Fails the Bechdel test
True Grit
2010. Directed by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, written by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen and Charles Portis.
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
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
Following the murder of her father by hired hand Tom Chaney, 14-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross sets out to capture the killer. To aid her, she hires the toughest U.S. marshal she can find, a man with "true grit," Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn. Mattie insists on accompanying Cogburn, whose drinking, sloth, and generally reprobate character do not augment her faith in him. Against his wishes, she joins him in his trek into the Indian Nations in search of Chaney. They are joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who wants Chaney for his own purposes. The unlikely trio find danger and surprises on the journey, and each has his or her "grit" tested.
- Released
- 22 Dec 2010
- Genres
- Drama, Western
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 7.6 / 10
- Metascore
- 80 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 10 Oscars. 38 wins & 170 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Mattie 184 lines, woman
- Rooster 146 lines, man
- Leboeuf 60 lines, man
- Chaney 24 lines, man
- Stonehill 17 lines, man
- Lucky Ned 16 lines, man
- Cogburn 14 lines, man
- Moon 13 lines, man
- Quincy 11 lines, man
- Sheriff 7 lines, man
Full cast, 31 people
- Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn
- Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross
- Matt Damon as LaBoeuf
- Josh Brolin as Tom Chaney
- Barry Pepper as Lucky Ned Pepper
- Dakin Matthews as Col. Stonehill
- Jarlath Conroy as Undertaker
- Paul Rae as Emmett Quincy
- Domhnall Gleeson as Moon (The Kid)
- Elizabeth Marvel as 40-Year-Old Mattie
- Roy Lee Jones as Yarnell
- Ed Corbin as Bear Man
- Leon Russom as Sheriff
- Bruce Green as Harold Parmalee
- Candyce Hinkle as Boarding House Landlady
- Peter Leung as Mr. Lee
- Don Pirl as Cole Younger
- Joe Stevens as Cross-examining Lawyer
- David Lipman as First Lawyer
- Jake Walker as Judge Parker
- Orlando Storm Smart as Stableboy
- Ty Mitchell as Ferryman
- Nicholas Sadler as Repentant Condemned Man
- Scott Sowers as Unrepentant Condemned Man
- Jonathan Joss as Condemned Indian
- Maggie A. Goodman as Woman at Hanging
- Brandon Sanderson as Indian Youth at Bagby's
- Ruben Nakai Campana as Indian Youth at Bagby's
- James Brolin as Frank James (uncredited)
- J.K. Simmons as J. Noble Daggett (voice) (uncredited)
- Vivian Kalinov as Frontier Woman (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 6% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 4
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 | 85 | 70 |
| 2 to 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 to 3 | 23 | 50 |
| 4 to 4 | 82 | 209 |
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, 37 are women's.
191 lines from women, 329 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
4 women and 21 men in the cast. 2 women and 14 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 3 of 554.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 41 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 33% of the words (2,787), men 67% (5,569). Women have 37% 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
11
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 15 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 22% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Ethan Coen (man), Joel Coen (man)
- Written by
- Joel Coen (man), Ethan Coen (man)
- From the novel by
- Charles Portis (man)
- Produced by
- Ethan Coen (man), Scott Rudin (man), Joel Coen (man)
- Shot by
- Roger Deakins (man)
- Edited by
- Ethan Coen (man), Joel Coen (man)
- Music by
- Carter Burwell (man)
- Production design by
- Jess Gonchor (man)
- Costumes by
- Mary Zophres (woman)
- Cast by
- Ellen Chenoweth (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
3 women, 18 men, 5 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
3 women, 3 men, 12 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 13 men, 3 not listed
-
Production
6 women, 7 men
-
Art
4 women, 4 men, 3 not listed
-
Camera
1 women, 6 men, 3 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 4 men, 6 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 2 men, 8 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 28 on average. Men: 49 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Hailee Steinfeld 14, Elizabeth Marvel 41
Men
Domhnall Gleeson 27, Matt Damon 40, Barry Pepper 40, Josh Brolin 42, Paul Rae 42, Jeff Bridges 61, Jarlath Conroy 66, Dakin Matthews 70
Exhibit G: the money
It made 6.6 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $38 million
- Box office
- $252 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 4 scenes and 554 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
