Bechdel Test Movie List

/bech·del test/ n.
1. It has to have at least two [named] women in it
2. Who talk to each other
3. About something besides a man

[[3]] Apollo 13 (1995) [imdb]

This movie passed 3 of 3 tests. It was entered by Scapes on 2011-02-20 09:17:43.

Reviews

Comments

Mehal disagreed with the rating and said:
Or rather, I'm not sure. Please give the sample dialog. All I can think of is the family talking with the grandmother, and they are exclusively talking about Tom Hanks' character.
Message posted on 2013-02-26 23:26:22
Roderick Smith said:
There's a scene in which the Lovells' older daughter (Barbara or Susan, I don't recall which) wants to wear a certain outfit, which her mother (Marilyn) forbids. I don't recall if the daughter is named, although both daughters are credited by name on IMDB. There's a later scene in which the same daughter doesn't want to attend her father's broadcast, but her mother insists that they go. Of course, that's about Jim Lovell's broadcast, which is getting awfully close to being about a man.

There's also a scene between Marilyn Lovell and Mary Haise at the launch about the latter's pregnancy.
Message posted on 2013-05-17 23:29:55
tanya disagreed with the rating and said:
The female characters were all there to support the men. When the mom talked to the daughter and to the grandmother, it was about the Hanks character.
Message posted on 2013-05-18 00:12:00
Roderick Smith said:
Yes, the female characters in "Apollo 13" exist to support the men. The Bechdel Test is EXTREMELY limited, though; its three criteria appear at the top of this page, and they say nothing about broad issues like who supports who in the film. IMHO, based on the scenes I described, I believe Apollo 13 squeaks past with 3 of 3. The conversations in question are short and don't have any real impact on the plot, but they do exist and do meet the minimal criteria of the Bechdel Test. (OTOH, I could be forgetting references to men in those scenes -- I haven't reviewed the scenes since re-watching the film a few days ago.)
Message posted on 2013-05-20 23:49:17
Jen Li said:
Early on during the launch, Jim's wife gives another one advice on handling the press, which I think counts as being not about a man.

I can think of two diaglogues between the Jim's wife and their daughter - one was when Marilyn did not approve of her daughter's outfit as Jim was getting home with the big news of getting bumped up to the 13 mission, and the other was when the daughter refused to go to the broadcast because The Beatles had just broken up, that Roderick is referring to.
Message posted on 2013-09-03 18:17:30
Galastel said:
The female characters in "Apollo 13" aren't there to support the men - they are there because the people on the spacecraft (who happen to be men) have families, who live the concern, and are impacted by the press. What they *do* is support their men, maintain the house while the men are away, raise the children etc. A film could be made entirely about them, not showing the men at all, (see "From the Earth to the Moon episode 11, for example), and "supporting the men" would still be what they're doing. They wouldn't be any less "characters" for it.
I think that's an important distinction to make. Sometimes female characters are there only as plot devices to further the men's story. Here this is not the case.
Message posted on 2020-06-18 14:48:02
KatieS disagreed with the rating and said:
First, the daughter is a girl, not a woman. While she is a teen, which seems like a fine line, she is, in fact, a child.

The press talk between Marilyn and Mary is about how to message the support of their husbands, ergo it’s about the men.
Message posted on 2022-04-16 15:51:18
kitkat said:
Considering the subject of the film, the fact that it focuses on the three man team on a busted spacecraft and is based on actual historical events, it's not entirely surprising it barely scrapes by in this test. That's not to say the female characters aren't good, it's just in the context of the story and the events it depicts it makes sense.
Message posted on 2022-10-21 02:15:11

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