Fails the Bechdel test
The King
2019. Directed by David Michôd, written by David Michôd and Joel Edgerton.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
4 women characters. 3 of them speak. -
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 1 out of 3.
The film
Hal (Timothée Chalamet), wayward prince and reluctant heir to the English throne, has turned his back on royal life and is living among the people. But when his tyrannical father dies, Hal is crowned King Henry V and is forced to embrace the life he had previously tried to escape. Now the young king must navigate the palace politics, chaos and war his father left behind, and the emotional strings of his past life - including his relationship with his closest friend and mentor, the aging alcoholic knight, John Falstaff (Joel Edgerton).
- Released
- 01 Nov 2019
- Genres
- Biography, Drama, History
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 62 / 100
- Awards
- 13 wins & 28 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Hal 252 lines, man
- Falstaff 121 lines, man
- William 85 lines, man
- Henry Iv 30 lines, man
- Dorset 26 lines, man
- Thomas 25 lines, man
- Catherine 24 lines, woman
- Dauphin 24 lines, man
- Hotspur 24 lines, man
- Archbishop 22 lines, man
Full cast, 37 people
- Timothée Chalamet as Hal
- Joel Edgerton as Falstaff
- Sean Harris as William
- Tom Glynn-Carney as Hotspur
- Lily-Rose Depp as Catherine
- Thomasin McKenzie as Philippa, Queen of Denmark
- Robert Pattinson as The Dauphin
- Ben Mendelsohn as King Henry IV
- Andrew Havill as Archbishop of Canterbury
- Dean-Charles Chapman as Thomas
- Steven Elder as Dorset
- Edward Ashley as Cambridge
- Stephen Fewell as Grey
- Tara Fitzgerald as Hooper
- Tom Fisher as Northumberland
- Tom Lawrence as Westmoreland
- Ivan Kaye as Scrope
- Gábor Czap as Scot Soldier
- Josef Davies as Beale
- Roderick Hill as Cloaked Man
- Niké Kurta as Molly
- Nicholas Wittman as Herald
- Philip Rosch as Lord Chamberlain
- Lucas Hansen as Eric, King of Denmark
- Tom Lacroix as Assassin
- Cedric Cirotteau as French Envoy
- Jack Bandeira as Cambridge's Steward
- Kristóf Widder as Clergyman
- Vincent Latorre as Jean D'Estouteville
- Bence Bakti as Boy #1
- Bardó Fenyvesi as Boy #2
- Henry Dent as Boy #3
- Harry Trevaldwyn as Dartmouth
- Laurent Winkler as French Commander
- Jeremy Chevillotte as French Lord Steward
- Thibault de Montalembert as King Charles VI
- Oscar Bennett as William's Page Boy
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 124
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 | 8 |
| 4 to 6 | 0 | 55 |
| 7 to 9 | 1 | 29 |
| 10 to 12 | 3 | 15 |
| 13 to 15 | 0 | 22 |
| 16 to 18 | 0 | 25 |
| 19 to 21 | 0 | 19 |
| 22 to 24 | 1 | 19 |
| 25 to 27 | 0 | 19 |
| 28 to 30 | 0 | 5 |
| 31 to 33 | 0 | 28 |
| 34 to 36 | 0 | 3 |
| 37 to 39 | 8 | 49 |
| 40 to 42 | 0 | 33 |
| 43 to 45 | 9 | 15 |
| 46 to 48 | 0 | 12 |
| 49 to 51 | 0 | 4 |
| 52 to 54 | 0 | 19 |
| 55 to 57 | 1 | 15 |
| 58 to 60 | 0 | 26 |
| 61 to 63 | 0 | 17 |
| 64 to 66 | 0 | 0 |
| 67 to 69 | 0 | 5 |
| 70 to 72 | 0 | 17 |
| 73 to 75 | 0 | 12 |
| 76 to 78 | 0 | 17 |
| 79 to 81 | 0 | 3 |
| 82 to 84 | 0 | 16 |
| 85 to 87 | 0 | 7 |
| 88 to 90 | 0 | 34 |
| 91 to 93 | 0 | 13 |
| 94 to 96 | 0 | 14 |
| 97 to 99 | 0 | 22 |
| 100 to 102 | 0 | 0 |
| 103 to 105 | 0 | 1 |
| 106 to 108 | 0 | 1 |
| 109 to 111 | 0 | 2 |
| 112 to 114 | 0 | 7 |
| 115 to 117 | 0 | 19 |
| 118 to 120 | 0 | 13 |
| 121 to 123 | 24 | 69 |
| 124 to 124 | 1 | 1 |
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, 6 are women's.
48 lines from women, 710 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
4 women and 27 men in the cast. 3 women and 21 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 99 of 796.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 263 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 6% of the words (737), men 94% (10,976).
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
58
Exhibit E: behind the camera
5 of the 17 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 30% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- David Michôd (man)
- Written by
- David Michôd (man), Joel Edgerton (man)
- Produced by
- Brad Pitt (man), Jeremy Kleiner (man), David Michôd (man), Liz Watts (woman), Joel Edgerton (man), Dede Gardner (woman)
- Shot by
- Adam Arkapaw (man)
- Edited by
- Peter Sciberras (man)
- Music by
- Nicholas Britell (man)
- Production design by
- Fiona Crombie (woman)
- Costumes by
- Jane Petrie (woman)
- Cast by
- Des Hamilton (man), Francine Maisler (woman), Kata Baranyi (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
3 women, 9 men, 10 not listed
-
Other crew
0 women, 8 men, 9 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
4 women, 2 men, 8 not listed
-
Production
5 women, 8 men, 1 not listed
-
Visual Effects
3 women, 2 men, 5 not listed
-
Art
3 women, 2 men, 4 not listed
-
Camera
1 women, 6 men
-
Directing
1 women, 4 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 20 on average. Men: 38 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Thomasin McKenzie 19, Lily-Rose Depp 20
Men
Dean-Charles Chapman 22, Timothée Chalamet 23, Tom Glynn-Carney 24, Robert Pattinson 33, Joel Edgerton 45, Ben Mendelsohn 50, Sean Harris 53, Andrew Havill 54
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 124 scenes and 796 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
