Fails the Bechdel test
The Princess Bride
1987. Directed by Rob Reiner, written by William Goldman.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
5 women characters. 2 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 2 out of 3.
The film
An elderly man reads the book "The Princess Bride" to his sick and thus currently bedridden adolescent grandson, the reading of the book which has been passed down within the family for generations. The grandson is sure he won't like the story, with a romance at its core, he prefers something with lots of action and "no kissing", but he lets grandfather continue, because he doesn't want to hurt his feelings. The story centers on Buttercup, a former farm girl who has been chosen as the princess bride to Prince Humperdinck of Florin. Buttercup does not love him, she who still laments the death of her one true love, Westley, five years ago. Westley was a hired hand on the farm, his stock answer of "as you wish" to any request she made of him which she came to understand was his way of saying that he loved her. But Westley went away to sea, only to be killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts. On a horse ride to clear her mind of her upcoming predicament of marriage, Buttercup is kidnapped by a band of bandits: Vizzini who works on his wits, and his two associates, a giant named Fezzik who works on his brawn, and a Spaniard named Inigo Montoya, who has trained himself his entire life to be an expert swordsman. They in turn are chased by the Dread Pirate Roberts himself. But chasing them all is the Prince, and his men led by Count Tyrone Rugen. What happens to these collectives is dependent partly on Buttercup, who does not want to marry the Prince, and may see other options as lesser evils, and partly on the other motives of individuals within the groups. But a larger question is what the grandson will think of the story as it proceeds and at its end, especially as he sees justice as high a priority as action.
- Released
- 09 Oct 1987
- Genres
- Adventure, Comedy, Family
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 8 / 10
- Metascore
- 78 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 Oscar. 8 wins & 15 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Inigo 131 lines, man
- Westley 79 lines, man
- Man In Black 76 lines, man
- Buttercup 70 lines, woman
- Vizzini 67 lines, man
- Fezzik 66 lines, man
- Humperdinck 54 lines, man
- Grandfather 50 lines, man
- The Kid 41 lines
- Miracle Max 30 lines, man
Full cast, 20 people
- Cary Elwes as Westley
- Robin Wright as The Princess Bride
- Mandy Patinkin as Inigo Montoya
- Chris Sarandon as Prince Humperdinck
- Christopher Guest as Count Rugen
- Wallace Shawn as Vizzini
- André Roussimoff as Fezzik
- Fred Savage as The Grandson
- Peter Falk as The Grandfather
- Peter Cook as The Impressive Clergyman
- Mel Smith as The Albino
- Carol Kane as Valerie
- Billy Crystal as Miracle Max
- Anne Dyson as The Queen
- Margery Mason as The Ancient Booer
- Malcolm Storry as Yellin
- Willoughby Gray as The King
- Betsy Brantley as The Mother
- Paul Badger as The Assistant Brute
- Derek Pykett as Villager (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 7% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 8
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 1 | 6 | 8 |
| 2 to 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 3 to 3 | 5 | 10 |
| 4 to 4 | 3 | 59 |
| 5 to 5 | 34 | 237 |
| 6 to 6 | 8 | 34 |
| 7 to 7 | 5 | 65 |
| 8 to 8 | 29 | 193 |
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, 13 are women's.
92 lines from women, 610 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
5 women and 14 men in the cast. 2 women and 9 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
A woman speaks the first line.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 161 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 11% of the words (954), men 89% (7,519). Women have 13% 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
1
Two men
34
Exhibit E: behind the camera
3 of the 12 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 18% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Rob Reiner (man)
- Written by
- William Goldman (man)
- From the novel by
- William Goldman (man)
- Produced by
- Andrew Scheinman (man), Rob Reiner (man)
- Shot by
- Adrian Biddle (man)
- Edited by
- Robert Leighton (man)
- Music by
- Mark Knopfler (man)
- Production design by
- Norman Garwood (man)
- Costumes by
- Phyllis Dalton (woman)
- Cast by
- Janet Hirshenson (woman), Jane Jenkins (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
2 women, 5 men, 2 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 5 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 3 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Other crew
0 women, 3 men
-
Sound
0 women, 3 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 21 on average. Men: 38 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Robin Wright 21
Men
Fred Savage 11, Cary Elwes 24, Mandy Patinkin 34, Christopher Guest 39, André Roussimoff 41, Wallace Shawn 43, Chris Sarandon 45, Peter Cook 49, Peter Falk 60
Exhibit G: the money
It made 1.9 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $16 million
- Box office
- $30.9 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 8 scenes and 752 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
