Passes the Bechdel test

The Shipping News

Name: The Shipping News
Released: 2001

2001. Directed by Lasse Hallström, written by Annie Proulx and Robert Nelson Jacobs.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
7 women characters. 4 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 5 scenes out of 89.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

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

The film

An inksetter in New York, Quoyle (Kevin Spacey) returns to his family's longtime home, a small fishing town in Newfoundland, with his young daughter, Bunny (Alyssa, Kaitlyn, and Lauren Gainer), after a traumatizing experience with her mother, Petal (Cate Blanchett), who sold her to an illegal adoption agency. Though Quoyle has had little success thus far in life, his shipping news column in the newspaper "The Gammy Bird" finds an audience, and his experiences in the town change his life. Then he meets the widow Wavey Prowse (Julianne Moore).

Released: 18 Jan 2002
Genres: Drama
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.7 / 10
Metascore: 47 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 2 BAFTA 2 wins & 13 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Quoyle 338 lines, man
Wavey 144 lines, woman
Agnis 82 lines, woman
Bunny 69 lines, woman
Jack 48 lines, man
Nutbeem 39 lines, man
Dennis 24 lines, man
Billy 20 lines, man
Petal 19 lines, woman
Alvin 17 lines, man

Full cast, 22 people

Kevin Spacey as Quoyle
Julianne Moore as Wavey Prowse
Cate Blanchett as Petal
Judi Dench as Agnis Hamm
Pete Postlethwaite as Tert Card
Scott Glenn as Jack Buggit
Rhys Ifans as Beaufield Nutbeem
Gordon Pinsent as Billy Pretty
Jason Behr as Dennis Buggit
Kate Moennig as Grace Moosup
Larry Pine as Bayonet Melville
Jeannetta Arnette as Silver Melville
Marc Lawrence as Cousin Nolan
Daniel Kash as Detective Danzig
Nicole Underhay as Beety Buggit
Emma Taylor-Isherwood as Young Agnis Hamm
Alyssa Gainer as Bunny Quoyle
Kaitlyn Gainer as Bunny Quoyle
Lauren Gainer as Bunny Quoyle
John Dunsworth as Guy Quoyle
Anthony Cipriano as Young Quoyle (7)
Kyle Timothy Smith as Young Quayle (12)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 4% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 89

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 2	0	8
3 to 4	0	12
5 to 6	0	15
7 to 8	6	2
9 to 10	6	8
11 to 12	3	16
13 to 14	7	12
15 to 16	0	11
17 to 18	15	9
19 to 20	20	7
21 to 22	6	2
23 to 24	9	2
25 to 26	14	13
27 to 28	0	3
29 to 30	9	16
31 to 32	0	49
33 to 34	16	14
35 to 36	15	10
37 to 38	4	6
39 to 40	1	0
41 to 42	6	16
43 to 44	2	11
45 to 46	5	14
47 to 48	20	12
49 to 50	0	19
51 to 52	0	6
53 to 54	11	17
55 to 56	2	1
57 to 58	0	10
59 to 60	21	19
61 to 62	3	14
63 to 64	14	9
65 to 66	5	16
67 to 68	10	7
69 to 70	0	0
71 to 72	11	25
73 to 74	0	14
75 to 76	0	9
77 to 78	12	39
79 to 80	17	2
81 to 82	42	15
83 to 84	6	3
85 to 86	0	15
87 to 88	8	12
89 to 89	10	10

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

AGNIS: I was born here. BUNNY: The green makes me hurl. Her, too. AGNIS: Empty 44 years. And look at that roofline, straight as a ruler.

AGNIS: Up those stairs, Aunt Pinkie slept. So fat she couldn't get down to her chamber pot. Wanna see if she's still there? AGNIS: Well. Too late to drive that road back 'round the bay. We'll camp in here tonight. Be right as rain. BUNNY: Which one's Petal's room? I'll sleep there.

AGNIS: Gonna chat up yer daughter, or just ignore her as usual? BUNNY: Warren threw up in your sleeping bag. She's got a stomach problem.

BUNNY: First is the teaching part. The learning comes later. BUNNY: Wavey? Now are the berries ready to pick? PETAL: Want to pick my berries, do you. Should I climb right up on this sink? WAVEY: Almost. Almost ready. You know, it's all about timing.

BUNNY: Then don't. Slow us. Down. WAVEY: I want us. To be friends, okay? WAVEY: And friends. Need. To understand each other.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 39 are women's.

336 lines from women, 530 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

7 women and 10 men in the cast. 4 women and 6 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 38 of 905. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 56 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 37% of the words (3,295), men 63% (5,587). Women have 39% of the lines, so their lines run shorter 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

5 of the 15 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 38% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Lasse Hallström (man)
Written by: Robert Nelson Jacobs (man)
From the novel by: Annie Proulx (woman)
Produced by: Linda Goldstein Knowlton (woman), Leslie Holleran (woman), Irwin Winkler (man), Rob Cowan (man)
Shot by: Oliver Stapleton (man)
Edited by: Andrew Mondshein (man)
Music by: Christopher Young (man)
Production design by: David Gropman (man)
Costumes by: Renee Ehrlich Kalfus (woman)
Cast by: Kerry Barden (man), Billy Hopkins (man), Suzanne Smith Crowley (woman)