Fails the Bechdel test
Spare Me
1993. Directed by Matthew Harrison, written by Christopher Grimm.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
0 / 3
Fails
-
No
1. At least two women
Fewer than two women characters. -
No
2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.
Second opinion
Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.
The film
A professional bowler is banned from competition after he bonks a fellow competitor in the head with a ball. The bowler goes on the hunt for his father, bowling legend Buzz Fizzelli, hoping to gain his help in being reinstated to the sport.
- Released
- 03 Sep 1994
- Genres
- Thriller
- IMDb
- 6.7 / 10
- Awards
- 1 win
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Theo 221 lines, man
- Sheila 116 lines, woman
- Buzz 93 lines, man
- Kastle 80 lines, man
- Sid 52 lines, man
- Breeze 39 lines, man
- Junior 35 lines, man
- Millie 21 lines
- Woman 10 lines, woman
- Alfie 8 lines
Full cast, 4 people
- Lawton Paseka
- Christie MacFadyen
- Mark Alfred
- Sonny Weil
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 9% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 86
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 | 2 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 3 |
| 7 to 8 | 0 | 29 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 13 |
| 13 to 14 | 0 | 3 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 11 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 5 |
| 19 to 20 | 0 | 21 |
| 21 to 22 | 0 | 7 |
| 23 to 24 | 11 | 53 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 21 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 30 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 1 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 0 |
| 33 to 34 | 11 | 37 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 14 |
| 37 to 38 | 6 | 8 |
| 39 to 40 | 1 | 1 |
| 41 to 42 | 1 | 7 |
| 43 to 44 | 8 | 7 |
| 45 to 46 | 11 | 13 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 12 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 19 |
| 51 to 52 | 8 | 24 |
| 53 to 54 | 7 | 7 |
| 55 to 56 | 9 | 31 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 4 |
| 59 to 60 | 12 | 19 |
| 61 to 62 | 2 | 1 |
| 63 to 64 | 10 | 35 |
| 65 to 66 | 0 | 2 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 0 |
| 69 to 70 | 0 | 5 |
| 71 to 72 | 2 | 18 |
| 73 to 74 | 10 | 5 |
| 75 to 76 | 4 | 19 |
| 77 to 78 | 6 | 8 |
| 79 to 80 | 0 | 3 |
| 81 to 82 | 10 | 28 |
| 83 to 84 | 5 | 3 |
| 85 to 86 | 0 | 0 |
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, 20 are women's.
134 lines from women, 529 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
1 women and 0 men in the cast. 0 women and 0 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 130 of 731.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 129 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 19% of the words (1,455), men 81% (6,075). Women have 20% 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
0
Two men
42
Exhibit E: behind the camera
None of the 4 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 0% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Matthew Harrison (man)
- Written by
- Christopher Grimm (gender not listed)
- Produced by
- Matthew Harrison (man), Madeline Warren (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 1 men
-
Writing
0 women, 0 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 86 scenes and 731 lines of dialogue. How the test works
