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.

17 Again and Sherlock Holmes

17 Again is about as cliched as you might expect. And I still loved it.

17 Again is about a man who, having given up his chance at a scholarship in a sudden decision to run after his (just revealed to be) pregnant girlfriend, in what is, incidentally, an extremely well-played and directed scene, then holds it over her head for the next twenty years.

Seriously though, that scene's great. It assumes that the audience has seen the trailer, and so doesn't fuck about spelling out things we already know. It just jumps right in there, and it's just so clean and edgy...

In some ways, that scene could have been the end of another kind of film - and this is what happens after happy-ever-after. 37-year-old Mike O'Donnel, as played by Matthew Perry, is disappointed and miserable in his life, and he blames his wife for that. It's no wonder she's divorcing him.

His transformation back into a teenager is one of the most cliched things I've ever seen (complete with the wise old janitor), but the first meeting with his ex-best friend was funny, original and a bit insane (there was an axe and some lightsabers. It was awesome).

So far, I've only seen Zac Efron as Troy Bolton, the basketball-playing male lead of High School Musical. This role is, in some ways quite a departure from Disney. He says "douche" for a start. And his hair isn't stupid (at least, not until it gets slicked down again). Matthew Perry, I'm more familiar with as Chandler Bing.

Alright, I'll be honest here. I started writing this review about six months ago (maybe longer - how long has this film been out?), and I'd gotten as far as what's written above...and then I stopped. For no apparent reason.

I did get 17 Again on DVD for my birthday. The film could be described as, in many ways, bits of awesome interspered with plot. This is not a bad thing. That isn't to say that it isn't sweet and touching (it is). Just that light sabers, swords, basketballs and the word 'pwned' makes everything better. Everything.

Incidentally, I might be going to see Sherlock Holmes in a few weeks - it depends if Mattie gets his act together or not. You can view the trailer for it here.

I'm intrigued. I like the things they've included, like the boxing - canonically, Holmes is quite a good amateur boxer - and references to violin-playing at 3am. It's clear that someone involved has read the originals, and that's a start. I can live with the steampunk victorian streets, too. They're very shiny. There seems to be quite a lot of action in this, and while Holmes was quite fit, I seem to recall that he was rarely involved in direct fights. More often he was running away.

This brings me to Irene Adler. Although I do love Rachel McAdams, as I recall, Adler was a woman Holmes deeply respected because, yes, she did get the better of him. They certainly never kissed. Holmes was asexual. If they had to include a love story, why not Watson's? I found the description of how he met and married his first wife quite romantic, personally.

Speaking of Watson, Jude Law doesn't look like him. I realise that I may well be thinking of film portrayals of Watson, rather than the actual canon, so I'll let that one go. I'm also willing to give Robert Downey Jr a chance. The man is a fine actor, and he has much of the voice and manner of Holmes 'right' to my mind, even though I always pictured him as being rather thinner and better shaved.

I wonder if they're going to include the cocaine abuse, the shooting practice at the walls of their flat, or that time Holmes decided to beat up a corpse?