Passes the Bechdel test

The Manchurian Candidate

Name: The Manchurian Candidate
Released: 2004

2004. Directed by Jonathan Demme, written by Richard Condon and George Axelrod and Daniel Pyne.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
26 women characters. 4 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 148.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.

The film

When his army unit was ambushed during the first Gulf War, Sergeant Raymond Shaw saved his fellow soldiers just as his commanding officer, then-Captain Ben Marco, was knocked unconscious. Brokering the incident for political capital, Shaw eventually becomes a vice-presidential nominee, while Marco is haunted by dreams of what happened -- or didn't happen -- in Kuwait. As Marco (now a Major) investigates, the story begins to unravel, to the point where he questions if it happened at all. Is it possible the entire unit was kidnapped and brainwashed to believe Shaw is a war hero as part of a plot to seize the White House? Some very powerful people at Manchurian Global corporation appear desperate to stop him from finding out.

Released: 30 Jul 2004
Genres: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.6 / 10
Metascore: 76 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award. 1 win & 12 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Marco 242 lines, man
Raymond 152 lines, man
Ellie 85 lines, woman
Rosie 64 lines, woman
Delp 28 lines, man
Jordan 25 lines
Lt. Col. Howard 22 lines, man
Noyle 18 lines, man
Melvin 16 lines, man
Colonel Garret 11 lines, man

Full cast, 111 people

Denzel Washington as Major Bennett Ezekiel Marco
Meryl Streep as Senator Eleanor Prentiss Shaw (D-VA)
Liev Schreiber as Congressman Raymond Prentiss Shaw (D-NY)
Simon McBurney as Dr. Atticus Noyle
Kimberly Elise as Rosie
Bruno Ganz as Delp
Jon Voight as Senator Thomas Jordan (D-CT)
Jeffrey Wright as CPL Al Melvin
Anthony Mackie as PFC Robert Baker III
Ted Levine as Colonel Howard
Miguel Ferrer as Colonel Garret
Dean Stockwell as Mark Whiting
Vera Farmiga as Jocelyne Jordan
Pablo Schreiber as PFC Eddie Ingram
Jude Ciccolella as David Donovan
Obba Babatundé as Senator Wells
Željko Ivanek as Vaughn Utly
Paul Lazar as Gillespie
John Bedford Lloyd as Jay "J.B." Johnston
Tom Stechschulte as Governor Robert "Bob" Arthur
BeBe Winans as FBI Agent Williams
Robyn Hitchcock as Laurent Tokar
Charles Napier as General Sloan
David Keeley as Shaw's Bodyguard-Agent
Alyson Renaldo as Mirella Freeman
Dorian Missick as Owens
Jose Pablo Cantillo as Villalobos
Teddy Dunn as Wilson
Joaquin Perez-Campbell as Atkins
Tim Artz as Jameson
Antoine Taylor as Boy Scout #1
Joe Alessi as Boy Scout #2
Raymond Anthony Thomas as Scout Dad
Bill Irwin as Scoutmaster
Al Franken as TV Commentator
Danny Darst as Ellie's Mysterious Aide
Stephanie McBride as Political Aide
Molly Hickok as Political Aide
Victoria Haynes as Political Aide
Adam LeFevre as Congressman Healy
Roger Corman as Mr. Secretary
Leona E. Sondreal as Green Room Official #2
Jim Roche as Senator from Florida
Ann Dowd as Congresswoman Beckett
Harry Northup as Congressman Flores
James B. Howard as Self
Walter Mosley as Congressman Rawlins
Gordon Brummer as "Gordy"
Gayle King as Media Icon
Brad Holbrook as Newscaster #7
Stacey Newsome Santiago as Roving Reporter
Kristen Shaughnessy as Newscaster #4
Prue Lewarne as Newscaster #8
Forrest Sawyer as Newscaster #1
Ukee Washington as Newscaster #9
Ed Crane as Newscaster #6
Kaity Tong as Newscaster #2
Roma Torre as Newscaster #3
William Meisle as Tyler Prentiss
Dan Olmstead as Senator John Shaw
Sakina Jaffrey as Mysterious Arabic Woman
Robert W. Castle as General Wilson
John Aprea as Rear Admiral Glick
Jane DeNoble as Robert Arthur's Wife
Christopher M. Russo as Secret Service Agent #1
Michael C. Pierce as Secret Service Agent #2
Marin Ireland as Army Transcriber
Glen Hartell as Army Transcriber
Tracey Walter as Night Clerk
Edwidge Danticat as Rosie's Cousin
Kenneth Utt as Rosie's Cousin's Mentor
Enrique Correa as Reporter #2
David Neumann as Reporter #3
Neda Armian as Reporter #4
Paul Johnson as Campaign Security
James McCauley as FBI Agent Jonas
Darrell Larson as FBI Agent Ramirez
Kate Valk as Agent Volk
Beau Sia as Late Night Comedian
Duana C. Butler as Library Clerk
Big Jim Wheeler as Library Patron
Lauren Roselli as Jordan's Aide
Stephen Richardson as Jordan's Aide
Shing Ka as Rosie's Sidekick
Malcolm Simpson as Yelling Kid
Cassius Kumar Wilkinson as "Abe Lincoln"
Jos Demme as "Statue of Liberty"
Gabriela Fung as "Betsy Ross"
Denzel Delahoussaye as "George Washington"
Aaron Scoenfeld as "Uncle Sam"
Geovonne Long as "MLK"
Jonathan Borst as "JFK"
Michael Shehata as "American Eagle"
Tom Chapin as Governor Edward Nelson
Lewis 'Jiggs' Walker as Churchgoer
Joey Perillo as Jimmy
Buzz Kilman as The Guy with the Shades
Marie Runyon as Arthur's Mother
Eliza Simpson as Arthur's Child
Julie Adamy as Arthur's Child
Andre B. Blake as Victory Party Director
Tymberly Canale as Victory Party Celebrity Soldier
Lilly McDowell as Shaw's Aide
Joshua Elrod as Shaw's Aide
Craig Branham as Klaus Bachman
Sidney Lumet as Political Pundit
Reno as Political Pundit
Anna Deavere Smith as Political Pundit
Roy Blount Jr. as Political Pundit
Fab 5 Freddy as Political Pundit
E. Jean Carroll as Reporter #5 (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, 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 148

