Despicable Me

The seventh-highest domestic-grossing movie of 2010 was Despicable Me, bringing in over $251 million in domestic revenue and $541 million worldwide. Wait a minute, what's that you say? I never reviewed the sixth-best movie of 2010? Yeah, that's right. I'm breaking the rules I've set for this blog by temporarily skipping Harry Potter. I've reviewed the first four HP movies so far, and the truth is, I'm ready for something besides HP. Don't worry, I'll be returning to Harry Potter to review the rest of the movies soon. In the meantime, I feel like watching a different movie. I know, I'm sorry, it's despicable of me, isn't it?

The first man with any lines is the American tourist dad, and the first woman with any lines is the American tourist mom (talking to each other).

When the kid gets away from his parents and crosses the safety barrier, two male Egyptian guards start yelling at him, "No! Stop!"

When the supervillain Gru gets back to his suburban home after the visit to Starbucks, he starts chatting with his neighbor. They talk about the neighbor's dog leaving "bombs" on Gru's lawn, easily passing the Reverse Bechdel test.

The second and third female with lines are two girl scouts girls from the orphanage, trying to sell cookies to Gru. As they leave, the older one says, "Come on Agnes," but Agnes doesn't reply on screen.

While the girls are walking home, Edith jumps in a puddle and splashes the others. The oldest girl says, "Edith, stop it," and Edith replies, "What? I'm just walking." Then they enter the orphanage and talk with Miss Hattie about getting adopted and about selling cookies. Despicable Me passes the Original Bechdel test in just over twelve minutes.

Overall, the movie is neither male- nor female-dominated. The "villains" are all male, including Gru, Dr. Nefario, Mr. Perkins and, of course, Vector. On the other hand, all three children are female, as are the two major non-villain adults-- Gru's mother and Miss Hattie at the orphanage (although in a movie where the villains are the heroes, the two non-villains are also sort of villain-y).

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

On my way to reviewing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I, I'm reviewing all preceding Harry Potter movies. Sorcerer's Stone, Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban are the three reviews prior to this one. All three movies easily passed the Reverse Bechdel. While the first failed the Original Bechdel, the second and third passed. Will the fourth pass as well?

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was released in 2005. It was the first movie to do better than the previous Harry Potter movie, bringing in over $895 million, 12.6% better than Prisoner of Azkaban and 1.9% better than Chamber of Secrets, but still 10% worse than the original, Sorcerer's Stone.

The first man in the movie is the old gardener at the Riddle house, whose first and only line is "bloody kids." The second man with lines is Voldemort himself, although he speaks off-camera. The third man with lines, and the second on-camera, is Peter Pettigrew. We also see David Tennant.

The three men (not including the old gardener), are having a conversation about Voldemort's plans, and apparently about Harry Potter ("the boy"), and whether Voldemort's plans can go forward without him. Goblet of Fire passes RB-3 before a single woman is seen on-screen.

We first see Hermione immediately after the gardener is killed. Ginny Weasley is seen on the way to the Quidditch World Cup, and has a single line: "Look!" Ginny says her line to Hermione, who laughs in response-- not quite enough to pass OB-2.

The third woman with any lines is the trolley lady on the train to Hogwarts, but just as in the first movie, she only talks to Harry and Ron. Cho asks the trolley lady for two candies, but the trolley lady gives them to her without a word, before turning back and speaking to Harry.

While Hogwarts is a co-ed magical school, the two other schools participating in the Tri-Wizard Tournament include one girls-only school and one boys-only school. However, none of the girls from the girls-only school are seen talking directly to each other, except in the background. When the three champions are selected, Viktor's and Cedric's friends all loudly congratulate them, but when Fleur's name is annouced, all the girls from her school are bizarrely silent. After Harry's name comes out of the Goblet of Fire, McGonagall gets a few lines, trying to convince Dumbledore not to let Harry compete.

The first time we even get close to passing OB-2 is more than half an hour into the movie, when the journalist Rita Skeeter talks to the four Tri-Wizard Tournament champions, who happen to include Fleur Delacour. Fleur, however, does not respond. Similarly, when Rita takes a picture of Harry and Hermione talking, Rita talks to the both of them, but Hermione is (for once) speechless. In fact, the first time two women even talk near each other is more than an hour into Goblet of Fire, when the twins Padma and Parvati say, "Hi Harry" in unison, as they pass him.

