Fails the Bechdel test
The Men Who Stare at Goats
2009. Directed by Grant Heslov, written by Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan.
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
A reporter, trying to lose himself in the romance of war after his marriage fails, gets more than he bargains for when he meets a special forces agent who reveals the existence of a secret, psychic military unit whose goal is to end war as we know it. The founder of the unit has gone missing and the trail leads to another psychic soldier who has distorted the mission to serve his own ends.
- Released
- 06 Nov 2009
- Genres
- Comedy, War
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.2 / 10
- Metascore
- 54 / 100
- Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Bob 318 lines, man
- Lyn Cassady 201 lines, man
- Bill Django 57 lines, man
- Larry Hooper 42 lines, man
- Gus Lacey 21 lines, man
- Nixon 13 lines, man
- General Putkin 12 lines, man
- Major Holtz 8 lines, man
- Brigadier General Hopgood 7 lines, man
- Mahmud Daash 7 lines, man
Full cast, 39 people
- George Clooney as Lyn Cassady
- Ewan McGregor as Bob Wilton
- Jeff Bridges as Bill Django
- Kevin Spacey as Larry Hooper
- Robert Patrick as Todd Nixon
- Stephen Lang as Brigadier General Dean Hopgood
- Waleed Zuaiter as Mahmud Daash
- Stephen Root as Gus Lacey
- Glenn Morshower as Major General Holtz
- Nick Offerman as Scotty Mercer
- Tim Griffin as Tim Kootz
- Rebecca Mader as Debora Wilton
- Jacob Browne as Lieutenant Boone
- Todd Lawson LaTourrette as Dave
- Brad Grunberg as Ron
- Elsa Villafane as Gus' Mother
- Fawad Siddiqui as Kuwait Waiter
- Samuel Ray Gates as Journalist #1
- McCaleb Burnett as Journalist #2
- Robert Curtis Brown as General Brown
- Hrach Titizian as Kidnapper #1
- Shafik N. Bahou as Kidnapper #2
- Christopher Maher as Iraqi Driver
- Matt Newton as Chris - Viet Nam Pvt.
- Kevin Wiggins as Major General Jack Gillian
- JJ Raschel as Clifford Hickox
- Arron Shiver as Norm Pendleton
- Jaime Margarida as Major General Pendleton
- William Sterchi as Bob's Editor
- Drew Seltzer as Technician
- Donn Lamkin as Lyn's Father
- Sean Curley as Lyn (12 years old)
- Michael-David Aragon as Insurgent
- Morse Bicknell as Ben Echmeyer
- Kevin Geer as CIA Agent
- Chick Bernhard as Krom - SUV
- Steve Witting as PSIC Worker #1
- Diego Serrano as Krom - Chilean
- José Juan Encarnación Saiter as Bartender (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 160
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 | 16 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 10 |
| 9 to 12 | 4 | 23 |
| 13 to 16 | 0 | 59 |
| 17 to 20 | 0 | 76 |
| 21 to 24 | 0 | 10 |
| 25 to 28 | 1 | 12 |
| 29 to 32 | 0 | 0 |
| 33 to 36 | 0 | 28 |
| 37 to 40 | 0 | 10 |
| 41 to 44 | 0 | 7 |
| 45 to 48 | 0 | 17 |
| 49 to 52 | 0 | 54 |
| 53 to 56 | 0 | 30 |
| 57 to 60 | 0 | 14 |
| 61 to 64 | 0 | 1 |
| 65 to 68 | 0 | 2 |
| 69 to 72 | 0 | 6 |
| 73 to 76 | 0 | 12 |
| 77 to 80 | 0 | 10 |
| 81 to 84 | 0 | 22 |
| 85 to 88 | 0 | 28 |
| 89 to 92 | 0 | 33 |
| 93 to 96 | 0 | 14 |
| 97 to 100 | 0 | 4 |
| 101 to 104 | 0 | 11 |
| 105 to 108 | 0 | 1 |
| 109 to 112 | 0 | 69 |
| 113 to 116 | 0 | 17 |
| 117 to 120 | 0 | 9 |
| 121 to 124 | 0 | 5 |
| 125 to 128 | 0 | 19 |
| 129 to 132 | 0 | 1 |
| 133 to 136 | 0 | 40 |
| 137 to 140 | 0 | 35 |
| 141 to 144 | 0 | 5 |
| 145 to 148 | 0 | 18 |
| 149 to 152 | 0 | 5 |
| 153 to 156 | 0 | 9 |
| 157 to 160 | 0 | 9 |
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, 1 are women's.
5 lines from women, 751 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
1 women and 31 men in the cast. 1 women and 30 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 33 of 778.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 567 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 0% of the words (34), men 100% (10,111). Women have 1% 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
0
Two men
62
Exhibit E: behind the camera
5 of the 13 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 22% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Grant Heslov (man)
- Written by
- Peter Straughan (man)
- From the novel by
- Jon Ronson (man)
- Produced by
- Paul Lister (gender not listed), Grant Heslov (man), George Clooney (man)
- Shot by
- Robert Elswit (man)
- Edited by
- Tatiana S. Riegel (woman)
- Music by
- Rolfe Kent (man)
- Production design by
- Sharon Seymour (woman)
- Costumes by
- Louise Frogley (woman)
- Cast by
- Amanda Mackey (woman), Cathy Sandrich Gelfond (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
2 women, 21 men, 6 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 12 men, 4 not listed
-
Production
6 women, 5 men, 4 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 2 men, 5 not listed
-
Art
3 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
-
Editing
1 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Men: 49 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Men
Ewan McGregor 38, Waleed Zuaiter 38, Nick Offerman 39, George Clooney 48, Kevin Spacey 50, Robert Patrick 50, Glenn Morshower 50, Stephen Lang 57, Stephen Root 57, Jeff Bridges 59
Exhibit G: the money
It made 2.9 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $24 million
- Box office
- $68.7 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 160 scenes and 778 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
