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Fails the Bechdel test

The Savages

2008. Directed by Tamara Jenkins, written by Tamara Jenkins.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

2 / 3

Fails

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    12 women characters. 11 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    Women do talk to each other.
  3. No 3. About something besides a man
    Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.

Second opinion

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

Poster for The Savages

The film

Jon and Wendy Savage are two siblings who have spent their adult years trying to recover from the abuse of their abusive father, Lenny Savage. Suddenly, a call comes in that his girlfriend has died, he cannot care for himself with his dementia and her family is dumping him on his children. Despite the fact Jon and Wendy have not spoken to Lenny for twenty years and he is even more loathsome than ever, the Savage siblings feel obliged to take care of him. Now together, brother and sister must come to terms with the new and painful responsibilities with their father now affecting their lives even as they struggle with their own personal demons Lenny helped create.

Released
17 Jan 2008
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Rated
R
IMDb
7.1 / 10
Metascore
85 / 100
Awards
Nominated for 2 Oscars. 17 wins & 33 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Wendy 360 lines, woman
  2. Jon 244 lines, man
  3. Larry 76 lines, man
  4. Lenny 70 lines, man
  5. Jimmy 55 lines, man
  6. Eduardo 18 lines, man
  7. Counselor 12 lines
  8. Nancy 9 lines, woman
  9. Ms. Robinson 8 lines, woman
  10. Kasia 7 lines, woman
Full cast, 23 people
  • Laura Linney as Wendy Savage
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman as Jon Savage
  • Philip Bosco as Lenny Savage
  • Peter Friedman as Larry
  • David Zayas as Eduardo
  • Gbenga Akinnagbe as Jimmy
  • Cara Seymour as Kasia
  • Tonye Patano as Ms. Robinson
  • Guy Boyd as Bill Lachman
  • Debra Monk as Nancy Lachman
  • Rosemary Murphy as Doris Metzger
  • Hal Blankenship as Burt
  • Joan Jaffe as Lizzie
  • Salem Ludwig as Mr. Sperry
  • Peter Frechette as Matt
  • Maddie Corman as Annie
  • Margo Martindale as Roz
  • Michael Blackson as Howard
  • Sidné Anderson as Simone
  • Sandra Daley as Attendant
  • Sage Kirkpatrick as Real Estate Agent
  • Jennifer Lim as Manicurist #1
  • Zoe Kazan as Student

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 123

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 3018
4 to 663
7 to 91821
10 to 121915
13 to 151214
16 to 1800
19 to 211418
22 to 24818
25 to 2711
28 to 301820
31 to 3320
34 to 3620
37 to 391515
40 to 42134
43 to 45412
46 to 481118
49 to 5122
52 to 541413
55 to 5710
58 to 602328
61 to 631111
64 to 662227
67 to 6921
70 to 721113
73 to 75318
76 to 782323
79 to 81610
82 to 841013
85 to 871721
88 to 903511
91 to 932133
94 to 961010
97 to 991314
100 to 1021721
103 to 10566
106 to 10842
109 to 11110
112 to 11412
115 to 11711
118 to 1201315
121 to 12399

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, 47 are women's.

419 lines from women, 481 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

12 women and 9 men in the cast. 11 women and 9 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 22 of 946. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 29 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 47% of the words (3,761), men 53% (4,249).

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

Exhibit E: behind the camera

6 of the 11 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 31% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Tamara Jenkins (woman)
Written by
Tamara Jenkins (woman)
Produced by
Anne Carey (woman), Ted Hope (man), Erica Westheimer (woman)
Shot by
W. Mott Hupfel III (man)
Edited by
Brian A. Kates (man)
Music by
Stephen Trask (non-binary) (non-binary)
Production design by
Jane Ann Stewart (woman)
Costumes by
David C. Robinson (man)
Cast by
Jeanne McCarthy (woman)

The crew, department by department

  • Production

    11 women, 12 men, 30 not listed

  • Other crew

    0 women, 8 men, 32 not listed

  • Art

    4 women, 9 men, 13 not listed

  • Sound

    5 women, 12 men, 1 non-binary, 8 not listed

  • Camera

    2 women, 10 men, 13 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    1 women, 2 men, 14 not listed

  • Lighting

    1 women, 0 men, 15 not listed

  • Directing

    1 women, 3 men, 3 not listed

  • Women
  • Men
  • Non-binary
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit F: how old the stars were

Women: 48 on average. Men: 52 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Laura Linney 43, Cara Seymour 43, Tonye Patano 46, Debra Monk 58

Men

Gbenga Akinnagbe 28, Philip Seymour Hoffman 40, David Zayas 45, Peter Friedman 58, Guy Boyd 64, Philip Bosco 77

Exhibit G: the money

It made 1.3 times what it cost.

Budget
$8 million
Box office
$10.7 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 123 scenes and 946 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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