Twilight: Eclipse

The fourth-highest domestic-grossing movie in 2010 was Twilight: Eclipse. Unlike the first two movies, Eclipse does not open with Bella's narration. The first person to speak is Riley, who asks "Who's there?" and "What do you want?" and cries for help while Victoria is attacking him. After the attack, Bella begins her narration, and is seen on-screen shortly thereafter.

Edward is the second man to speak: he asks Bella, "Marry me" right after her opening narration is done.

About nine minutes into the movie, Jessica and Angela are talking with Mike and Eric about Jessica's valedictorian speech. They're joined by Bella and Edward, and later Jasper and Alice, and the conversation switches to a party at the Cullens' house. There are a handful of one-liners directed between two women or two men, but as a whole the conversation takes place between the entire group, so I don't think it really counts for either OB-2 or RB-2.

At the very end of the party conversation, Bella and Angela have a short exchange:
Bella: "Hey Angela."
Angela: "Yeah."
Bella:" Do you need some help with those?"
Angela: "No, actually..."
During Angela's last line, the sound fades away, and the focus is on Alice, who seems to be having a vision. However, this is a direct exchange between two women, and satisfies both OB-2 and OB-3. It's not clear what Bella is offering to help with, although it is clear that she's not offering to help with a man. Eclipse passes the Original Bechdel test within the first ten minutes of the movie.

If there's any doubt about OB-3, once Bella gets to Florida, she has a one-on-one conversation with her mother about the weather, and about where Bella will go to college. Her mother tries to convince her to move to Florida, but Bella will probably go to the University of Alaska. They talk about Edward for a bit, then her mother gives Bella a gift. The scene ends with Bella telling her mother that she misses her.

When Bella and Edward return from Florida, they find Jacob at the school. Jacob is there to warn Edward about vampires going on werewolf land, but this part of the conversation takes place between all three characters, Bella included. Edward then steps forward, and exchanges a few lines between Jacob about Bella. It's short, and it's about a woman, but it satisfies RB-2.

After Riley breaks into the Swan house, Jacob and Edward have a conversation, where Jacob says Riley's smell was all over the house, and he won't miss it if he finds it again. Jacob says the werewolves will take it from there, and Edward replies the vampires don't need the werewolves. Bella's present for the whole conversation, and ends it by interrupting, but it clearly takes place between the two men, and is more about Riley than about Bella. (Although it could be argued that every conversation between Jacob and Edward is really about Bella.)

Twilight: New Moon

Twilight: New Moon is the second movie in the series. I've already reviewed the first here, and I am working my way towards reviewing the third.

Once again, Bella is the first woman in the movie. The film opens with her narration as she runs through a crowd of people. At about the two-minute mark, Bella's grandmother is seen, although she doesn't speak-- and it turns out, it's actually Bella, in a mirror, in a dream. Edward has one line in the dream.

Charlie, Bella's father, wakes her up and says, "Happy Birthday" at the three-minute mark. Following Edward's line in the dream, Charlie is the second man in the movie.

The second woman in the movie with lines is Bella's friend Jessica, who reminds Bella of the Romeo & Juliet essay. Mike is the first to call Bella over to the group, and responds with his own lines right after the exchange between Bella and Jessica, so it could be debated whether Bella and Jessica are talking to each other, or talking as part of the group (which includes both Eric and Mike).

Regardless, once Edward and Bella go into the school, Alice approaches them and gives Bella a present. They exchange a few lines, and Alice invites Bella to the Cullens' house that night. Edward is present, but doesn't say a word, and Jasper is looking on, but at a distance. New Moon passes all three levels of the Original Bechdel within the first ten minutes.

In class, everyone is watching a film of Romeo & Juliet, while Edward and Bella quietly talk to each other. The male teacher, Mr. Berty, stops the movie, and says, "Now, who'd like to repeat the last few lines of iambic pentameter just to show they were paying attention? Mr. Cullen?" Edward replies, "Yes, Mr. Berty," and recites several lines from memory. Unlike the first movie, New Moon quickly passes both the Original Bechdel and Reverse Bechdel.

If there's any doubt about the in-class conversation between Edward and Mr. Berty, New Moon passes RB-2 again when Bella is lost in the woods. Charlie and some other men are standing outside, talking about trying to find her. One of the men says the Cullens have left town, and Charlie asks where they've gone. Another man says "good riddance" to them. There are no women present in the scene until Sam carries Bella back, so it clearly passes RB-2. It may also pass RB-3 since they talk about the Cullens, although since they only talk about the Cullens within the context of how to find Bella, this may not pass RB-3.

However, at the movie theater, Eric and Jacob talk about the movie Face Punch, including how Eric doesn't really like action movies, and Jacob isn't old enough to buy his own ticket. He mentions Bella (she's buying his ticket for him) but the conversation up to that point takes place between the two men males and is not about a woman. Easily enough to satisfy RB-3.

Twilight

The fourth-highest domestic-grossing movie in 2010 was Twilight: Eclipse. Following the pattern I've already established for sequels, I need to review the first two Twilight movies before getting to Eclipse. This is my review for Twilight, the original 2008 movie.

