Fails the Bechdel test
The Ghost and the Darkness
1996. Directed by Stephen Hopkins, written by William Goldman.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
0 / 3
Fails
-
No
1. At least two women
Fewer than two women characters. -
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
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 0 out of 3.
The film
Sir Robert Beaumont is behind schedule on a railroad in Africa. Enlisting noted engineer John Henry Patterson to right the ship, Beaumont expects results. Everything seems great until the crew discovers the mutilated corpse of the project's foreman, seemingly killed by a lion. After several more attacks, Patterson calls in famed hunter Charles Remington, who has finally met his match in the bloodthirsty lions.
- Released
- 11 Oct 1996
- Genres
- Adventure, Drama, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.8 / 10
- Metascore
- 46 / 100
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 1 win & 5 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Patterson 134 lines, man
- Redbeard 60 lines, man
- Samuel 47 lines, man
- Starling 41 lines, man
- Beaumont 35 lines, man
- Hawthorne 19 lines, man
- Abdullah 16 lines, man
- What The Ghost Sees 12 lines
- Helena 10 lines, woman
- Middle Coolie 5 lines, man
Full cast, 25 people
- Michael Douglas as Charles Remington
- Val Kilmer as Col. John Henry Patterson
- Tom Wilkinson as Sir Robert Beaumont
- John Kani as Samuel
- Emily Mortimer as Helena Patterson
- Bernard Hill as Dr. David Hawthorne
- Brian McCardie as Angus Starling
- Om Puri as Abdullah
- Jack Devnarain as Nervous Sikh Orderly
- Henry Cele as Mahina
- Kurt Egelhof as Indian Victim
- Satchu Annamalai as Worker
- Teddy Reddy as Worker
- Raheem Khan as Worker
- Glen Gabela as Orderly
- Richard Nwamba as Orderly #2
- Nick Lorentz as Photographer
- Alex Ferns as Stockton
- Kaycey Padayachee as Beaumont's Valet
- Giles Masters as Beaumont's Clerk
- Justin Gifford as Patterson's Son
- Patrick Gifford as Patterson's Son
- George Middlekoop as Station Master
- Caesar the Lion as Lion (uncredited)
- Bongo the Lion as Lion (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
We couldn't read who says what in this film's script, so there's no dialogue chart for it yet.
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, 3 are women's.
10 lines from women, 367 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
1 women and 15 men in the cast. 1 women and 7 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 17 of 398.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 226 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 4% of the words (203), men 96% (4,715). Women have 3% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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
10
Exhibit E: behind the camera
4 of the 15 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 21% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Stephen Hopkins (man)
- Written by
- William Goldman (man)
- From the novel by
- John Henry Patterson (man)
- Produced by
- A. Kitman Ho (man), Paul B. Radin (man), Gale Anne Hurd (woman)
- Shot by
- Vilmos Zsigmond (man)
- Edited by
- Robert Brown (man), Steve Mirkovich (man), Roger Bondelli (man)
- Music by
- Jerry Goldsmith (man)
- Production design by
- Stuart Wurtzel (man)
- Costumes by
- Ellen Mirojnick (woman)
- Cast by
- Mary Selway (woman), Sarah Trevis (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
8 women, 19 men, 11 not listed
-
Production
4 women, 8 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 8 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 4 men, 5 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 4 men, 3 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 6 men, 2 not listed
-
Editing
1 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 25 on average. Men: 43 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Emily Mortimer 25
Men
Jack Devnarain 25, Brian McCardie 31, Val Kilmer 36, Om Puri 45, Henry Cele 47, Tom Wilkinson 48, Bernard Hill 51, Michael Douglas 52, John Kani 52
Exhibit G: the money
It made 77% of what it cost.
- Budget
- $50 million
- Box office
- $38.6 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 1 scenes and 398 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
