Unlimited May

May

Number	Name of Film	Rating	Date Watched	Directed by;	Price
1	Ironman 2	12A	5/5/2010	Jan Favreau	£4.30
2	A Nightmare on Elm Street	18	16/5/2010	Samuel Bayer	£4.30
3	Furry Vengeance	PG	17/5/2010	Roger Kumble	£4.30
4	A Nightmare on Elm Street	18	24/5/2010	Samuel Bayer	£4.30

Why yes, I did see Nightmare on Elm Street twice. I had my reasons.

The Bechdel-Wallace Test

The Bechdel-Wallace test is - you know what? I'm just going to quote from TV Tropes here;

The Bechdel Test or the Bechdel-Wallace Test is a sort of litmus test for female presence in movies and TV. In order to pass, the film or show must meet the following criteria:

1. it includes at least two women,
   
2. who have at least one conversation alone
   
3. about something other than a man or men.

Now, by limiting yourself to shows/movies that pass the test, you'd be cutting out a lot of otherwise-worthy entertainment; indeed, a fair number of top-notch works have legitimate reasons for including no women (e.g. ones set in a men's prison or on a military submarine or with no conversations at all or with only one character). You may even be cutting out a lot of works that have a feminist tone. But that's the point: too little fiction created today, particularly in TV and movies, has independent female characters. Things have improved since the test was first formulated (the strip in which it was originally suggested was written in 1985), but Hollywood still needs to be prodded to put in someone other than The Chick.

The Bechdel test, or Bechdel-Wallace was first suggested in the webcomic Dykes to Watch Out For, and you can see the specific strip here.

After reading that page, a question began to torment me. Just how many of my movies (as in, the ones I own on DVD) pass?

Well, let's see. Below is a list of the movies I own - in alphabetical order, because that's how I role - with comments as to how well they do on the Bechdel-Wallace test. What I'm going to do is, watch all of these films over again, in alphabetical order, and add in comments as I do (I have a lot of knitting/rugmaking/studying to get done, and movies help a lot). Fail will be a sharp red colour, while a pass will be green.  When the film only just scrapes through, it will be a lilac-y blue shade.  I generally include conversations about children as being "about men", but I'll normally note when I've done this.  If you disagree, comment, and we can discuss it.

I did not realise that I owned this many films. This isn't even including TV series'.

Title	Comments	Pass/Fail
10 Things I Hate About You	Passes within the first ten minutes, when Kat and the guidance counsellor talk about Kat's attitude.  If that's not enough, Bianca and her friend manage a talk about being "whelmed" before Joey interrupts. Later, Kat and Bianca have a talk about their respective attitudes and their mother.
17 Again	Failed miserably. No, wait! I just remembered that little conversation at the beginning, with the girls congratulating Wendy on her promotion! Half-pass, since they weren't main characters and Mike was standing just behind them.
America's Sweethearts	I was only half paying attention, but I'm pretty sure this failed, unless you want to count Kiki haranguing the waitress about butter (she doesn't reply, so it's not really conversation).
American Pie	Well, Vicky and her friend do talk about orgasms, but they're also talking about Kevin, so I'm going to call it a fail.
American Pie 2	---	---
American Pie 3	---	---
American Beauty	---	---
Anastasia	---	---
Another Cinderella Story	---	---
Battle Royale	---	---
Battle Royale II: Requim	---	---
Before Sunrise	---	---
Big Daddy	---	---
Bridge to Terabithia	---	---
Bruce Almighty	---	---
The Butcher's Wife	---	---
Children of Men	---	---
Cruel Intentions	---	---
The Dark Crystal	---	---
Definitely, Maybe	---	---
The Devil Wears Prada	---	---
The Doll Master	---	---
Drop Dead Gorgeous	---	---
East is East	---	---
Enchanted	---	---
Evan Almighty	---	---
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children	---	---
The Ghost	---	---
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time	---	---
The Handmaid's Tale	---	---
Happy-Go-Lucky	---	---
Hard Candy	Hailey calls her friend to discuss plans for after her "date".  Although she does mention Jeff in that conversation, it may just scrape through.
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not	---	---
Heathers	---	---
Howl's Moving Castle	---	---
Into the Mirror	---	---
Juno	---	---
The Lake House	---	---
Legally Blonde	---	---
Life or Something Like It	---	---
Love Me If You Dare	---	---
Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium	---	---
Mean Girls	---	---
Memoirs of a Geisha	---	---
Minority Report	---	---
The Mummy	---	---
The Mummy Returns	---	---
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor	---	---
Mona Lisa Smile	---	---
Not Another Teen Movie	---	---
The Orphanage	---	---
The Other Boleyn Girl	---	---
The Others	---	---
The Parent Trap	---	---
Persepolis	---	---
Priscilla	---	---
Saved!	---	---
The Shawshank Redemption	Instant fail - there aren't two female characters.
Shrek	---	---
Shrek 2	---	---
Shrek the Third	---	---
Sister Act	---	---
Sky High	---	---
Sliding Doors	---	---
Slumdog Millionaire	---	---
South Park	---	---
Son of Rambow	---	---
Strings	---	---
The Swan Princess	---	---
The Truman Show	---	---
A Very Long Engagement	---	---
Where the Heart Is	Passes when Sister and Novalee talk outside the Walmart.