Right after Padma and Parvati's line, a couple girls including Cho are shown talking to each other across the room from Harry. None of what they say is audible, so once again, it does not count for OB-2. Similarly, after McGonagall's dance lesson, some girls are seen talking to each other in three different groups, but most of what they say is inaudible, and the rest is just fragments of lines with no audible responses.

After Ron asks out Fleur, he enters the Gryffindor room with Ginny and some others. Harry asks, "What happened to you?" Ginny answers, "He just asked Fleur Delacour out," to which Hermione responds with a shocked, "What?" Hermione is addressing Ginny, but Ginny was addressing Harry, and the next line is Harry's, addressed to Ginny. Ginny and Hermione aren't actually talking to each other here, but 71 minutes into the movie, it's the closest we've gotten to passing OB-2.

In fact, this small exchange is the closest Goblet of Fire ever gets to passing OB-2. An hour-and-a-half into the movie, when Harry rescues Fleur's sister, Fleur says something in French to her sister as she comes out of the water, but her sister doesn't respond.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire never passes the second level of the original Bechdel test-- while there are lots of women with lines in the movie, none of them speak directly to each other for more than a single line. Goblet of Fire is the first movie reviewed here at Reverse Bechdel to fail the second level of either test.

Moreover, Goblet of Fire's failure is not because of the setting, or a lack of opportunity. There are multiple times in the movie where a few lines between women would have been natural, even expected. Whether it's the trolley lady giving Cho the silent treatment, or Fleur and Hermione not responding to Rita, or other cases, at times the movie feels like it was written with conversations between women that were later written out, but the circumstances of the conversations kept. Goblet of Fire could have and should have passed OB-2, it just didn't.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

On my way to reviewing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I, I'm reviewing all preceding Harry Potter movies. My review of Sorcerer's Stone can be found here, and Chamber of Secrets can be found here. Both movies easily passed the Reverse Bechdel, and the first failed the Original Bechdel, while the second passed. Now it's time to see how the third measures up. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was released in 2004, and was the sixth-highest domestic-grossing movie of the year. It brought in over $795 million, 9.5% less than Chamber of Secrets and 18.3% less than Sorcerer's Stone. It was also my personal introduction to the Harry Potter series.

The first man in the movie is Harry Potter, repeatedly chanting a light spell so that he can read a magic book in his dark bedroom. The first woman is Aunt Marge saying "Harry, Harry, open the door."

In the first two minutes, Harry asks Uncle Vernon to sign a paper. Vernon asks what it is, and Harry says it's "school stuff." Vernon says he might sign it later, if Harry behaves. Harry says he will, "...if she does." Everything up until the last three words counts as "something besides a woman" and Harry and Vernon each have two lines, back and forth. Prisoner of Azkaban passes the Reverse Bechdel very quickly.

Harry also has male-to-male conversations with the triple-decker conductor, the Minister of Magic (partly about Aunt Marge, but also about Sirius Black and Harry's return to Hogwarts), Mr. Weasley, Draco Malfoy, Hagrid and Professor Lupin, among others. There are also quite a few male-to-male conversations that don't include Harry, including Professor Lupin and Neville.

The second woman is Aunt Petunia. Her first audible line occurs at the dinner table. Marge asks, "What is it the boy's father did, Petunia?" Petunia replies, "Nothing, he didn't work. He was unemployed." Marge says, "And a drunk too, no doubt." Harry interrupts at this point, but before Harry's interruption, the conversation does pass OB-2. Since it was about Harry's father, however, it does not pass OB-3.

Prior to arriving at Hogwarts, there are five female characters with lines: Petunia, Marge, the maid at the Leaky Cauldron, Hermione and Mrs. Weasley. Of these, only Hermione goes to Hogwarts, so I doubt the rest will be any help in passing OB-3. There seem to be a few girls in the Hogwarts choir, but they are only shown singing, not actually talking to anyone. Professor Trelawney is the second female character at Hogwarts, but she doesn't talk to Hermione. The same is true for McGonagall and the Fat Lady.

In Hogsmeade, Madame Rosmerta has a talk with Professor McGonagall about the Dementors. McGonagall explains that Dumbledore isn't happy about them either, and tells Rosmerta about Sirius Black's history with Voldemort, with Harry's parents, and with Peter Pettigrew. Cornelius Fudge is present (as well as Harry, beneath the invisibility cloak), but most of the conversation goes back and forth between McGonagall and Rosmerta, with more than enough back-and-forth to pass OB-2. However, since they are talking mostly about Black and Pettigrew, it does not pass OB-3.

