Passes the Bechdel test
The Battle of Shaker Heights
2003. Directed by Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin, written by Erica Beeney.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
7 women characters. 7 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 2 scenes out of 100. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.
The film
A young war reenactor makes a friend on the battlefield who helps him use strategy to take on his high school enemy. Driven by newfound confidence, he seduces the friend's fetching older sister and risks the friendship. Reality intervenes when the illness of his ex-addict father forces the anger his irony masks to the surface and he has to decide if staying in a fantasy world is worth the consequences.
- Released
- 22 Aug 2003
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 6 / 10
- Metascore
- 33 / 100
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Kelly 376 lines, man
- Bart 167 lines, man
- Tabby 77 lines, woman
- Eve 54 lines, woman
- Lance 36 lines, man
- Sarah 33 lines, woman
- Abe 24 lines, man
- German Officer 18 lines, man
- Miner 11 lines, man
- Mr. Norman 11 lines, man
Full cast, 18 people
- Shia LaBeouf as Kelly Ernswiler
- Elden Henson as Bart Bowland
- Amy Smart as Tabby
- Billy Kay as Lance
- Kathleen Quinlan as Eve
- Shiri Appleby as Sarah
- William Sadler as Abe
- Ray Wise as Harrison
- Jesse Heiman as (uncredited)
- Philipp Karner as Maurice / German Soldier
- Anson Mount as Miner Weber
- Michael McShane as Mr. Norway
- Hattie Winston as Principal Holmstead
- Rick Cramer as German Officer / Mr. Thomas
- France Nuyen as Xiou-Xiou Ling
- Kate Hendrickson as A.D.
- Ellis Williams as Charlie Hayes
- Dana Wheeler-Nicholson as Mathilda
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 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 100
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 | 0 | 4 |
| 4 to 6 | 0 | 46 |
| 7 to 9 | 0 | 18 |
| 10 to 12 | 12 | 14 |
| 13 to 15 | 7 | 10 |
| 16 to 18 | 5 | 14 |
| 19 to 21 | 7 | 18 |
| 22 to 24 | 5 | 35 |
| 25 to 27 | 16 | 25 |
| 28 to 30 | 6 | 58 |
| 31 to 33 | 17 | 29 |
| 34 to 36 | 4 | 36 |
| 37 to 39 | 5 | 14 |
| 40 to 42 | 0 | 18 |
| 43 to 45 | 0 | 7 |
| 46 to 48 | 0 | 3 |
| 49 to 51 | 0 | 2 |
| 52 to 54 | 0 | 1 |
| 55 to 57 | 2 | 15 |
| 58 to 60 | 0 | 2 |
| 61 to 63 | 43 | 57 |
| 64 to 66 | 6 | 27 |
| 67 to 69 | 8 | 58 |
| 70 to 72 | 11 | 13 |
| 73 to 75 | 2 | 3 |
| 76 to 78 | 5 | 31 |
| 79 to 81 | 11 | 11 |
| 82 to 84 | 0 | 5 |
| 85 to 87 | 3 | 18 |
| 88 to 90 | 0 | 0 |
| 91 to 93 | 11 | 21 |
| 94 to 96 | 7 | 22 |
| 97 to 99 | 10 | 31 |
| 100 to 100 | 1 | 2 |
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.
EVE: Don't touch anything. We have to get ready for the Starving Artist show. Now Nana, the gold has to be feathery, not gloppy - see? EVE: Now you try. EVE: She loves the gold. Always overuses it. And usually her touch is so light. XIOU-XIOU: Gold is the color of the sun.
MATHILDA: So darling, when are you going to bite the bullet and do the seating arrangement? TABBY: I can't deal with that stuff, ma. I don't care who sits next to whom. I should have eloped.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 23 are women's.
204 lines from women, 668 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
7 women and 11 men in the cast. 7 women and 10 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 87 of 914.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 86 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 (1,789), men 76% (5,695). Women have 23% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.
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
4
Two men
55
Exhibit F: behind the camera
2 of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 18% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Kyle Rankin (man), Efram Potelle (gender not listed)
- Written by
- Erica Beeney (woman)
- Produced by
- Chris Moore (man), Jeff Balis (man)
- Shot by
- Thomas E. Ackerman (man)
- Edited by
- Richard Nord (man)
- Music by
- Richard Marvin (man)
- Production design by
- Lisa K. Sessions (woman)
- Costumes by
- Bega Metzner (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
0 women, 4 men
-
Art
1 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 0 men, 1 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 1 men
-
Sound
0 women, 1 men
-
Writing
1 women, 0 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 33 on average. Men: 31 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Shiri Appleby 24, Amy Smart 27, Kathleen Quinlan 48
Men
Shia LaBeouf 17, Billy Kay 19, Philipp Karner 24, Elden Henson 25, Jesse Heiman 25, William Sadler 53, Ray Wise 56
Exhibit H: the money
What it cost and made, where TMDB lists it.
- Budget
- $1 million
- Box office
- Not listed
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 100 scenes and 914 lines of dialogue. How the test works
