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awesome movies that pass the bechdel test
Apr. 1st, 2011 01:32 pmThis article, on film schools teaching screen writers not to write female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man, inspired me to make a list of movies that do pass the Bechdel Test. Then a theme developed among the movies that I came up with.
Candyman: Helen and Bernadette.
Topics of conversation: Their research. Poverty and housing developments and the way the city is divided up to maintain class segregation.
Mulholland Drive: Betty and Rita.
Topics of conversation: Rita's identity. Betty's auditions. A car crash, a murder mystery.
Picnic at Hanging Rock: Everyone (there are very few male characters).
Topics of conversation: Each other, the scenery, existentialism, class, disappearing into fucking rocks.
Silent Hill: Rose, Cybil, Dahlia, Christabella. Arguably Sharon, arguably Alyssa, arguably the Demon.
Topics of conversation: A missing child. A haunted town. Keeping the community safe. Religion. Demons. Motherhood.
28 Days Later: Selena and Hannah.
Topics of conversation: Taking drugs to not care about being raped. The infected. Survival.
Suspiria: Suzy and Sarah.
Topics of conversation: Strange developments at the dance school. The weird teachers. Dead students. Their investigation of the mystery.
Yes, in horror movies, to quote one Bechdel Test reviewer, "they have more important things to talk about." Another point is how frequently women are featured in horror movies, often alongside other women. I suspect the ratio of women to men ends up being a lot higher in horror movies compared to movies in other genres, even in unlikelier scenarios like Drag Me To Hell (female antagonist, female protagonist, male bystander - a formula that's very common in J- and K-horror), although here I focused on female friendship/partnership.
To some extent this is as B.S.-y final girl stuff, but as these movies indicate, not always. Maybe horror filmmakers just like seeing women on the screen. But seriously, in a world of all-male casts, where are they in horror? Few and far between. I think of, like, The Sixth Sense, and The Thing. And The Sixth Sense just has two male protagonists, but an array of female characters. 2001: A Space Odyssey? Predator? But get ghosts and dark magic involved (as opposed to vicious killer aliens), and it's a woman's game. Interesting that even for the "masculine" subgenres of horror (aliens, serial killers), the most authoritative movies have female leads: Alien, Silence of the Lambs.
Anyway, I'm sure plenty of people have written about this, but I really haven't read enough "scholarly review" of horror movies.
Candyman: Helen and Bernadette.
Topics of conversation: Their research. Poverty and housing developments and the way the city is divided up to maintain class segregation.
Mulholland Drive: Betty and Rita.
Topics of conversation: Rita's identity. Betty's auditions. A car crash, a murder mystery.
Picnic at Hanging Rock: Everyone (there are very few male characters).
Topics of conversation: Each other, the scenery, existentialism, class, disappearing into fucking rocks.
Silent Hill: Rose, Cybil, Dahlia, Christabella. Arguably Sharon, arguably Alyssa, arguably the Demon.
Topics of conversation: A missing child. A haunted town. Keeping the community safe. Religion. Demons. Motherhood.
28 Days Later: Selena and Hannah.
Topics of conversation: Taking drugs to not care about being raped. The infected. Survival.
Suspiria: Suzy and Sarah.
Topics of conversation: Strange developments at the dance school. The weird teachers. Dead students. Their investigation of the mystery.
Yes, in horror movies, to quote one Bechdel Test reviewer, "they have more important things to talk about." Another point is how frequently women are featured in horror movies, often alongside other women. I suspect the ratio of women to men ends up being a lot higher in horror movies compared to movies in other genres, even in unlikelier scenarios like Drag Me To Hell (female antagonist, female protagonist, male bystander - a formula that's very common in J- and K-horror), although here I focused on female friendship/partnership.
To some extent this is as B.S.-y final girl stuff, but as these movies indicate, not always. Maybe horror filmmakers just like seeing women on the screen. But seriously, in a world of all-male casts, where are they in horror? Few and far between. I think of, like, The Sixth Sense, and The Thing. And The Sixth Sense just has two male protagonists, but an array of female characters. 2001: A Space Odyssey? Predator? But get ghosts and dark magic involved (as opposed to vicious killer aliens), and it's a woman's game. Interesting that even for the "masculine" subgenres of horror (aliens, serial killers), the most authoritative movies have female leads: Alien, Silence of the Lambs.
Anyway, I'm sure plenty of people have written about this, but I really haven't read enough "scholarly review" of horror movies.
