Fails the Bechdel test
Sleepy Hollow
1999. Directed by Tim Burton, written by Washington Irving and Kevin Yagher and Andrew Kevin Walker.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
8 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
The curse of The Headless Horseman (Christopher Walken) is the legacy of the small town of Sleepy Hollow. Spearheaded by the eager Constable Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) and his new-world ways into the quagmire of secrets and murder, secrets once laid to rest, best forgotten, and now reawakened, and he too, holding a dark secret of a past once gone.
- Released
- 19 Nov 1999
- Genres
- Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 65 / 100
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 28 wins & 44 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Ichabod 303 lines, man
- Katrina 98 lines, woman
- Young Masbath 77 lines, man
- Lady Van Tassel 36 lines, woman
- Baltus 33 lines, man
- Brom 26 lines, man
- Father Steenwyck 24 lines, man
- Doctor Lancaster 18 lines, man
- Philipse 17 lines, man
- High Constable 13 lines, man
Full cast, 33 people
- Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane
- Christina Ricci as Katrina Van Tassel
- Miranda Richardson as Lady Mary Van Tassel / Crone Witch
- Michael Gambon as Baltus Van Tassel
- Casper Van Dien as Brom Van Brunt
- Jeffrey Jones as Reverend Steenwyck
- Richard Griffiths as Bürgermeister Phillipse
- Ian McDiarmid as Dr. Lancaster
- Michael Gough as Notary Hardenbrook
- Christopher Walken as Hessian Horseman
- Marc Pickering as Young Masbath
- Lisa Marie as Lady Crane
- Steven Waddington as Kilian
- Claire Skinner as Beth Killian
- Christopher Lee as Burgomaster
- Alun Armstrong as High Constable
- Mark Spalding as Jonathan Masbath
- Jessica Oyelowo as Sarah
- Peter Guinness as Lord Crane
- Tony Maudsley as Van Ripper
- Jamie Foreman as Constable
- Philip Martin Brown as Constable
- Orlando Seale as Theodore
- Sean Stephens as Thomas Killian
- Gabrielle Lloyd as Doctor Lancaster's Wife
- Robert Sella as Dirk Van Garrett
- Michael Feast as Spotty Man
- Sam Fior as Young Ichabod
- Paul Brightwell as Rifleman
- Layla Alexander as Widow (uncredited)
- Kelley Costigan as Townswoman (uncredited)
- Martin Landau as Peter Van Garrett (uncredited)
- Kevin Hudson as New Yorker (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 5 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 208
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 5 | 0 | 15 |
| 6 to 10 | 0 | 18 |
| 11 to 15 | 9 | 12 |
| 16 to 20 | 10 | 46 |
| 21 to 25 | 4 | 5 |
| 26 to 30 | 1 | 33 |
| 31 to 35 | 0 | 28 |
| 36 to 40 | 0 | 12 |
| 41 to 45 | 13 | 23 |
| 46 to 50 | 11 | 14 |
| 51 to 55 | 11 | 32 |
| 56 to 60 | 0 | 5 |
| 61 to 65 | 13 | 11 |
| 66 to 70 | 0 | 16 |
| 71 to 75 | 3 | 34 |
| 76 to 80 | 16 | 25 |
| 81 to 85 | 6 | 21 |
| 86 to 90 | 2 | 1 |
| 91 to 95 | 1 | 2 |
| 96 to 100 | 0 | 2 |
| 101 to 105 | 2 | 1 |
| 106 to 110 | 0 | 8 |
| 111 to 115 | 3 | 18 |
| 116 to 120 | 0 | 34 |
| 121 to 125 | 1 | 1 |
| 126 to 130 | 0 | 4 |
| 131 to 135 | 0 | 14 |
| 136 to 140 | 7 | 16 |
| 141 to 145 | 14 | 33 |
| 146 to 150 | 1 | 1 |
| 151 to 155 | 1 | 7 |
| 156 to 160 | 0 | 4 |
| 161 to 165 | 0 | 10 |
| 166 to 170 | 0 | 1 |
| 171 to 175 | 0 | 15 |
| 176 to 180 | 0 | 9 |
| 181 to 185 | 14 | 3 |
| 186 to 190 | 14 | 24 |
| 191 to 195 | 1 | 4 |
| 196 to 200 | 1 | 3 |
| 201 to 205 | 1 | 4 |
| 206 to 208 | 6 | 7 |
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.
166 lines from women, 576 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
8 women and 25 men in the cast. 4 women and 13 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 40 of 763.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 68 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 24% of the words (1,739), men 76% (5,644). Women have 22% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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
5
Two men
68
Exhibit E: behind the camera
3 of the 13 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 18% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Tim Burton (man)
- Written by
- Andrew Kevin Walker (man)
- From the novel by
- Washington Irving (man)
- Produced by
- Scott Rudin (man), Adam Schroeder (man)
- Shot by
- Emmanuel Lubezki (man)
- Edited by
- Chris Lebenzon (man), Joel Negron (man)
- Music by
- Danny Elfman (man)
- Production design by
- Rick Heinrichs (man)
- Costumes by
- Colleen Atwood (woman)
- Cast by
- Susie Figgis (woman), Ilene Starger (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Visual Effects
5 women, 37 men, 83 not listed
-
Other crew
7 women, 50 men, 55 not listed
-
Art
6 women, 25 men, 42 not listed
-
Sound
10 women, 38 men, 9 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
7 women, 10 men, 26 not listed
-
Production
6 women, 9 men, 17 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 9 men, 7 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 5 men, 6 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 30 on average. Men: 53 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Christina Ricci 19, Miranda Richardson 41
Men
Casper Van Dien 30, Johnny Depp 36, Richard Griffiths 52, Jeffrey Jones 53, Ian McDiarmid 55, Christopher Walken 56, Michael Gambon 59, Michael Gough 82
Exhibit G: the money
It made 2.1 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $100 million
- Box office
- $206 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 208 scenes and 763 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
