WHERE THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT BEATS TOY STORY 3: Mark Harris' column in EW this week (not online) prompted me to locate the site which administers the Bechdel Test for films. The three questions: does the film (1) have at least two women in it, (2) who talk to each other, (3) about something besides a man? (There's also, per Harris, a (1)(a) -- do the women have names?)
What's disturbing about the Bechdel Test is, indeed, how easy it should be to fulfill, and how rare that it is.
Two things:
ReplyDelete1. This was an absolutely dynamite issue of EW. The Bond cover story is the sort of longer lead analysis they should do more of, the Lost feature was excellent, and the Christina Applegate profile a nice choice of someone who's not profiled in every magazine known to mankind.
2. There have been 7 #1 movies this summer. I break it down as follows:
Definitely Fail
"Inception"
"Toy Story 3"
Definitely Pass
"Despicable Me"--the girls have numerous conversations amongst themselves about adoption--they're somewhat focused on Gru, but not entirely.
"Eclipse"--I'm assuming at some point, the multitude of female characters talk about something other than men. I'm not 100% sure of this, since I didn't see it.
Not Sure
"Iron Man 2"--Do Pepper and Natasha ever have a discussion of any length? Does Pepper's brief exchange with the reporter played by Leslie Bibb (who has a name, but I can't recall it) count?
"Shrek 4"/"Karate Kid"--Didn't see, but expect they both fail.
I stumbled across the Bechdel test a couple of years ago because I follow Alison Bechdel on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zizyphus/ It's funny, I don't know how I stumbled onto her flickr stream years ago, but when I did, I had no idea she was a famous comic artist.
ReplyDeleteWhat's surprising to me are some of the ones that DO pass. Mom and I caught a rerun of the Queen Latifah "Last Holiday" a couple of weekends ago - PASS. Big time PASS. QL has more than one conversation with several different women about something other than men.
Also watched a really cute little indie comedy called TiMER recently (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1179794/) which, despite a solid depiction of a sister relationship, barely managed to pass.
Also, to kick up discussion from an earlier ALOTT5MA post - True Blood passes more often than does Mad Men.
TS3, the site's readers suggest, is a maybe:
ReplyDelete"Molly is told by her mom to donate some of her old toys. One of the toys she decided to donate is her Barbie. Later, Mrs. Potato head and Jessie comfort Barbie about being abandoned by Molly."
I am somewhat inclined to create a Twilight/True Blood corollary to Rule 3, adding vampires and werewolves to "a man." Mad Men is interesting because while it has several wonderfully drawn and acted female characters, they move in separate orbits. Also, how do you class things like Joan's brilliant "put a paper bag over your head" speech to Peggy in S1? It's sort of about men.
ReplyDeleteAlien and Aliens both pass, by the way.
ReplyDeleteYup. I don't see how TS3 does not pass, unless you define out the female toys (as toys) and Molly (as a girl rather than a woman).
ReplyDeleteIt's a funny test. There was a pretty spectacular takedown on HitFix describing the Twilight movies as anti-feminist, because the core of the story is about defining the lead female character in terms of men, and in particular, which man she will end up sleeping with. Yet, because there may be a convo between female characters that is not about men, it passes this test, while Iron Man 2---with two strong female characters portrayed as highly competent---may fail if the characters did not happen to have a nice chat.
I took "about a man" to mean "about a man in the romantic sense." Like if you have two female spies talking about the male villain they're going to take down, I'd call that a pass. I guess that's not what she meant in the original comic, but it works for me.
ReplyDeleteLink to the original comic, if you missed it from the site linked above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zizyphus/34585797/
And admittedly, I've only seen Season 1 of True Blood, but I remember Sookie and Tara and Sookie and her grandmother talking about things other than men.
ReplyDeleteWatts raises an interesting question: what does it mean for the convo to be about a man? If someone is talking about her boss, as a boss, does it count even if the boss is male?
ReplyDeleteNicole Holofcener's films always pass the Bechdel test hands down. She's represented this summer by "Please Give," which was a little heavy-handed, but I enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteOr even beyond that - a boss could be a man or could be a woman. But your father? your brother? your uncle? has to be a man. I mean, what does this mean for the family drama?
ReplyDeleteTrue. In the commentary on that site about Toy Story 3, a conversation between Andy's mom and Bonnie's mom got rejected because they discussed Andy. But that was Andy as offspring.
ReplyDeleteI can also imagine a movie which is just as problematic in the "women only talk to each other in movies about romance" way but still pass the test, namely, where the romantic interest is another woman. Sure, that may be somewhat progressive in a "not just about heterosexuality" sort of way, but it is just as retrograde in a "defining oneselves solely by one's romantic entanglements."
I don't get why TS3 fails. I'm sure that if I watched it again, I would find conversations between/among Bonnie, Bonnie's mom, Andy's mom, Mrs. Potatohead, Jessie, Barbie, the Triceratops (Trixie), and Dolly. "They grow up so fast" is not about Andy, it's about being a parent. It's not like women (or female toys) are missing from that movie.
ReplyDeleteJames Cameron may have many issues as a filmmaker, but he does have strong, independent female characters who exist independently of their men. Well, in his action films, anyway.
ReplyDeleteI think "about a man" is defensible without the "romantic" qualification in the sense that a failure of the industry to present images of women whose lives are not ordered around men is problematic. But "they grow up so fast" is not about Andy -- it's about how a parent is feeling about a stage in her life. It's the same as saying that if a SatC character says "I have an STD," it's about a man because it's about having sex with a man.
ReplyDeleteNonetheless, INCEPTION pretty clearly fails. Now I'm trying to recall if any of Christopher Nolan's other films would pass, and it's tough because I can't remember any scenes in those films that featured more than one woman with dialogue.
ReplyDeleteI ran across this a few months ago, and a good friend and I had our minds blown and wasted a crap ton of time trying to figure out what movies we liked even passed which was heartbreaking because almost nothing did even some Harry Potter.
ReplyDeleteThe hot blonde chick Bruce is seeing and Rachel definitely briefly exchange words during the party scene in The Dark Knight, though they're talking about Bruce. I think there is an exchange about career/magic between two of the female characters in The Prestige.
ReplyDeleteGood for Bring it On, Center Stage, and Parent Trap.
ReplyDeleteI was just amused that "The Hurt Locker" flunked. Clearly the director was biased against women.
ReplyDelete