Passes the Bechdel test
Sex, Lies, and Videotape
1989. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, written by Steven Soderbergh.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
3 women characters. 3 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 2 scenes out of 53. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 2 out of 3.
The film
John and Ann Mullany, a junior partner at a law firm and a housewife respectively, are a young, upwardly mobile couple, who most would deem to have a perfect life. Ann's outward perfection belies the fact that she is in therapy, dealing with the stress over worrying about global issues with which she has little to no control. She does not see certain things with which she does have control being problems in her life, namely her sexual repression or her disinterest in sex as an activity, that is until it manifested itself in this stress which in turn is having, what she believes, a negative impact on her marriage. What she is unaware of is that, long before her stress began, John embarked on an affair with her sister, bartender Cynthia Bishop, who she doesn't admire as being too "loud". John reconnects with a close friend from college named Graham Dalton, who, to John, appears to have lost his way in life in the years that they have not been in touch. Graham, via the method in which he deals with his emotional and sexual problems - which is also believes is being totally forthright to all concerned - has a profound effect on Cynthia, John and Ann, who in turn, especially Ann, have a profound effect on him.
- Released
- 22 Sep 1989
- Genres
- Drama
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.2 / 10
- Metascore
- 86 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 Oscar. 15 wins & 24 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Ann 328 lines, woman
- Graham 265 lines, man
- Cynthia 181 lines, woman
- John 128 lines, man
- Doctor 37 lines
- Dude 9 lines, man
- Cytnhia 6 lines
- Mr. Miller 5 lines, man
- Voice On Phone 5 lines, woman
- Secretary 4 lines
Full cast, 9 people
- James Spader as Graham Dalton
- Andie MacDowell as Ann Bishop Mullany
- Peter Gallagher as John Mullany
- Laura San Giacomo as Cynthia Bishop
- Ron Vawter as Therapist
- Steven Brill as Barfly
- Alexandra Root as Girl on Tape
- Earl T. Taylor as Landlord
- David Foil as John's Colleague
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 5% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 53
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 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 to 4 | 7 | 4 |
| 5 to 6 | 4 | 0 |
| 7 to 8 | 8 | 0 |
| 9 to 10 | 15 | 17 |
| 11 to 12 | 37 | 54 |
| 13 to 14 | 2 | 1 |
| 15 to 16 | 3 | 11 |
| 17 to 18 | 26 | 25 |
| 19 to 20 | 55 | 0 |
| 21 to 22 | 34 | 25 |
| 23 to 24 | 21 | 3 |
| 25 to 26 | 39 | 42 |
| 27 to 28 | 7 | 8 |
| 29 to 30 | 5 | 2 |
| 31 to 32 | 43 | 0 |
| 33 to 34 | 34 | 26 |
| 35 to 36 | 2 | 1 |
| 37 to 38 | 1 | 1 |
| 39 to 40 | 44 | 43 |
| 41 to 42 | 0 | 0 |
| 43 to 44 | 19 | 17 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 0 |
| 47 to 48 | 10 | 9 |
| 49 to 50 | 81 | 105 |
| 51 to 52 | 16 | 12 |
| 53 to 53 | 0 | 1 |
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.
CYNTHIA: It's great. Pardon me. ANN: I wish you'd get an answering machine.
ANN: It was busy. ANN: Here it is. CYNTHIA: What is it? ANN: It's a sun dress.
ANN: So will you, someday. CYNTHIA: Yeah, and when I do, I won't be wearing sun dresses. ANN: I was just trying to-- CYNTHIA: Hold on.
CYNTHIA: Look, I'll call you, okay? CYNTHIA: So what's my share of the dress? ANN: Thirty-two dollars. CYNTHIA: Look, don't worry about the dress, I'm sure she'll love it.
CYNTHIA: Excuse me. ANN: I know it's your birthday, and I know you like plants. So I got you this. CYNTHIA: Thank you. ANN: Well. I can't stay.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 56 are women's.
514 lines from women, 407 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
3 women and 6 men in the cast. 3 women and 2 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
A woman speaks the first line.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 21 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 56% of the words (5,587), men 44% (4,463).
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
12
Two men
15
Exhibit F: behind the camera
1 of the 8 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 18% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Steven Soderbergh (man)
- Written by
- Steven Soderbergh (man)
- Produced by
- John Hardy (man), Robert Newmyer (man)
- Shot by
- Walt Lloyd (man)
- Edited by
- Steven Soderbergh (man)
- Music by
- Cliff Martinez (man)
- Cast by
- Deborah Aquila (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
1 women, 9 men, 3 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 3 men, 5 not listed
-
Production
2 women, 6 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 1 men, 3 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 2 men
-
Art
1 women, 0 men, 1 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 0 men, 2 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 29 on average. Men: 32 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Laura San Giacomo 26, Andie MacDowell 31
Men
Steven Brill 27, James Spader 29, Peter Gallagher 33, Ron Vawter 40
Exhibit H: the money
It made 20.6 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $1.2 million
- Box office
- $24.7 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 53 scenes and 968 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
