Bechdel Test Movie List

In two scenes Neytiri talks to her mother about Jake.

Does it need to be a two-way conversation? There is one scene where Grace (Sigourney Weaver) tells Trudy (Michelle Rodriguez) to wait with the helicopter.

There is also another scene where Grace is pleading with Navi to leave Home Tree, and you could maybe view it as her talking to the female spiritual leader.

Sad that those are the only two even arguable scenes.

Navi talks (prays) to Eywa about saving Grace's life. Do goddesses count?

There is a scene where Grace tells Neytiri's mother to scape. There are a few instances of women talking to each other about other than a man, but all are brief, not actual conversations. I don-t know if that counts.

Even if countless women are talking to each other, the parameters on this site state that the women need to have names to fill the criteria.

Neytiri's mother does have a name, it's Mo'at, whether the scene in question count otherwise is another matter though.
There's also a third instance I can recall of women talking, when Grace is allowed back into the village to see the children, she talked to them, and there must have been one or two females among them, though they almost definitely were not named. Though I don't believe it's in English.

It does need to be a two-way conversation, seeing as that's the way conversations work. Having female characters speaking a language that nobody in the audience understands is still on par with suggesting that what a woman has to say doesn't matter; the men will still save the day at the end of the movie.

I'd disagree with Renee on both counts. One could easily conceive of a scene where one female character speaks to another at length, and yet the one listening doesn't get a word in because of the context of the scene. Similarly, dialogue that no one understands doesn't mean that it doesn't matter; one could conceive of a film where the entire plot revolves around a line of dialogue that is intentionally designed for the audience not to understand, and yet drives the entire plot (or, similarly, something a character whispers to another character, and the audience never hears let alone comprehends). Both of these constitute counterexamples to the claim that one way conversations, or those the audience does not understand, do not count as conversations.

@Steve the rules are:
1. It has to have at least two women in it = Yes
2. Who talk to each other = No. - Talk at each other? But not to each other...
3. About something besides a man = if they are speaking in another language how can we tell? Also, such a conversation may as well be background noise for all it's relevance to the this test...and as useful to the plot as an explosion or soundtrack - But it's not a dialogue, just sound prop

I disagree on condition 3. Yes, Neytiri and Mo'at have a conversation about Jake, but in their first conversation they don't view him as a man. They think of him as an alien at that point in the film, and while it's true that he has a gender assignment, that's not relevant to their discussion. It would be like my mother and I arguing about E.T.; we'd be talking about an alternate life form that requires my supervision, not a person I could see as potentially marriageable.

"they don't view him as a man"

That's irrelevant. He is, in fact, a man, so they are, in fact, talking about a man. For the purposes of the test, you certainly can't discount the perceptions of the *audience*.

Karon - what about the conversation? Unknown dialogue that is later revealed is a big part of that movie, certainly not inconsequential to the plot. How about all those movies where someone says I have a plan, then they huddle and whisper. Later we see plan in action but never hear words spoken. In the story and it's world though the conversation happened and it was important.

Grace and Trudy are talking, when they are flying through the "Hallelujah_Mountains". I think it Counts.

Just read about the test. Wanted to check whether Jules is right. Watched the scene again. And indeed they both have two short lines about arriving in the floating mountains and how hard it is to see. Only reason to not count this seems to me, if the women have to have the conversation alone.

I do not think it passes test 3 because Navi's is not using language that we understand which means we can't tell if they are talking about something other than man. So it is difficult to say it passes test 3 unless we know their language exactly.

Jules is right, it’s an absolute clean pass:

GRACE:
See these magnetic formations. We're
getting close.
TRUDY:
Yeah we are. Look at my instruments.
GRACE:
Yup. We're in the flux vortex.

That’s two named women, Trudy and grace
Having a conversation about something else than a man
(I don’t like the movie, but that’s irrelevant)
It’s a Clean pass 3/3

THE HALLELUJAH MOUNTAINS. Right in front of them.

I've updated the rating from 2/3 to 3/3.