Passes the Bechdel test
The Driver
1978. Directed by Walter Hill, written by Walter Hill.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
4 women characters. 12 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 2 scenes out of 9. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 0 out of 3.
The film
"The Driver" is a specialist in a rare business: he drives getaway cars in robberies. His exceptional talent prevented him from being caught yet. After another successful flight from the police, a self-assured detective makes it his primary goal to catch the Driver. He promises remission of punishment to a gang if they help to convict him in a set-up robbery. The Driver seeks help from "The Player" (Isabelle) to mislead the detective.
- Released
- 02 Aug 1978
- Genres
- Action, Crime, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.1 / 10
- Metascore
- 56 / 100
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Detective 149 lines, man
- Driver 104 lines, man
- Player 52 lines, woman
- Glasses 38 lines, man
- Teeth 23 lines, man
- The Connection 21 lines, woman
- Red Plainclothesman 18 lines, man
- Seventeen 10 lines
- Gold Plainclothesman 7 lines, man
- Connection 5 lines, woman
Full cast, 35 people
- Ryan O'Neal as The Driver
- Bruce Dern as The Detective
- Isabelle Adjani as The Player
- Ronee Blakley as The Connection
- Matt Clark as Red Plainclothesman
- Felice Orlandi as Gold Plainclothesman
- Joseph Walsh as Glasses
- Rudy Ramos as Teeth
- Denny Macko as Exchange Man
- Frank Bruno as The Kid
- Will Walker as Fingers
- Sandy Brown Wyeth as Split
- Tara King as Frizzy
- Richard Carey as Floorman
- Fidel Corona as Card Player
- Victor Gilmour as Boardman
- Nick Dimitri as Blue Mask
- Bob Minor as Green Mask
- Angelo Lamonea as Patron
- Patrick Burns as Patron
- Karen Kleiman as Patron
- Thomas Myers as Passenger
- Bill McConnell as Passenger
- Peter Jason as Commuter
- William Hasley as Commuter
- Allan Graf as Uniformed Cop
- Alex Daniels as Train Passenger (uncredited)
- Peter Eastman as Train Passenger (uncredited)
- Raven Grey Eagle as Minor Role (uncredited)
- Bob Harks as Casino Patron (uncredited)
- Orwin C. Harvey as Casino Security Guard (uncredited)
- Steve Moriarty as Person at Train Station / Driver (uncredited)
- Nico Stevens as Card Player (uncredited)
- Leland Sun as Casino Patron (uncredited)
- Anna Young as Card Player (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, 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 9
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 1 | 9 | 5 |
| 2 to 2 | 14 | 54 |
| 3 to 3 | 30 | 210 |
| 4 to 4 | 14 | 42 |
| 5 to 5 | 0 | 7 |
| 6 to 6 | 11 | 9 |
| 7 to 7 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 to 8 | 7 | 25 |
| 9 to 9 | 3 | 13 |
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.
CONNECTION -: All straight about tonight. j PLAYER I just welk outside and take & look, CONNECTION: Whoever you see, you say it was somebody else. PLAYER: If anybody asks. CONNECTION: If anybody asks. Chances are nobody will.
PLAYER -: You don't ever fool anybody, do you. PLAYER: About being a cop. People could spot you a mile off.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 19 are women's.
88 lines from women, 365 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
4 women and 17 men in the cast. 12 women and 23 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 2 of 496.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 99 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 18% of the words (771), men 82% (3,603). Women have 19% 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
4
Two men
21
Exhibit F: behind the camera
3 of the 13 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 11% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Walter Hill (man)
- Written by
- Walter Hill (man)
- Produced by
- Lawrence Gordon (man)
- Shot by
- Philip H. Lathrop (man)
- Edited by
- Tina Hirsch (woman), Robert K. Lambert (man)
- Music by
- Michael Small (man)
- Production design by
- Harry Horner (man)
- Costumes by
- Robert Cornwall (gender not listed), Jennifer L. Parsons (woman), Jack Bear (man)
- Cast by
- Jane Feinberg (woman), Mike Fenton (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
0 women, 18 men, 36 not listed
-
Other crew
2 women, 10 men, 4 not listed
-
Production
1 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 5 men
-
Camera
0 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 1 men, 3 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Editing
1 women, 1 men, 2 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 27 on average. Men: 40 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Isabelle Adjani 22, Ronee Blakley 32
Men
Rudy Ramos 27, Ryan O'Neal 37, Joseph Walsh 40, Matt Clark 41, Bruce Dern 42, Felice Orlandi 52
Exhibit H: the money
It made 1.2 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $4 million
- Box office
- $4.9 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 9 scenes and 496 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
