Fails the Bechdel test
True Romance
1993. Directed by Tony Scott, written by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary.
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
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
In Detroit, Clarence Worley goes to the movie theater alone on his birthday to watch some movies. The gorgeous Alabama Whitman accidentally drops her popcorn on Clarence and they watch the movie together. Later they go to a diner for pie, and end up having a one-night stand. In the morning, Alabama confesses that she is a call-girl hired to spend the night with him, but she has fallen in love with him. In the morning they get married and Clarence goes to the club where she works to bring her some clothes. However, her pimp Drexl Spivey and his partner beat him up--and he reacts by killing them both. Clarence asks for Alabama's suitcase with her clothes and the other girls mistakenly give him another one, which contains cocaine. When Clarence discovers the mistake, he decides to travel with Alabama to the house of his friend, aspiring actor Dick Ritchie, to sell the drugs and travel to Mexico. He visits his father Clifford Worley and gives his address to him. But the Sicilian Mafia is the owner of the drugs and a group of killers is sent to hunt down Clarence and Alabama.
- Released
- 10 Sep 1993
- Genres
- Crime, Drama, Romance
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.9 / 10
- Metascore
- 59 / 100
- Awards
- 1 win & 10 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Clarence 323 lines, man
- Alabama 144 lines, woman
- Dick 81 lines, man
- Elliot 50 lines, man
- Cliff 47 lines, man
- Dimes 47 lines, man
- Lee 39 lines, man
- Drexl 36 lines, man
- Virgil 29 lines, man
- Floyd 27 lines, man
Full cast, 40 people
- Christian Slater as Clarence Worley
- Patricia Arquette as Alabama Whitman
- Dennis Hopper as Clifford Worley
- Val Kilmer as Mentor
- Gary Oldman as Drexl Spivey
- Brad Pitt as Floyd (Dick's Roommate)
- Christopher Walken as Vincenzo Coccotti
- Bronson Pinchot as Elliot Blitzer
- Samuel L. Jackson as Big Don
- Michael Rapaport as Dick Ritchie
- Saul Rubinek as Lee Donowitz
- Conchata Ferrell as Mary Louise Ravencroft
- James Gandolfini as Virgil
- Anna Thomson as Lucy
- Victor Argo as Lenny
- Paul Bates as Marty
- Chris Penn as Nicky Dimes
- Tom Sizemore as Cody Nicholson
- Said Faraj as Burger Man
- Gregory Sporleder as Burger Stand Customer
- Maria Pitillo as Kandi
- Frank Adonis as Frankie
- Kevin Corrigan as Marvin
- Paul Ben-Victor as Luca
- Michael Beach as Wurlitzer
- Joe D'Angerio as Police Radio Operator
- John Bower as Detective
- John Cenatiempo as Squad Cop #1
- Eric Allan Kramer as Boris
- Patrick John Hurley as Monty
- Dennis Garber as Lobby Cop #1
- Scott Evers as Lobby Cop #2
- Hilary Klym as Running Cop
- Steve Gonzales as I.A. Officer
- Laurence Mason as Floyd "D"
- David Dean as Cop (uncredited)
- April Freeman as Burger Stand Customer (uncredited)
- Ed Lauter as Police Captain Quiggle (uncredited)
- Enzo Rossi as Elvis, Alabama's and Clarence's Son (uncredited)
- Nancy Young as Hotel Hostage (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 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 85
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 | 7 | 9 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 28 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 to 8 | 5 | 23 |
| 9 to 10 | 10 | 23 |
| 11 to 12 | 3 | 29 |
| 13 to 14 | 16 | 35 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 1 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 33 |
| 19 to 20 | 3 | 19 |
| 21 to 22 | 4 | 0 |
| 23 to 24 | 13 | 11 |
| 25 to 26 | 23 | 23 |
| 27 to 28 | 18 | 21 |
| 29 to 30 | 25 | 28 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 17 |
| 33 to 34 | 4 | 6 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 43 |
| 37 to 38 | 7 | 11 |
| 39 to 40 | 2 | 60 |
| 41 to 42 | 0 | 19 |
| 43 to 44 | 0 | 29 |
| 45 to 46 | 5 | 8 |
| 47 to 48 | 1 | 4 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 7 |
| 51 to 52 | 2 | 18 |
| 53 to 54 | 0 | 1 |
| 55 to 56 | 0 | 0 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 1 |
| 59 to 60 | 7 | 8 |
| 61 to 62 | 0 | 22 |
| 63 to 64 | 0 | 30 |
| 65 to 66 | 6 | 24 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 0 |
| 69 to 70 | 1 | 19 |
| 71 to 72 | 2 | 17 |
| 73 to 74 | 0 | 11 |
| 75 to 76 | 0 | 41 |
| 77 to 78 | 2 | 102 |
| 79 to 80 | 1 | 1 |
| 81 to 82 | 1 | 8 |
| 83 to 84 | 1 | 13 |
| 85 to 85 | 1 | 0 |
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, 17 are women's.
170 lines from women, 804 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
7 women and 31 men in the cast. 4 women and 19 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 3 of 1,030.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 105 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 15% of the words (2,226), men 85% (12,810). Women have 17% 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
70
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 14 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 17% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Tony Scott (man)
- Written by
- Quentin Tarantino (man)
- Produced by
- Gary Barber (man), Samuel Hadida (man), Steve Perry (man), Bill Unger (man)
- Shot by
- Jeffrey L. Kimball (man)
- Edited by
- Michael Tronick (man), Christian Wagner (man)
- Music by
- Hans Zimmer (man)
- Production design by
- Benjamín Fernández (man)
- Costumes by
- Susan Becker (woman)
- Cast by
- Billy Hopkins (man), Risa Bramon Garcia (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
2 women, 20 men, 1 not listed
-
Production
6 women, 12 men, 1 not listed
-
Sound
2 women, 11 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 4 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 0 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 2 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 25 on average. Men: 37 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Patricia Arquette 25
Men
Michael Rapaport 23, Christian Slater 24, Brad Pitt 29, Val Kilmer 33, Bronson Pinchot 34, Gary Oldman 35, Samuel L. Jackson 44, Christopher Walken 50, Dennis Hopper 57
Exhibit G: the money
It made 1.0 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $12.5 million
- Box office
- $12.6 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 85 scenes and 1,030 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
