Fails the Bechdel test
Street Smart
1987. Directed by Jerry Schatzberg, written by David Freeman.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
9 women characters. 6 of them speak. -
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
Magazine reporter Jonathan Fisher, in danger of losing his job, promises to write a factual hard-hitting story of prostitution. But when he tries to get information from the subjects, he is ignored. So he ends up faking a well received story of a pimp, describing his life and crimes. But police think the story is of a real life pimp who is wanted for murder and start pressuring him to reveal the identity of subject in his story, and all he knows. The pimp the police suspect, also thinks the story is about himself, and wants to know what Jonathan knows, and who told him.
- Released
- 20 Mar 1987
- Genres
- Crime, Drama, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.4 / 10
- Metascore
- 70 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 Oscar. 6 wins & 3 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Jonathan 257 lines, man
- Fast 122 lines, man
- Punchy 88 lines, woman
- Alison 67 lines, woman
- Pike 45 lines, man
- Ted 43 lines, man
- Reggie 21 lines, man
- Davis 20 lines, man
- Harriet 19 lines, woman
- Sheffield 17 lines, man
Full cast, 25 people
- Christopher Reeve as Jonathan Fisher
- Kathy Baker as Punchy
- Mimi Rogers as Alison Parker
- Jay Patterson as Leonard Pike
- Andre Gregory as Ted Avery
- Morgan Freeman as Leo 'Fast Black' Smalls, Jr.
- Anna Maria Horsford as Harriet
- Frederick Rolf as Joel Davis
- Erik King as Reginald 'Reggie' Liggens
- Michael J. Reynolds as Art Sheffield
- Shari Hilton as Darlene
- Donna Bailey as Yvonne
- Ed Van Nuys as Judge
- Daniel Nalbach as Singer
- Rick Aviles as Solo
- Leslie Carlson as Marty
- Grace Garland as Black Prostitute
- Shawn Lawrence as Bartender
- Lynne Adams as Reporter
- Claudette Roche as Reporter
- Lois Dellar as Reporter
- Walter Allen Bennett Jr. as Ball Player
- Beverly Murray as Trish
- Donald Lamoreux as Prison Reporter
- Marie Barrientos as Hispanic Prostitute
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 10% 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 | 14 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 6 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 to 8 | 0 | 6 |
| 9 to 10 | 3 | 8 |
| 11 to 12 | 14 | 15 |
| 13 to 14 | 7 | 10 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 28 |
| 17 to 18 | 16 | 22 |
| 19 to 20 | 7 | 9 |
| 21 to 22 | 4 | 18 |
| 23 to 24 | 6 | 53 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 19 |
| 27 to 28 | 9 | 29 |
| 29 to 30 | 2 | 3 |
| 31 to 32 | 18 | 16 |
| 33 to 34 | 1 | 18 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 20 |
| 37 to 38 | 14 | 18 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 16 |
| 41 to 42 | 3 | 13 |
| 43 to 44 | 15 | 25 |
| 45 to 46 | 16 | 28 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 0 |
| 49 to 50 | 3 | 8 |
| 51 to 52 | 2 | 24 |
| 53 to 54 | 8 | 8 |
| 55 to 56 | 7 | 11 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 12 |
| 59 to 60 | 2 | 4 |
| 61 to 62 | 16 | 13 |
| 63 to 64 | 0 | 8 |
| 65 to 66 | 22 | 21 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 1 |
| 69 to 70 | 0 | 6 |
| 71 to 72 | 0 | 0 |
| 73 to 74 | 0 | 3 |
| 75 to 76 | 1 | 17 |
| 77 to 78 | 0 | 3 |
| 79 to 80 | 0 | 15 |
| 81 to 82 | 1 | 11 |
| 83 to 84 | 0 | 3 |
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, 26 are women's.
197 lines from women, 562 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
9 women and 13 men in the cast. 6 women and 12 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 49 of 841.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 75 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 23% of the words (2,055), men 77% (7,038). Women have 26% 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
41
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 9 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 25% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Jerry Schatzberg (man)
- Written by
- David Freeman (man)
- Produced by
- Yoram Globus (man), Menahem Golan (man)
- Shot by
- Adam Holender (man)
- Edited by
- Priscilla Nedd-Friendly (woman)
- Production design by
- Dan Leigh (man)
- Costumes by
- Jo Ynocencio (gender not listed)
- Cast by
- Joy Todd (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
0 women, 3 men, 3 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 0 men, 3 not listed
-
Production
1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 1 men, 2 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
-
Directing
0 women, 1 men
-
Editing
1 women, 0 men
-
Writing
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 36 on average. Men: 42 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Mimi Rogers 31, Kathy Baker 36, Anna Maria Horsford 40
Men
Erik King 23, Jay Patterson 32, Christopher Reeve 34, Michael J. Reynolds 47, Morgan Freeman 49, Andre Gregory 52, Frederick Rolf 60
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 84 scenes and 841 lines of dialogue. How the test works
