Bechdel Test Movie List

Mary talks to her mother and her female friends throughout the movie.

Do you count talking about or mentioning Jesus as talking about a man (Excluding the use of the word "Jesus" as an exclamaion) ? If so, this movie actually, incredibly, FAILS despite two thirds of the movie featuring conversations between women, because there is not a single conversation between women that lasts more than 30 seconds where a male is not mentioned at some point.

To be fare, the movie also fails the reverse bechdel test, and the movie is about religious nuts, so it would make sense that there would be very few scenes in which Jesus isn't mentioned. Also, one might argue that Jesus is more of a concept or an abstraction in the movie than a male figure, so references to him wouldn't count. However, at best I would give this movie a dubious rating.

Anyway, it's still a good film. It had me rolling on the floor quite often, despite it's lack of feminist content...

The question about Jesus is interesting. There are definitely some frequent topics of conversation that don't involve religion at all, or other men. For example, Hilary Faye's pimple, or Cassandra's smoking. Those don't last longer than 30 seconds, it's true, but this movie is a perfect example of why the test does not actually say "that lasts longer than 30 seconds" -- the central characters are all female, and while men are involved as plot devices, the movie's central themes are not about the male characters at all.

Clearly a 3/3.