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

[[1]] Seven Psychopaths (2012) [imdb]

This movie passed 1 of 3 tests. It was entered by Lily on 2012-10-14 14:16:19.

Reviews

Comments

Lily said:
There are five named female characters: Myra (Linda Bright Clay), Kaya (Abbie Cornish), Sharice (Gabourney Sidibe), Angela (Olga Kurylenko), and Maggie (Amanda Warren). I'm not sure that Maggie actually even had a speaking part.

They are all defined by their relationships to the male characters: wife, girlfriend, dog walker, girlfriend/lover, and lover, respectively.

None of them ever meet or converse with each other.

The character of Hans (Christopher Walken) brings up the fact that the women in Marty's (Colin Farrell) script, and indeed the movie itself, aren't "real women"; they don't do much of anything and then get killed. Marty says something about it being a tough world for women and that he isn't interested in writing for women.

Billy (Sam Rockwell) says, "You can't let the animals die in a movie. Just the women."
Message posted on 2012-10-14 14:16:20
Tom the Fanboy said:
I don't usually go around checking movies but one of the first things I thought of on the way home was that this movie fails the test in a pretty extreme way.
Message posted on 2012-10-19 00:52:13
AFK said:
I definitely agree that the movie fails the test. The scene that Lily points out, about the women in Marty's script not being "real women", could be analyzed as accurate commentary on how women in movies are often portrayed. Most often it seems like women just exist to be killed/maimed or act as an emotional propeller so that the male character can move forward in his story.
Message posted on 2012-10-27 23:49:39
ChillMal said:
I also agree that it fails the test without a doubt, but the fact that it's self conscious about the dubious role that women play in this movie and in movies in general (as you already mentioned above) is worth noting. I think by raising the awareness for womens roles in movies it's also worth watching from a feminist perspective, besides being an excellent black comedy.
Message posted on 2012-11-30 21:14:45
Juan said:
I agree with ChillMal. The writer/director is a well known playwright, and many of his plays feature strong female protagonists and characters. I think the self-reflexsive dialogue is more a comment on Hollywood genre codes just like the entire movie is a comment of Hollywood genre codes.
Message posted on 2012-12-18 02:58:16
Sara said:
I'm afraid I disagree with both Juan and Chillmal. Here is a direct quote from McDonagh, when asked by a journalist about a line in which Christopher Walken’s character, Hans, berates Marty for having awful female characters in his script. Is this a dig at Hollywood, and something the director had planned from the start, or a way of getting him off the hook for making a film in which women are ridiculed and murdered. “The latter!” McDonagh told Alex Godrey of the Guardian with a laugh. “Yeah. It was fun, but it’s a kind of easy Get Out of Jail Free card to say that in the middle of the film. It would have been better to write some better women characters and not have them die.”
Self-aware, postmodern, meta, ironic black humour my ass. It's just lazy.
Message posted on 2013-02-20 07:24:25
Jeev said:
I think he was just trying to be humble, Sara. The interviewer gave him two options, it could have easily been another reason entirely.
Message posted on 2013-03-13 08:27:20
Jeev said:
I think he was just trying to be humble, Sara. The interviewer gave him two options, it could have easily been another reason entirely.
Message posted on 2013-03-13 08:27:31
Charlee Foxtrot disagreed with the rating and said:
"Dog walker" as as a defining relationship to a male character? yeah, you guys are done. You've officially fallen off the other side of the horse.
Message posted on 2013-04-04 22:46:37
Jen said:
Seeing as Sharice is the employee of Woody Harrelson's character and nothing else is known about her outside of that role, I think it's fair to say that's a "defining relationship." The same could be said for some of the men in the film, but as this test is about women in film, it isn't as relevant.

The film definitely doesn't pass the Bechdel test, and disagreeing with someone's choice of words is not an adequate reason to dispute the rating.
Message posted on 2013-04-14 09:21:28
Eve said:
Although it failes the Bechdel test big time, there is one ironic scene at the end that might refer to the Bechdel test - Martin is a screen writer, and Hans, who reads the script he's writing on, talks to him and says:

'Martin, I’ve been reading your movie.'
'What do you think?'
'Your women’s characters are awful. None of them have anything to say for themselves. Most of them get either shot or stabbed to death within five minutes, and the ones that don’t probably will later on.'
'Well, pfff ... it’s a hard world for women, you know? And guess, that’s what I’m trying to say.'
'Yes, it’s a hard world for women, but most of the ones I know can string a sentence together.'

I like it.
Message posted on 2013-12-13 22:51:17
Manda said:
I'm with Eve... The women aren't ridiculed in this film, the men are...as are the prevailing tropes of the revenge flick. Walken's words serve to underline this fact. Many of the common themes are subverted...Myra is not a screaming victim, but a women who bravely faces her death, and her husband is not an enraged vessel for revenge, but a level-headed, grieving widower,the Mafia boss is not motivated by the death of his lover, but the kidnapping of his beloved pet dog, I could go on...
Message posted on 2014-01-17 23:25:04

> Add comment

> Add review


Back to the list.

Privacy policy