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	20
5 to 8	0	14
9 to 12	0	9
13 to 16	0	40
17 to 20	3	3
21 to 24	22	20
25 to 28	12	18
29 to 32	10	85
33 to 36	0	7
37 to 40	6	9
41 to 44	0	7
45 to 48	0	9
49 to 52	15	14
53 to 56	1	2
57 to 60	15	9
61 to 64	3	30
65 to 68	3	67
69 to 72	16	31
73 to 76	4	36
77 to 80	6	7
81 to 84	4	2
85 to 88	7	11
89 to 92	0	6
93 to 96	14	14
97 to 100	0	4
101 to 104	0	1
105 to 108	11	18
109 to 112	1	1
113 to 116	4	42
117 to 120	0	0
121 to 124	9	4
125 to 128	0	1
129 to 132	2	1
133 to 136	0	0
137 to 140	0	2
141 to 144	0	0
145 to 148	3	6

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.

MIRELLA/ANDERSON: Aaaahhhhhh --! MIRELLA: You okay?

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 24 are women's.

171 lines from women, 550 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

26 women and 60 men in the cast. 4 women and 27 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 90 of 792. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 89 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 31% of the words (3,020), men 69% (6,786). Women have 24% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

7 of the 16 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 24% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Jonathan Demme (man)
Written by: Daniel Pyne (man), Dean Georgaris (man)
From the novel by: Richard Condon (man)
Produced by: Jonathan Demme (man), Ilona Herzberg (woman), Scott Rudin (man), Tina Sinatra (woman)
Shot by: Tak Fujimoto (man)
Edited by: Carol Littleton (woman), Craig McKay (man)
Music by: Rachel Portman (woman)
Production design by: Kristi Zea (woman)
Costumes by: Albert Wolsky (man)
Cast by: Kathleen Chopin (woman), Laura Rosenthal (woman)