How Many of Your Favourite Films Pass "the Bechdel Test"?

[darkfox85]

Hello The Escapist. I hope you're well. I love films dudes, but this plays into something I've been thinking about for a while now. I'm just wondering how many of our favourite films pass what's called "the Bechdel test."

It's pretty straight forward:
1) To pass, the film must have more than two female characters that have names
2) These two female characters must talk to each other
3) They must talk to each other about something other than a man/men

Lemmie share my own top 10:

Blade Runner: No
Silence of the Lambs: Yes (Starling and her friend from time to time)
Alien: Yes (Ripley and Lambert discuss escaping)
The Exorcist: Yes
Reservoir Dogs: No
The Terminator: No
Thelma & Louise: Yes (definitely)
The Dark Knight: No
Taxi Driver: No
Shawshank Redemption: No

How about yours?

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Serenity passes. And I just did a quick jog through my memory, but it seems to be the ONLY movie I've watched that passes.

 

[Scrustle]

I don't think Princess Mononoke passes. It's been a long time since I've seen it so I might be forgetting something. But from what I remember in it, there are a lot of women in it who are depicted as strong and capable, but they mostly talk about how useless the men are.

 

[LordFish]

Watchmen: Yes
Avengers:I don't think so
All James Bonds:Sometimes they insult each other in a fight scene or something, or Judi Dench as M will talk to Money Penny, on the whole No though
Hanna: Yes, that film is awesome!
All Harry Potters: Yes
Xmen films: Yes, quite sure
Mission Impossible 4: Don't think so
Star trek films: Yeehhh, no girly gossip on the bridge please!


That's about it, not my favourite films, just ones I happen to think of first.


EDIT: Jedi Dench... lol

 

[Swyftstar]

I like this game. I'm gonna try it with five of my favs, in no particular order.
The Blues Brothers: Hell no
Stripes: Hell no
Superman 2: Nope
Star Trek 2: Geez, this is getting depressing
Aliens: Did Ripley and Vasquez even say hi to each other.

I'm just gonna stop now.

 

[IndomitableSam]

I'm wracking my brain over Gladiator, but I don't think Lucilla talks to anyone but her father/brother/son/Maximus... Boo. Unless the whole "People of Rome" speech at the end counts.... No?

Shame on you, Mr. Scott. Seems like few of your movies pass the test.

 

[Saladfork]

I'm wracking my brain over Gladiator, but I don't think Lucilla talks to anyone but her father/brother/son/Maximus... Boo. Unless the whole "People of Rome" speech at the end counts.... No?

Shame on you, Mr. Scott. Seems like few of your movies pass the test.

Just because it isn't Bechdel-approved doesn't mean it's not a good or even great movie. The Thing, for example, is an amazing movie, and I don't recall there being a single woman in the entire movie.

 

[Bassik]

The Shape of Things to Come: Made in the 30's, so give it some extra points for having a very strong female character for it's time in the form of the Chief's wife. I say that without a hint of irony.

The Rambo films: There were broads in those?

Brazil: Nope. Plenty of females, but they don't seem to interact in any way with eachother.

A boy and his dog: HAHAHAHAHA!! But seriously, don't watch this one with your girlfriend.

Falling Down: Bitches gonna die.

Sinbad films: Eye candy with a few lines.

Jason and the argonauts: I don't think it had any women in it.

Forbidden Planet: One. One girl. In the entire film.

Star Trek films: Too manly for girly crap.

The circus of Dr. Lao: I think so.

The Thing: Maybe some of the dogs were female?

Platoon: Like Star Trek, too manly.

Evil Dead 2: Yeah man! The mother/corpse talks to the daughter. It counts.

So out of all my favourite films, it seems the Evil Dead is truly the most friendly to women.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

I don't think Princess Mononoke passes. It's been a long time since I've seen it so I might be forgetting something. But from what I remember in it, there are a lot of women in it who are depicted as strong and capable, but they mostly talk about how useless the men are.

I haven't seen it in a while either but I believe in Princess Mononoke, the two female leads were always yelling at each other about the environment and war, so technically that's something that isn't necessarily a man, although a man was the main character, I think they had a tendency to ignore him when they were too busy fighting.

 

[IndomitableSam]

I'm wracking my brain over Gladiator, but I don't think Lucilla talks to anyone but her father/brother/son/Maximus... Boo. Unless the whole "People of Rome" speech at the end counts.... No?

Shame on you, Mr. Scott. Seems like few of your movies pass the test.

Just because it isn't Bechdel-approved doesn't mean it's not a good or even great movie. The Thing, for example, is an amazing movie, and I don't recall there being a single woman in the entire movie.

It's still my favourite movie, doesn't mean I dislike it now. And it doesn't mean I like Ridley Scott any less - he does make good movies. It's just an interesting thing to consider with most movies, and it doesn't seem that many pass the test.

 

[repeating integers]

Umm, who cares? What does the Bechdel-test prove? In fact, let's have the Hodor-test in which you must have talking animals. It's equally irrelevant.

Edit: That being said, I'd reckon some of my favorite movies pass the test, some doesn't. Don't really care.

TVtropes describes it as a "litmus test for female presence in movies and TV". I think the point might be to expose how male-centric a lot of mainstream media is, but I don't know if that's the actual official purpose.

 

[Scrustle]

Umm, who cares? What does the Bechdel-test prove? In fact, let's have the Hodor-test in which you must have talking animals. It's equally irrelevant.

Edit: That being said, I'd reckon some of my favorite movies pass the test, some doesn't. Don't really care.

I bet you're going to get a lot of hate for saying that, but I agree to an extent. This test is treated as some kind of litmus test as to whether a film is sexist or not, but it's nothing of the sort. All it takes to pass the test is for one female character to say something like "nice weather today, isn't it?" to another. It in no way shows anything about how women are treated in the film. Like with my example, it doesn't seem to pass the test yet it's not sexist at all. In fact it's quite the opposite.

 

[JaceArveduin]

Guys, I don't think it's trying to prove anything, at least in a serious manner.

And I just realized... I don't think Lord of the Rings passes this XD

 

[lizabeth19]

Waterbending, because of the four following perversions of said power. (1) All you need to do to have a good time if you're a waterbender is to hop into a bathtub. (2) If you were a good enough bloodbender, you'd never have to worry about a male partner...ahem, starting the race too early. (3) You can make ice whenever and where-ever you want. (4) If something went pear-shaped in the boudoir, you wouldn't have to make an akward trip to the emergancy room.

Waterbending- the most useful Bending style in the bedroom.

 

[Sixcess]

Casablanca: No
Reservoir Dogs: No
Alien: Debatable. Ripley and Lambert, to the best of my recollection, only talk as part of a group. Oh, and Lambert hits Ripley. Yay?
Seven Samurai: No
Escape from New York: No

Also do I score bonus points for Reservoir Dogs? It only has one onscreen female, who has no lines and then gets killed.

 

[lizabeth19]

Whoops, wrong area.

 

[Swyftstar]

I didn't think of it as a Litmus test, just thought it was a fun game to play. Does that make me super sexist?