Bechdel Test Movie List

There are two strong, powerful female characters whose actions affect the plot, but they don't interact.

I'm glad their characters were altered for the movie. In the books, Arwen was nothing but a trophy wife, and Galadriel was more of an extension of the male, whose name currently eludes me.

I'm not sure if we're supposed to be making value judgements on changes between the books and the movies, but Arwen in the books was not "nothing but a trophy wife." Aside from being older than Aragorn she was in her own right ruler of the Elves in Middle-earth in the Fourth Age. Also Galadriel is not an extension of Celeborn in the book. There's a reason you couldn't remember his name; it's because he barely comes into it and she is the one that even the men of Rohan have heard of from that far away. She is also the bearer of Nenya, one of the Three Rings, and keeper of the Mirror of Galadriel. It might or might not be fair to say that Celeborn is an extension of Galadriel, but certainly not the other way around.

Galadrial is not an extension of a male character, as she bears one of the Elven rings of power. She is tempted by the Ring, tempted to succumb to her dreams in which she would be as bad, if not worse, than Sauron if she accepted. She decides to return to the Gray Havens and helps arm and supply the Fellowship.

Arwen rescued Frodo, facing down all 9 Ringwraiths. Hardly just a trophy wife.

Is everyone forgetting Eowyn? She is one of the strongest female characters, she kills a Ringwraith for goodness sake, she takes all of Rohan to Helms Deep, she cares for them all during the attack of Helms Deep. She is fantabulous!!!!

The question is not whether or not there are strong female characters in the movie (obviously there are), the question is: do they ever speak to each other? The answer is no. At no point in the movie do we have two named female characters interact.

Sam-I-am:

What you said about Eowyn is true, except she wasn't actually in the first film!

@Wolf: The point is that she was given a lot more kick-ass in the movies than in the books. Her facing down the wraiths was one such scene; that was Glorfindel, a male elf, in the books.

That said, it does fail the test on the basis that none of the female characters ever speak to each other.

Two females do speak to one another: Morwen and Freda.

@Elf: That does not happen in the first film (The Fellowship of the Ring), which is the film being discussed here. That happens in the second film (The Two Towers), which is why it passes the Bechdel Test (see: bechdeltest.com/view/247/the_lord_of_the_rings:_the_two_towers/).

The entire series of books was written by an old white man who had zero interest in being politically correct or feminist. So no, its not likely you will have interactions between two women. Much less meaningful interactions that don't involve a man. If you want something more progressive you'll need to find fantasy stories written by women and if you want movies you've got the Harry Potter series. Interestingly JK Rowling is only mildly progressive as she isn't big on gays and transexuals. BUT, she wrote solid characters for boys and girls. So thats something.