The second time we see Trelawney's Divination class, Trelawney and Hermione talk directly to each other. Trelawney sits at the table with Hermione, Harry and Ron, but the two boys don't say a word. Trelawney asks, "What do we have here?" (in the crystal ball). Hermione asks if she can try; Trelawney agrees, and Hermione without looking suggests the Grim, the mark of death seen earlier in the tea leaves and the clouds. Trelaney responds with a very eloquent insult, and Hermione storms out. It takes more than 76 minutes to get there, but Prisoner of Azkaban finally passes the Original Bechdel test.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

On my way to reviewing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I, I'm reviewing all preceding Harry Potter movies. My review of Sorcerer's Stone can be found here. The first Harry Potter movie failed the Original Bechdel test. Will the second do any better? Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released in 2002, and brought in over $878 million, a 10.8% drop from the previous movie. While Sorcerer's Stone was the #1 film the year it was released, Chamber of Secrets was only #4.

The first man teenage boy-wizard to speak is the eponymous Harry Potter; the second man is Uncle Vernon, yelling at Harry from downstairs. The first woman to speak is Aunt Petunia, to Harry and Vernon.

Initially, Vernon warns Harry to keep his (female) bird quiet, but then they start to talk about his friends, including Hermione, who haven't sent him any owl-letters all summer. This passes RB-2, but may not strictly pass RB-3.

Whether the above conversation passes RB-3, when Harry returns to his room, he meets Dobby the House-Elf. They have a long one-on-one conversation which easily passes RB-3, and is interrupted only by Vernon coming in to scold Harry, a conversation which also easily passes RB-3.

The second woman with lines is Mrs. Weasley. After she scolds her sons, she begins fixing breakfast for them. Ginny Weasley comes downstairs and says, "Mum, mummy, have you seen my jumper?" Mrs. Weasley replies "Yes, dear, it was on the cat." Ginny suddenly notices Harry, and doesn't reply, but just runs back upstairs.

Mrs. Sprout begins class by welcoming the new students, and saying, "...Today, we are going to repot mandrakes. Who here can tell me the properties of the mandrake root?" Hermione replies with their use, and the danger of the mandrake's cries. Mrs. Sprout says, "Excellent. Ten points to Gryffindor." There's another similar conversation in Professor McGonagall's class, with Hermione asking about the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

I've established a rule here at Reverse Bechdel that if any movie in the list to be reviewed is a sequel, I will first review the preceding movie(s), so that I'm not totally confused by the sequel. Of the top five movies in 2010, three of them were sequels: Toy Story 3, Iron Man 2 and Twilight: Eclipse. Toy Story and Twilight are both, for the moment, trilogies, each giving me two prior films to watch. However, now I've come to the first real test of this sequel rule. Why? Well...

The sixth-highest domestic-grossing movie of 2010, and the next on my list, is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I. Of the eight intended Harry Potter movies, this is #7. In order to catch up, I have six prior Harry Potter movies to watch. It might be weeks before I review a movie other than Harry Potter. We'll see how it goes, but there's nothing else to do except jump right in with #1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

The first man in the movie is Dumbledore; the first woman is Professor McGonagall.

The second man is Hagrid, who shows up about two-and-a-half minutes into the movie. Hagrid greets both Dumbledore and McGonagall, and Dumbledore asks if there were any problems. Hagrid says no, the baby Harry Potter fell asleep while they were flying over Bristol. Dumbledore doesn't respond, and McGonagall jumps in, so this doesn't strictly fit the rules I've established, although it just barely falls short.

The second woman in the movie is Harry's adoptive mother, Aunt Petunia.

When Aunt Petunia uncovers Dudley's eyes to show him his birthday presents, Dudley turns to his father, Uncle Vernon and asks, "How many are there?" Vernon tells him 36, and Dudley complains that last year he had 37. Vernon says that some of this year's presents are much bigger, and Dudley says he doesn't care how big they are. The conversation ends when Aunt Petunia interrupts Dudley to promise him two more presents. In less than six minutes, Sorcerer's Stone passes the Reverse Bechdel test.

Sorcerer's Stone passes RB-3 many times throughout the movie. Uncle Vernon warns Harry not to cause trouble at the zoo, then punishes him afterwards. Hagrid has a few one-on-one conversations with Harry, including on his birthday, later about Voldemort, and at the end of the movie before Harry gets on the train. Harry and Ron also have a few one-on-one conversations, the first on the train to Hogwarts, another on Christmas Day, and elsewhere. Harry also has a one-on-one conversation with Oliver, who explains how Quidditch works, and again as they're about to go onto the field for Harry's first Quidditch match.

