Passes the Bechdel test
The Conversation
1974. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, written by Francis Ford Coppola.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
3 women characters. 4 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 125. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
Harry Caul is a devout Catholic and a lover of jazz music who plays his saxophone while listening to his jazz records. He is a San Francisco-based electronic surveillance expert who owns and operates his own small surveillance business. He is renowned within the profession as being the best, one who designs and constructs his own surveillance equipment. He is an intensely private and solitary man in both his personal and professional life, which especially irks Stan, his business associate who often feels shut out of what is happening with their work. This privacy, which includes not letting anyone into his apartment and always telephoning his clients from pay phones is, in part, intended to control what happens around him. His and Stan's latest job (a difficult one) is to record the private discussion of a young couple meeting in crowded and noisy Union Square. The arrangement with his client, known only to him as "the director", is to provide the audio recording of the discussion and photographs of the couple directly to him alone in return for payment. Based on circumstances with the director's assistant, Martin Stett, and what Harry ultimately hears on the recording, Harry believes that the lives of the young couple are in jeopardy. Harry used to be detached from what he recorded, but is now concerned ever since the deaths of three people that were the direct result of a previous audio recording he made for another job. Harry not only has to decide if he will turn the recording over to the director, but also if he will try and save the couple's lives using information from the recording. As Harry goes on a quest to find out what exactly is happening on this case, he finds himself in the middle of his worst nightmare.
- Released
- 12 Apr 1974
- Genres
- Drama, Mystery, Thriller
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 7.7 / 10
- Metascore
- 88 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 3 Oscars. 14 wins & 17 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Harry 275 lines, man
- Ann 80 lines, woman
- Moran 66 lines, man
- Meredith 61 lines, woman
- Paul 59 lines, man
- Stanley 58 lines, man
- Mark 57 lines, man
- Amy 25 lines, woman
- Millard 18 lines
- Ron 15 lines, man
Full cast, 17 people
- Gene Hackman as Harry Caul
- John Cazale as Stan
- Allen Garfield as William P. 'Bernie' Moran
- Frederic Forrest as Mark
- Cindy Williams as Ann
- Michael Higgins as Paul
- Elizabeth MacRae as Meredith
- Teri Garr as Amy Fredericks
- Harrison Ford as Martin Stett
- Mark Wheeler as Receptionist
- Robert Shields as The Mime
- Phoebe Alexander as Lurleen
- Ramon Bieri as Man at Party (uncredited)
- Gian-Carlo Coppola as Boy in Church (uncredited)
- Robert Duvall as The Director (uncredited)
- Richard Hackman as Confessional Priest / Security Guard (uncredited)
- Billy Dee Williams as Man in Yellow Hat (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 15% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 125
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 | 10 | 3 |
| 4 to 6 | 0 | 15 |
| 7 to 9 | 10 | 24 |
| 10 to 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 to 15 | 2 | 4 |
| 16 to 18 | 2 | 13 |
| 19 to 21 | 5 | 34 |
| 22 to 24 | 25 | 25 |
| 25 to 27 | 2 | 14 |
| 28 to 30 | 1 | 0 |
| 31 to 33 | 6 | 21 |
| 34 to 36 | 4 | 8 |
| 37 to 39 | 4 | 3 |
| 40 to 42 | 0 | 31 |
| 43 to 45 | 1 | 1 |
| 46 to 48 | 0 | 22 |
| 49 to 51 | 2 | 1 |
| 52 to 54 | 2 | 4 |
| 55 to 57 | 0 | 2 |
| 58 to 60 | 4 | 80 |
| 61 to 63 | 10 | 29 |
| 64 to 66 | 2 | 3 |
| 67 to 69 | 0 | 4 |
| 70 to 72 | 65 | 146 |
| 73 to 75 | 0 | 0 |
| 76 to 78 | 0 | 17 |
| 79 to 81 | 0 | 0 |
| 82 to 84 | 14 | 35 |
| 85 to 87 | 0 | 1 |
| 88 to 90 | 0 | 1 |
| 91 to 93 | 1 | 1 |
| 94 to 96 | 0 | 0 |
| 97 to 99 | 0 | 0 |
| 100 to 102 | 1 | 11 |
| 103 to 105 | 0 | 0 |
| 106 to 108 | 10 | 18 |
| 109 to 111 | 5 | 22 |
| 112 to 114 | 1 | 2 |
| 115 to 117 | 3 | 0 |
| 118 to 120 | 0 | 0 |
| 121 to 123 | 0 | 3 |
| 124 to 125 | 0 | 16 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scene
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
MEREDITH: Hey ... angel. ANN: I love you. MEREDITH: It's alright, baby.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 24 are women's.
192 lines from women, 614 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
3 women and 12 men in the cast. 4 women and 8 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 2 of 952.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 61 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 (2,384), men 77% (8,161). Women have 24% of the lines, so their lines run shorter 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
5
Two men
71
Exhibit F: behind the camera
2 of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 14% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Francis Ford Coppola (man)
- Written by
- Francis Ford Coppola (man)
- Produced by
- Francis Ford Coppola (man)
- Shot by
- Wilmer Butler (man), Haskell Wexler (man)
- Edited by
- Richard Chew (man)
- Music by
- David Shire (man)
- Production design by
- Dean Tavoularis (man)
- Costumes by
- Aggie Guerard Rodgers (woman)
- Cast by
- Jennifer Shull (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
0 women, 8 men
-
Camera
0 women, 5 men, 1 not listed
-
Production
1 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 2 men
-
Other crew
1 women, 1 men
-
Editing
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 0 men, 2 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 31 on average. Men: 40 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Cindy Williams 26, Teri Garr 29, Elizabeth MacRae 38
Men
Harrison Ford 31, Allen Garfield 34, Frederic Forrest 37, John Cazale 38, Gene Hackman 44, Michael Higgins 54
Exhibit H: the money
It made 3.0 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $1.6 million
- Box office
- $4.8 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 125 scenes and 952 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
