Passes the Bechdel test

The Power of the Dog

Name: The Power of the Dog
Released: 2021

2021. Directed by Jane Campion, written by Jane Campion and Thomas Savage.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
14 women characters. 4 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 145.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 0 out of 3.

The film

Severe, pale-eyed, handsome, Phil Burbank is brutally beguiling. All of Phil's romance, power and fragility is trapped in the past and in the land: He can castrate a bull calf with two swift slashes of his knife; he swims naked in the river, smearing his body with mud. He is a cowboy as raw as his hides. The year is 1925. The Burbank brothers are wealthy ranchers in Montana. At the Red Mill restaurant on their way to market, the brothers meet Rose, the widowed proprietress, and her impressionable son Peter. Phil behaves so cruelly he drives them both to tears, revelling in their hurt and rousing his fellow cowhands to laughter - all except his brother George, who comforts Rose then returns to marry her. As Phil swings between fury and cunning, his taunting of Rose takes an eerie form - he hovers at the edges of her vision, whistling a tune she can no longer play. His mockery of her son is more overt, amplified by the cheering of Phil's cowhand disciples. Then Phil appears to take the boy under his wing. Is this latest gesture a softening that leaves Phil exposed, or a plot twisting further into menace?

Released: 01 Dec 2021
Genres: Drama, Western
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.8 / 10
Metascore: 89 / 100
Awards: Won 1 Oscar. 291 wins & 320 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Phil 195 lines, man
George 123 lines, man
Rose 121 lines, woman
Peter 81 lines, man
The Old Lady 30 lines, woman
Bobby 20 lines, man
The Old Gent 20 lines, man
Mrs Lewis 19 lines, woman
Edward 18 lines, man
Lola 14 lines, woman

Full cast, 42 people

Benedict Cumberbatch as Phil Burbank
Kodi Smit-McPhee as Peter Gordon
Kirsten Dunst as Rose Gordon
Jesse Plemons as George Burbank
Thomasin McKenzie as Lola
Geneviève Lemon as Mrs. Lewis
Keith Carradine as The Governor
Frances Conroy as Old Lady
Kenneth Radley as Barkeep
Sean Keenan as Sven
George Mason as Cricket
Ramontay McConnell as Theo
David Denis as Angelo
Cohen Holloway as Bobby
Max Mata as Juan
Josh Owen as Lee
Alistair Sewell as Jock
Eddie Campbell as Stan
Alice Englert as Buster
Bryony Skillington as Queenie
Jacque Drew as Jeanie
Yvette Parsons as Hettie
Aislinn Furlong as Evie
Daniel Cleary as Jeanie's Friend
Richard Falkner as Pianola Man
Tatum Warren-Ngata as Libby
Yvette Reid as Clementine
Alice May Connolly as Pearl
Stephen Lovatt as Doctor
Stephen Bain as Mr Weltz the Undertaker
Ella Hope-Higginson as Consuela
Piimio Mei as Sue Ella
Edith Poor as Tanya
Vadim Ledogorov as Older Man
Julie Forsyth as Mrs Mueller
Peter Carroll as Old Gent
Alison Bruce as The Governor's Wife
Karl Willetts as Bill
David T. Lim as Cook
Adam Beach as Edward Nappo
Maeson Stone Skuggedal as Edward Nappo's Son
Ian Harcourt as Undertaker Assistant

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 145

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	2	26
5 to 8	1	23
9 to 12	8	6
13 to 16	0	12
17 to 20	3	20
21 to 24	2	11
25 to 28	0	8
29 to 32	12	21
33 to 36	0	1
37 to 40	1	16
41 to 44	6	18
45 to 48	14	14
49 to 52	3	10
53 to 56	0	0
57 to 60	19	5
61 to 64	0	0
65 to 68	0	16
69 to 72	13	9
73 to 76	3	3
77 to 80	23	42
81 to 84	5	5
85 to 88	12	37
89 to 92	9	13
93 to 96	6	2
97 to 100	9	5
101 to 104	0	0
105 to 108	0	28
109 to 112	13	37
113 to 116	0	8
117 to 120	3	42
121 to 124	24	2
125 to 128	0	36
129 to 132	0	4
133 to 136	3	1
137 to 140	1	9
141 to 144	0	0
145 to 145	0	1

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.

MRS LEWIS: When the rains come in the cellar gets flooded and the rats drown and float to the surface so the lads have to scoop them... ROSE: Please keep talking don’t mind me I like to be busy. LOLA: Oh goodness! ROSE: Is that, is that a grand?

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 28 are women's.

195 lines from women, 491 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

14 women and 19 men in the cast. 4 women and 12 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 21 of 688. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 53 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 30% of the words (1,937), men 70% (4,614). Women have 28% 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

9 of the 15 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 51% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Jane Campion (woman)
Written by: Jane Campion (woman)
Produced by: Roger Frappier (man), Jane Campion (woman), Tanya Seghatchian (woman), Emile Sherman (man), Iain Canning (man)
Shot by: Ari Wegner (woman)
Edited by: Peter Sciberras (man)
Music by: Jonny Greenwood (man)
Production design by: Grant Major (man)
Costumes by: Kirsty Cameron (woman)
Cast by: Nina Gold (woman), Nikki Barrett (woman), Tina Cleary (woman)