Fails the Bechdel test
Selma
2015. Directed by Ava DuVernay, written by Paul Webb.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
10 women characters. 7 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
The unforgettable true story chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965 when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement. Director Ava DuVernay's "Selma" tells the story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history.
- Released
- 09 Jan 2015
- Genres
- Biography, Drama, History
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 7.5 / 10
- Metascore
- 79 / 100
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 59 wins & 92 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- King 182 lines, man
- Johnson 76 lines, man
- Coretta 43 lines, woman
- Young 42 lines
- Lewis 34 lines, man
- Abernathy 24 lines, man
- Wallace 22 lines, man
- Bevel 21 lines, man
- Williams 20 lines, man
- Nash 17 lines, woman
Full cast, 43 people
- David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King
- Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson
- Giovanni Ribisi as Lee White
- Tim Roth as Gov. George Wallace
- André Holland as Andrew Young
- Colman Domingo as Ralph Abernathy
- Common as James Bevel
- Stephan James as John Lewis
- Omar J. Dorsey as James Orange
- LaKeith Stanfield as Jimmie Lee Jackson
- Oprah Winfrey as Annie Lee Cooper
- Tessa Thompson as Diane Nash
- Cuba Gooding Jr. as Fred Gray
- Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Bayard Rustin
- Kent Faulcon as Sullivan Jackson
- Lorraine Toussaint as Amelia Boynton
- Alessandro Nivola as John Doar
- David Dwyer as Chief Wilson Baker
- E. Roger Mitchell as Frederick Reese
- Dylan Baker as J. Edgar Hoover
- Ledisi as Mahalia Jackson
- Niecy Nash-Betts as Richie Jean Jackson
- Corey Reynolds as Rev. C.T. Vivian
- Wendell Pierce as Rev. Hosea Williams
- Charity Jordan as Viola Lee Jackson
- Nigel Thatch as Malcolm X
- Trai Byers as James Forman
- Stan Houston as Sheriff Jim Clark
- Jeremy Strong as James Reeb
- Tara Ochs as Viola Liuzzo
- Stephen Root as Col. Al Lingo
- Greg Maness as Aide
- Haviland Stillwell as President's Secretary
- Charles Black as Elder Marcher
- Jody Thompson as White Marcher
- Henry G. Sanders as Cager Lee
- Montrel Miller as Young Marcher
- Jim France as Gunnar Jahn
- Michael Papajohn as Major Cloud
- John Lavelle as Roy Reed
- Stormy Merriwether as Jackson's Daughter
- Martin Sheen as Frank Minis Johnson (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 13% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 119
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 | 17 | 14 |
| 4 to 6 | 7 | 6 |
| 7 to 9 | 2 | 35 |
| 10 to 12 | 3 | 26 |
| 13 to 15 | 7 | 15 |
| 16 to 18 | 5 | 23 |
| 19 to 21 | 0 | 22 |
| 22 to 24 | 0 | 24 |
| 25 to 27 | 0 | 16 |
| 28 to 30 | 18 | 18 |
| 31 to 33 | 10 | 28 |
| 34 to 36 | 1 | 2 |
| 37 to 39 | 2 | 32 |
| 40 to 42 | 0 | 28 |
| 43 to 45 | 9 | 18 |
| 46 to 48 | 1 | 17 |
| 49 to 51 | 0 | 0 |
| 52 to 54 | 0 | 10 |
| 55 to 57 | 0 | 1 |
| 58 to 60 | 0 | 8 |
| 61 to 63 | 2 | 7 |
| 64 to 66 | 1 | 26 |
| 67 to 69 | 0 | 4 |
| 70 to 72 | 0 | 17 |
| 73 to 75 | 0 | 7 |
| 76 to 78 | 0 | 0 |
| 79 to 81 | 0 | 16 |
| 82 to 84 | 0 | 24 |
| 85 to 87 | 0 | 26 |
| 88 to 90 | 2 | 23 |
| 91 to 93 | 2 | 11 |
| 94 to 96 | 0 | 4 |
| 97 to 99 | 0 | 3 |
| 100 to 102 | 0 | 3 |
| 103 to 105 | 0 | 3 |
| 106 to 108 | 0 | 0 |
| 109 to 111 | 0 | 0 |
| 112 to 114 | 0 | 10 |
| 115 to 117 | 1 | 2 |
| 118 to 119 | 0 | 10 |
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, 14 are women's.
90 lines from women, 539 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
10 women and 33 men in the cast. 7 women and 34 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 2 of 721.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 159 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 12% of the words (1,521), men 88% (11,398). Women have 14% 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
3
Two men
29
Exhibit E: behind the camera
5 of the 13 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 35% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Ava DuVernay (woman)
- Written by
- Paul Webb (man), Ava DuVernay (woman)
- Produced by
- Christian Colson (man), Dede Gardner (woman), Jeremy Kleiner (man), Oprah Winfrey (woman)
- Shot by
- Bradford Young (man)
- Edited by
- Spencer Averick (man)
- Music by
- Jason Moran (man)
- Production design by
- Mark Friedberg (man)
- Costumes by
- Ruth E. Carter (woman)
- Cast by
- Aisha Coley (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
5 women, 7 men, 2 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 10 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
2 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 0 men, 2 not listed
-
Other crew
2 women, 2 men
-
Camera
0 women, 2 men
-
Editing
0 women, 2 men
-
Writing
1 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 41 on average. Men: 42 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Carmen Ejogo 41
Men
Stephan James 21, André Holland 34, David Oyelowo 38, Omar J. Dorsey 39, Giovanni Ribisi 40, Common 42, Colman Domingo 45, Tim Roth 53, Tom Wilkinson 66
Exhibit G: the money
It made 3.3 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $20 million
- Box office
- $66.8 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 119 scenes and 721 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
