Fails the Bechdel test
The Getaway
1972. Directed by Sam Peckinpah, written by Walter Hill and Jim Thompson.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
4 women characters. 2 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
Carter "Doc" McCoy is a career robber, currently in his fourth year of a 10-year prison sentence at the Texas State Penitentiary. After his request for parole is denied although he's a model prisoner, Doc, unable emotionally to endure life inside, asks his loving wife Carol McCoy to contact crooked businessman Jack Beynon, a man with political connections, to secure his release in return for being "for sale" to Beynon. Beynon is able to get Doc released, the sale price being for Doc to plan and execute a robbery at a small bank branch in Beacon City, Texas where Beynon knows that $750,000 will be kept in the vault for the next two weeks. Rather than Doc using his own men for the job, Beynon directs that the only other people involved will be the men of his own choosing, Rudy and Frank. There are to be no casualties, which is all right with Doc who is not a murderer. After the robbery is completed and the monies divvied up accordingly, Doc and Carol will cross the border into Mexico to live out their lives away from capture. The robbery doesn't go according to Doc's plan, and Doc and Carol go on the run making their way into Mexico with their share of the loot. Various people are in their pursuit, some who know that they will try to cross into Mexico at one of the two major West Texas border crossings. Other bystanders get directly or indirectly involved in the proceedings; two of those people, seeming straight-laced couple Fran and Harold Clinton, get much more intimately involved than the others. Though it all, Doc and Carol must work through some of their own issues, which arise out of a revelation about Doc's release from prison.
- Released
- 13 Dec 1972
- Genres
- Action, Crime, Thriller
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 7.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 55 / 100
- Awards
- 1 win & 2 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Doc 242 lines, man
- Carol 154 lines, woman
- Rudy 40 lines, man
- Beynon 30 lines, man
- Slim 24 lines, man
- Accountant 14 lines, man
- Fran 14 lines, woman
- Laughlin 12 lines, man
- Soldier 9 lines
- Chairman 8 lines, man
Full cast, 37 people
- Steve McQueen as Carter "Doc" McCoy
- Ali MacGraw as Carol McCoy
- Ben Johnson as Jack Beynon
- Sally Struthers as Fran Clinton
- Al Lettieri as Rudy Butler
- Slim Pickens as Cowboy
- Richard Bright as The Thief
- Jack Dodson as Harold Clinton
- Dub Taylor as Laughlin
- Bo Hopkins as Frank Jackson
- Roy Jenson as Cully
- John Bryson as The Accountant
- Bill Hart as Swain
- Tom Runyon as Hayhoe
- Whitney Jones as The Soldier
- Raymond King as Boy on Train
- Ivan Thomas as Boy on Train
- C.W. White as Boy's Mother
- Brenda W. King as Boys' Mother
- W. Dee Kutach as Parole Board Chairman
- Brick Lowry as Parole Board Commissioner
- Martin Colley as McCoy's Lawyer
- O.S. Savage as Field Captain
- Dick Crockett as Bank Guard
- A.L. Camp as Hardware Store Owner
- Bob Veal as TV Shop Proprietor
- Bruce Bissonette as Sporting Goods Salesman
- Maggie Gonzalez as Carhop
- Jim Kannon as Cannon
- Doug Dudley as Max
- Stacy Newton as Stacy
- Tommy Bush as Cowboy's Helper
- Stephen Douglas Butler as Teen at Drive-Up-Diner (uncredited)
- R.C. Keene as Beacon City Parade / Robbery Witness (uncredited)
- Margaret Mazzola as Car Hop #1 (uncredited)
- Hal Smith as Radio Announcer (voice) (uncredited)
- Tommy Splittgerber as Train Station Ticket Agent (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 6% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 186
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 4 | 0 | 13 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 to 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 to 16 | 5 | 9 |
| 17 to 20 | 3 | 4 |
| 21 to 24 | 7 | 6 |
| 25 to 28 | 32 | 59 |
| 29 to 32 | 1 | 1 |
| 33 to 36 | 0 | 0 |
| 37 to 40 | 12 | 35 |
| 41 to 44 | 0 | 0 |
| 45 to 48 | 0 | 0 |
| 49 to 52 | 0 | 2 |
| 53 to 56 | 0 | 2 |
| 57 to 60 | 0 | 2 |
| 61 to 64 | 3 | 3 |
| 65 to 68 | 1 | 4 |
| 69 to 72 | 0 | 3 |
| 73 to 76 | 7 | 8 |
| 77 to 80 | 0 | 9 |
| 81 to 84 | 5 | 32 |
| 85 to 88 | 6 | 16 |
| 89 to 92 | 18 | 12 |
| 93 to 96 | 0 | 1 |
| 97 to 100 | 1 | 5 |
| 101 to 104 | 0 | 9 |
| 105 to 108 | 10 | 9 |
| 109 to 112 | 5 | 7 |
| 113 to 116 | 3 | 7 |
| 117 to 120 | 0 | 2 |
| 121 to 124 | 3 | 8 |
| 125 to 128 | 0 | 7 |
| 129 to 132 | 1 | 10 |
| 133 to 136 | 0 | 1 |
| 137 to 140 | 3 | 4 |
| 141 to 144 | 3 | 5 |
| 145 to 148 | 15 | 22 |
| 149 to 152 | 0 | 0 |
| 153 to 156 | 0 | 6 |
| 157 to 160 | 0 | 2 |
| 161 to 164 | 0 | 12 |
| 165 to 168 | 5 | 6 |
| 169 to 172 | 5 | 5 |
| 173 to 176 | 6 | 12 |
| 177 to 180 | 0 | 0 |
| 181 to 184 | 10 | 49 |
| 185 to 186 | 1 | 2 |
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, 29 are women's.
171 lines from women, 411 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
4 women and 18 men in the cast. 2 women and 12 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 19 of 617.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 36 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 27% of the words (1,198), men 73% (3,287). Women have 29% 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
1
Two men
9
Exhibit E: behind the camera
None of the 8 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 13% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Sam Peckinpah (man)
- Written by
- Walter Hill (man)
- From the novel by
- Jim Thompson (man)
- Produced by
- David Foster (man), Mitchell Brower (man)
- Shot by
- Lucien Ballard (man)
- Edited by
- Robert L. Wolfe (man)
- Music by
- Quincy Jones (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
1 women, 7 men, 1 not listed
-
Production
1 women, 5 men, 1 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 4 men
-
Art
0 women, 3 men
-
Directing
0 women, 3 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Writing
0 women, 2 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 29 on average. Men: 46 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Sally Struthers 25, Ali MacGraw 33
Men
Bo Hopkins 34, Richard Bright 35, Jack Dodson 41, Steve McQueen 42, Al Lettieri 44, Slim Pickens 53, Ben Johnson 54, Dub Taylor 65
Exhibit G: the money
It made 11.0 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $3.4 million
- Box office
- $36.7 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 186 scenes and 617 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