This is the first romance movie to be reviewed here at Reverse Bechdel. The results will be interesting. By definition, in a heterosexual romance movie, one of the two main characters will be a man and the other will be a woman. Most of the action, er... conversation will be between these two characters, and most conversation between other characters will be about those two and their relationship. We might not expect the average romance movie to pass the third level of either the Original Bechdel or the Reverse Bechdel test.

The first woman in the movie is the much-maligned Bella, who begins the movie with her narration. The first man with lines is Bella's mother's new husband (who says they have a plane to catch). Bella's mother does not have any audible lines. Bella's mother and her new husband are going "on the road" so Bella is going to live with her father "for awhile." Her father Charlie is the second man with lines, who talks to Bella in the car when they get to her new home.

About the four-minute mark, Charlie introduces (or rather, reintroduces) Bella to Billy White. Both Charlie and Billy talk to Bella, then Charlie says Billy is exaggerating. They move into the background to have a joke-fight, giving Bella time to meet Jacob. The audible comments from Charlie and Billy are also directed at Bella, so it's not clear that this counts as two men talking to each other, rather than two men talking next to each other. However, about a minute later when Bella and Jacob get into the truck, Billy says to Charlie, "I told you she'd love it, I'm down with the kids," to which Charlie sarcastically replies, "Oh yeah dude, you're the bomb." It's short, but it's enough to pass RB-2.

The second female with any lines is seen when Bella drives to school for the first time. A boy nearby criticizes the truck, and a girl says to him, "Nice one." I can't help but think that this is a huge high school for a town that supposedly has only 3,120 people.

In gym class, Bella meets Mike, then Jessica, who says, "Hey, you're from Arizona, right? Aren't people from Arizona supposed to be, like, really tan?" Bella replies, "Yeah, maybe that's why they kicked me out." Since Mike is there too, this conversation has the same issue as Charlie and Billy's first. However...

At lunch, Bella talks with Jessica and Angela about the school newspaper (and what they'll put on the front page if not Bella) and the Cullens kids, although mostly about the Cullens kids. This easily passes OB-2, and the part of the conversation before the Cullens come in also passes OB-3. If there's any doubt, a couple minutes later, Bella's mom gets her first lines, having called Bella from a pay phone.

When Bella comes to school after the security man is killed (and Edward returns), Eric and Mike have a conversation like Charlie and Billy did earlier-- initially, both talk to Bella, then they move to the background and seem to continue talking to each other, but inaudibly, as Bella goes to talk to Edward for the first time. After Tyler nearly hits Bella with his van, Charlie and Dr. Cullen exchange a few words about Bella-- enough to satisfy RB-2, but not RB-3.

When James and Victoria kill the man in the boat (Waylon), the three have a short conversation:

Waylon: (to Victoria) Hello.
James: Nice jacket.
Waylon: Who are you?
James: It's always the same inane questions. Who are you...
Victoria: ...What do you want...
James: ...Why are you doing this...

I don't think this counts for RB-3 for the same reason that Jessica and Bella's first conversation didn't count for OB-2. Laurent then appears and says, "James, let's not play with our food." This would be stretching the definition of a two-way conversation, so I don't think this counts either.

More than halfway through the movie, Billy and Jacob come over to visit Charlie and Bella. On the way into the house, Jacob and Bella move into the background, and Billy and Charlie exchange a few lines about the Waylon case. Twilight finally passes RB-3.

Alice in Wonderland

The second-highest domestic-grossing film of 2010 was Alice in Wonderland. The movie brought in more than $334 million in the U.S. and more than $1 billion worldwide.

Initially I avoided seeing this movie because it seemed creepier than I would like. I ended up watching about a third of it when it was the film showing on a train I happened to be on. I fell asleep rather quickly, and then caught some bits and pieces near the end, so we'll see how long I stay awake this time. After all, this time, it's for science.

The movie opens with "Charles" and several other Victorian-looking men debating the merits of some "venture." It turns out that Charles is Alice's father.

The action skips ahead thirteen years, and Alice is riding in a carriage with an older woman, maybe her mother. They talk about what Alice is wearing, and Alice's dream (which is always the same one).

Alice in Wonderland easily passes all three levels of both the Original Bechdel and Reverse Bechdel tests in the first five minutes. And these are not isolated examples. Alice in Wonderland passes both OB and RB multiple times throughout the movie. For example, Alice has nice, long conversations with both the Red Queen and the White Queen, about matters like the Red Queen's head and Alice's claimed home of Umbridge. The Mad Hatter has a few conversations with the Cheshire Cat (who I am assuming from his voice is male) about hats and futterwacken. There are also many second-level Bechdel conversations (about someone of the opposite sex), such as Alice talking about Hamish with her sister and with Hamish's mother, or the Knave of Hearts and the Bloodhound talking about Alice.

The movie is definitely female-dominated. All the male characters in Wonderland (with the possible exception of the caterpillar Absolem) are shown in direct subservience to women (namely the Red Queen or the White Queen). The only independent male characters are outside Wonderland, in England. Of these, Alice's brother-in-law is shown cheating on his wife, Hamish is portrayed as a buffoon and Alice's father is killed off-screen after the first scene. Hamish's father is the only independent male character to survive and not make a fool of himself (again, with the possible exception of Absolem).

While Alice's father is killed off-screen, there are two families in Alice in Wonderland that are shown to have both a mother and a father: Hamish's family and the Bloodhound's family.