As I’ve become immersed in the data analysis of films, I find that I’m intrigued more by the questions that arise as opposed to the questions that are answered.
The latest deep dive is a prime example of this.
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Recently my wife and I watched the 2019 documentary This Changes Everything that chronicles the century-long battle for female representation in front of and behind the camera. If you haven’t seen it, it’s very well done and available on Netflix.
The film dedicates a sequence to the emergence of the Bechdel-Wallace test (AKA, The Rule).
Inspired by a comic book by Alison Bechdel, the test aims to judge a film’s ability to present multi-dimensional female characters and relationships. The test is applied simply with the following criteria:
Does the film have at least two women in it?
Do the women talk to each other?
Do they speak to each other about something besides a man?
Here is a very good overview of the test that details its background, application, and cultural context.
What strikes me most about this exercise is that it in no way is meant to be a quality judgement on the films it tests. Instead, it’s an examination of how female characters are presented to us in cinema. It is equally surprising to see the films that technically pass the test as it is to see the ones that fail it. It is a data point not meant to conclude an argument but instead intended to prompt a discussion.
While there has been much written about the test over the years, this website referenced in the video above stands as perhaps the most exhaustive resource of films that have undergone the test. The site relies on user contributions for its scoring, so it is susceptible to potential inconsistencies and varying subjectivity, but it does stand out as a leading standard for exploration of the films that have been put to the Bechdel-Wallace Test.
Impressively, as of now, there are 9,272 films recorded on the site that span over 100 years. Of that total, 54.5% of the films pass the test. This week I wanted to take a look at that subset of movies that make the grade, understand more about them, and most importantly discover where we can watch them.
First some headline insights.
Of the top 1,000 grossing films of all time, 494 of those titles pass the BW test according to the data on this site. Additionally, 750 passing titles have been nominated for at least one Oscar.
The blended (IMDB rating, Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes) score of the over 5,000 titles that pass the test is 64.04%. It’s a mark that is above average but certainly confirms the notion that this test is not meant to be a qualitative judgment on a film.
Things get even more interesting when looking at the people behind the BW-certified films. Here’s a look.
Alright, let’s get right to the point. There are a TON of dudes here. In terms of directors, you need to go all the way down to number 42 on the list to reach Sofia Coppola as the first female director with the most amount of films that pass the test. It should be noted that all of her films meet the BW standard. This proportion (BW passed films/all directing credits) will be interesting to look at further. I will follow up with more information on that in a future post.
The writers outlook is a little better but not by much.
Looking at things this way verifies not just the need for the test, but the reality that the goal of representation extends to both in front of and behind the camera with equal value.
Finally, here is a look at what streamers have the largest proportion of BW-certified films across the market.
This week’s menu presented some challenges since there are over 5,000 titles that pass the test on this site. While I encourage you to browse the website to see all of the titles (and especially the user commentary), I tried to apply some filtering to pare down the list to a more manageable size.
Also, while it is valuable to use the BW list to discover new films, it’s also very interesting to look at more familiar titles through this lens. In the spirit of that, this week’s menu is constructed of films that have have at least two of the following:
At least 85% blended score (IMDB, Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes)
An Oscar Nomination
Placement on IMDB’s top 1000 film list.
Clearly, there will be some gems that fall through the cracks here, however, this should be a good start.
As always there is much more to learn about, and in a subsequent post, I’ll highlight some more interesting titles that have passed the test. In the meantime, enjoy your exploration!
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