee as Alex
- Adebayo Asabi as Mr. Obiamiwe
- Connie Nielsen as Mrs. Calloway
- Al Fielder as Ernie
- Colin Platt as Boy Portraying Frank Serpico
- George Farish as O'Reilly
- Francis Fernandez as Burnum
- McCauley Penderdast as Fields
- Eric Weems as Willie
- Dalton Tomlin as Wrestler
- Wallace Wolodarsky as Referee
- Kim Terry as Mrs. Blume
- Ella Pryor as Woman Back Stage
- Paul Schiff as Waiter
- Antoni Scarano as Small Boy Artist
- Brian Tenenbaum as Contractor
- Thayer McClanahan as School Reporter
- Patricia Winkler as Mrs. Whitney
- Manning Mott as Mr. Holstead
- J.J. Stonebraker as Woody
- Donny Caicedo as 40 Ounce
- Ali Ktiri as Benjamin
- Michael Maggart as Concierge
- Robbie Lee as Isaac
- Morgan Redmond as Bellman
- Ed Geldart as Security Guard
- J.J. Killalea as Tommy Stalling
- William Lau as Mr. Yang
- Lucille Sadikin as Mrs. Yang
- Steve Eckelman as Tennis Pro
- Eric Chase Anderson as Architect
- Danny Fine as Coach Fritz
- Kyle Ryan Urquhart as Regis
- Kumar Pallana as Mr. LittleJeans
- Stephen Dignan as Reuben
- Alexis Bledel as Student (uncredited)
- Brandon Trost as Vietnamese Soldier with Rocket Launcher (uncredited)
- Jason Trost as Party Kid (uncredited)
- David Moritz as Dynamite Salesman
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 8% 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 | 11 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 38 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 12 |
| 7 to 8 | 2 | 2 |
| 9 to 10 | 1 | 38 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 25 |
| 13 to 14 | 17 | 21 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 27 |
| 17 to 18 | 8 | 0 |
| 19 to 20 | 15 | 24 |
| 21 to 22 | 0 | 9 |
| 23 to 24 | 13 | 25 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 9 |
| 27 to 28 | 5 | 8 |
| 29 to 30 | 17 | 32 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 27 |
| 33 to 34 | 1 | 4 |
| 35 to 36 | 4 | 4 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 12 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 6 |
| 41 to 42 | 17 | 31 |
| 43 to 44 | 9 | 9 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 20 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 17 |
| 49 to 50 | 11 | 18 |
| 51 to 52 | 0 | 1 |
| 53 to 54 | 0 | 0 |
| 55 to 56 | 0 | 0 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 14 |
| 59 to 60 | 12 | 18 |
| 61 to 62 | 0 | 19 |
| 63 to 64 | 0 | 21 |
| 65 to 66 | 6 | 9 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 30 |
| 69 to 70 | 28 | 54 |
| 71 to 72 | 0 | 16 |
| 73 to 74 | 0 | 13 |
| 75 to 76 | 5 | 6 |
| 77 to 78 | 0 | 6 |
| 79 to 80 | 4 | 22 |
| 81 to 82 | 2 | 4 |
| 83 to 84 | 16 | 39 |
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, 22 are women's.
193 lines from women, 701 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
6 women and 16 men in the cast. 4 women and 7 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 73 of 977.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 74 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 17% of the words (2,246), men 83% (10,727). Women have 22% 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
1
Two men
59
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 11 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 30% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Wes Anderson (man)
- Written by
- Wes Anderson (man), Owen Wilson (man)
- Produced by
- Barry Mendel (man), Paul Schiff (man)
- Shot by
- Robert D. Yeoman (man)
- Edited by
- David Moritz (man)
- Music by
- Mark Mothersbaugh (man)
- Production design by
- David Wasco (man)
- Cast by
- Barbara Cohen (woman), Mary Gail Artz (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
2 women, 11 men, 7 not listed
-
Production
7 women, 6 men, 6 not listed
-
Art
2 women, 5 men, 6 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
5 women, 1 men, 7 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 5 men, 7 not listed
-
Lighting
1 women, 2 men, 7 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 5 men
-
Editing
0 women, 1 men, 4 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 25 on average. Men: 37 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Sara Tanaka 20, Olivia Williams 30
Men
Mason Gamble 12, Jason Schwartzman 18, Luke Wilson 27, Bill Murray 48, Brian Cox 52, Seymour Cassel 63
Exhibit G: the money
It made 1.9 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $9 million
- Box office
- $17.1 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 84 scenes and 977 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