This movie raises an interesting question. A strange, large and hairy man breaks into your house after midnight, gives an 11-year-old boy some cake, and offers to take him away. What would your response be?

The movie's third woman is Doris Crawford, who introduces herself in the bar, but she only talks to Harry. The fourth is Ron's mother, who only talks to her sons and Harry. Ron's sister doesn't talk at all. The fifth woman is the stewardess on the train, who only talks to Ron and Harry. The sixth is Hermione, and we still haven't had any of them talk to each other.

More than an hour into the movie, Hermione has the first line from one female to another: "It's my fault, Professor McGonagall."

McGonagall: "Oh, Miss Granger?"
Hermione: "I went looking for the troll. I'd read about them and thought I could handle it. But I was wrong. If Harry and Ron hadn't come and found me, I'd probably be dead."
McGonagall: "Be that as it may, it was an extremely foolish thing to do. I would've expected more rational behavior on your part, and I am severely disappointed in you, Miss Granger. Five points will be taken from Gryffindor for your serious lack of judgment. As for you two gentlemen..."

Although Harry, Ron, Snape and Quirrell (all male) were all present, this exchange took place entirely between the two ladies, addressing each other by name in three of the four lines. Moreover, when McGonagall does begin to talk to Harry and Ron, she marks a clear boundary between her conversation with Hermione and her conversation with the two boys, turning to face them and saying, "As for you two gentlemen..."

The above conversation is the only one which passes OB-2. Immediately before that conversation, McGonagall faces Harry and Ron, demanding that they explain themselves. They stutter for a moment or two, before Hermione interrupts with her line, "It's my fault, Professor McGonagall." As far as McGonagall is aware, Hermione is explaining her own actions. It could be said that before the line, "If Harry and Ron hadn't come and found me..." the conversation is not about any males, therefore passes OB-3. However, I think this is stretching the Original Bechdel test quite a bit. Although Hermione and McGonagall are talking to each other and the first part of their conversation appears to be about something other than a man, the entire point of those first few lines is to get Harry and Ron out of trouble. While the conversation appears to not be about a man, Hermione is really saying, "Don't blame the guys, blame me."

First Ten Statistics

I've now reviewed ten movies here at Reverse Bechdel, and I've been doing this for about a month. I've learned a few lessons and gathered a few statistics, so I figure it's probably about time to do some early analysis. First, a quick run-down of the movies reviewed so far:

Movie	Year	OB Level	RB Level
Toy Story	1995
Toy Story 2	1999
Toy Story 3	2010
Alice in Wonderland	2010
Iron Man	2008
Iron Man 2	2010
Twilight	2008
Twilight: New Moon	2009
Twilight: Eclipse	2010
Inception	2010
Total Percentage		90%	100%
2010 Percentage		100%	100%

Every movie passed all three levels of the Reverse Bechdel test; all but one movie passed the Original Bechdel test. The one movie that failed the Original Bechdel was Toy Story 2, released in 1999; it passed the first two levels but failed the third. With only ten movies reviewed so far, this is hardly enough to draw any generalizations. Even so, all of 2010's Top Five movies passed both Bechdel tests, some more easily than others.

I've also learned that, while the Bechdel Test provides a starting point for discussion on a movie's approach to gender, it leaves a lot unsaid. Most movies pass both the original and reverse versions quite easily, and this rarely gives any indication of the movie's overall gender dominance. For example, Iron Man passes both tests fairly quickly, yet is overwhelmingly male-dominated; Alice in Wonderland also passes both tests within a few minutes, and although it passes the Reverse Bechdel first, it is female-dominated after the opening scene. Three of the ten movies reviewed so far pass the Original Bechdel first-- the three Twilight movies-- but these are not dominated by either gender. Bella, as the narrator, is in almost every scene, but the two major characters besides Bella are Edward and Jacob, both male (even if they're not "men" in the human sense of the word).

In genre terms, the top four movies of 2010-- Toy Story 3, Alice in Wonderland, Iron Man 2 and Twilight: Eclipse-- were all fantasy movies (yes, I count superhero movies as fantasy). Some would also classify Inception as a fantasy movie. Since the dream-sharing is technology-based, I've classified it as scifi, but there is certainly some overlap between the genres here. Looking forward to the next five, two are sequels to popular fantasy franchises, and without having seen the other three, they certainly look like fantasy movies (but don't judge a movie by its cover). I wonder what this says about our culture...