Passes the Bechdel test
Wild Wild West
1999. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, written by Jim Thomas and John Thomas and S.S. Wilson.
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 1 scene out of 193. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 2 out of 3.
The film
Jim West is a guns-a-blazing former Civil War hero. Artemus Gordon is an inventive U.S. Marshal who excels in disguise. When the United States is threatened by psychotic Confederate Arliss Loveless, President Ulysses S Grant teams the duo up to bring him to justice. On a hazard-packed train journey from Washington, D.C. to Utah, West and Gordon must combine their skills to best Loveless and his diabolical machines.
- Released
- 30 Jun 1999
- Genres
- Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 5 / 10
- Metascore
- 40 / 100
- Awards
- 16 wins & 17 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- West 226 lines, man
- Gordon 184 lines, man
- Loveless 92 lines, man
- Rita 45 lines, woman
- President Grant 40 lines, man
- Mcgrath 21 lines, man
- Coleman 15 lines, man
- Gordon/Dora 8 lines
- Miss East 7 lines, woman
- Chanteuse 6 lines, woman
Full cast, 31 people
- Will Smith as Capt. James West
- Kevin Kline as U.S. Marshal Artemus Gordon / President Grant
- Kenneth Branagh as Dr. Arliss Loveless
- Salma Hayek Pinault as Rita Escobar
- M. Emmet Walsh as Coleman
- Ted Levine as General 'Bloodbath' McGrath
- Frederique van der Wal as Amazonia
- Musetta Vander as Munitia
- Sofia Eng as Miss Lippenrieder
- Bai Ling as Miss Mae Lee East
- Garcelle Beauvais as Belle (Girl in Water Tower)
- Mike H. McGaughy as Big reb
- Jerry Wills as Other Reb
- Rodney A. Grant as Hudson
- Buck Taylor as Cross-Eyed Reb
- E.J. Callahan as Mr. Pinkerton
- Debra Christofferson as Dora Look-Alike
- James Lashly as Reb #1
- Dean Rader Duval as Reb #2
- Christian Aubert as French Dignitary
- Orestes Matacena as Spanish Dignitary
- Ian Abercrombie as British Dignitary
- Ismael 'East' Carlo as Mexican Dignitary
- Bob Rumnock as White House Aide
- Gary Carlos Cervantes as Dr. Guillermo Escobar
- Jerry Potter as George Washington
- Mik Scriba as Guard
- Michael Sims as Prof. Thaddeus Morton
- J.J. Perry as Shovel Guy (uncredited)
- Dennis Keiffer as Wrench Guy (uncredited)
- Derek Mears as Metal Head (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 5 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 193
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 5 | 1 | 5 |
| 6 to 10 | 5 | 5 |
| 11 to 15 | 3 | 16 |
| 16 to 20 | 0 | 9 |
| 21 to 25 | 0 | 14 |
| 26 to 30 | 0 | 11 |
| 31 to 35 | 0 | 43 |
| 36 to 40 | 0 | 15 |
| 41 to 45 | 0 | 23 |
| 46 to 50 | 7 | 38 |
| 51 to 55 | 7 | 22 |
| 56 to 60 | 3 | 4 |
| 61 to 65 | 8 | 26 |
| 66 to 70 | 2 | 23 |
| 71 to 75 | 5 | 19 |
| 76 to 80 | 9 | 34 |
| 81 to 85 | 1 | 14 |
| 86 to 90 | 0 | 5 |
| 91 to 95 | 1 | 0 |
| 96 to 100 | 1 | 1 |
| 101 to 105 | 3 | 7 |
| 106 to 110 | 2 | 12 |
| 111 to 115 | 4 | 8 |
| 116 to 120 | 0 | 7 |
| 121 to 125 | 0 | 71 |
| 126 to 130 | 0 | 3 |
| 131 to 135 | 0 | 11 |
| 136 to 140 | 0 | 8 |
| 141 to 145 | 0 | 8 |
| 146 to 150 | 0 | 0 |
| 151 to 155 | 3 | 14 |
| 156 to 160 | 9 | 25 |
| 161 to 165 | 0 | 16 |
| 166 to 170 | 0 | 7 |
| 171 to 175 | 0 | 7 |
| 176 to 180 | 1 | 27 |
| 181 to 185 | 0 | 15 |
| 186 to 190 | 0 | 5 |
| 191 to 193 | 8 | 32 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scene
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
MUNITIA: Change gear ratio from 2.2 to 2.8! AMAZONIA: A bucket for the minister, please!
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 12 are women's.
83 lines from women, 610 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
7 women and 23 men in the cast. 4 women and 23 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 8 of 713.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 166 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 10% of the words (848), men 90% (7,702). Women have 12% 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
3
Two men
80
Exhibit F: behind the camera
2 of the 16 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 19% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Barry Sonnenfeld (man)
- Written by
- Jeffrey Price (man), Peter S. Seaman (man), S.S. Wilson (man), Brent Maddock (man)
- Story by
- Jim Thomas (man), John Thomas (man)
- Produced by
- Jon Peters (man), Barry Sonnenfeld (man)
- Shot by
- Michael Ballhaus (man)
- Edited by
- Jim Miller (man)
- Music by
- Elmer Bernstein (man)
- Production design by
- Bo Welch (man)
- Costumes by
- Deborah L. Scott (woman)
- Cast by
- Ronna Kress (woman), David Rubin (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
15 women, 63 men, 6 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 15 men, 4 not listed
-
Production
2 women, 11 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
2 women, 8 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 7 men, 3 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
3 women, 3 men, 3 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 5 men, 1 not listed
-
Writing
0 women, 6 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 32 on average. Men: 45 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Sofia Eng 27, Frederique van der Wal 31, Salma Hayek Pinault 32, Bai Ling 32, Musetta Vander 36
Men
Will Smith 30, Kenneth Branagh 38, Ted Levine 42, Kevin Kline 51, M. Emmet Walsh 64
Exhibit H: the money
It made 1.3 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $170 million
- Box office
- $222 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 193 scenes and 713 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
