The Long Kiss Goodnight 👍

VPasses Bechdel test:
Sam and Caitlin discuss about skating and other stuff
On minus side, they are mother and daughter
Caitlin talks with her friends about her mother. Three females discussing something not males, all have more than one line.

VPasses Mako Mori test

VPasses Sphinx test
- woman has a primary role, she's driving the action, she's active, her character is compelling, complex and multidimensional.
Sam is pretty stereotypical woman, Charley isn't.
The story... well... impact on wider audience? IMDb 6.7 Rotten Tomatoes 68% It's not bad.

VThe Representation Test: B

XThe Maisy Test (modified)
Gender balance - gender representation: X


Actors 11 females, 28 males
In primary and secondary roles 3 females and 6 males
in tertiary roles: 6 females, 19 males

Director: male
Writer: male
Producers 3 female, 5 male
Other staff 335 / 152 - Long Kiss Goodnight passes as "at least 1/3 of the staff being female"

1 woman to 3 men. Nah.

Are the male and female characters equal? Yes.

The narrator is female.

Now, I timed the screentime and counted the words - of course, not an accurate result, because it's pretty bothersome to do with an egg timer and clicker counter. I should have had the script to be able to count actual words, and I'm pretty sure there's somewhere the actual minutes every character spends on screen. But - this is good enough.

Because it's really bothersome, I stopped counting at 1:25. There's still 40 minutes of the movie left. Now, both Caitlin and Timothy gets more screentime to the end of the movie, but it's nevertheless mostly action, with no speech and a lot of claring and moaning and screaming etc.
At that point the statistics looked like this: 

Screen time for both genders

Words spoken by both genders

Now, I'm just taking the 4 biggest roles; Sam/Charley (hot pink); Mitch (grey); Timothy (black) and Caitlin (pink).
I have to point out that Trin talks most during her screentime, and Caitlin least. 
After Trin, Nathan got in most words in his minutes. about half the number of Trin's. He was talking through most of his screentime. It was only 7 minutes, though.

Nevertheless, even though the heroine gets most screentime, men get more screentime than women, because there simply is almost thrice as many men in the script, and women's roles are more supportive or as backdrop. In the beginning of the movie, Hal gets more screentime than Caitlin.
When it comes to lines, men have more and better lines than women. Mitch speaks more than Sam/Charley!
Now, one reason to this is that Caitlin is just 8. But the story would have worked even if she was older, and if she was older, she would have been able to deliver more lines. 

Also, it is a pity that Geena doesn't do a very good job acting. I hate to admit it, but that's how it is. Especially when she was playing the heartless Charley, she delivered her lines like a wooden dummy, so it doesn't really matter that she actually did half her stunts herself and learned to handle guns from FBI. She was much better when she was doing Sam.

Gender Freedom:V (X)

"girls and boys" get to do the same things. Everyone gets to have adventures. :-D

Men don't cry in this movie. Pretty traditional gender roles for guys. Now, Hal is shown as a softer kind of guy, he's a teacher, he cooks and he is a good father to Sam's daughter.
Sam starts as very traditional and gets very untraditional

Charley is very aware of her image. She cuts and dyes her hair and wears makeup and refuses to wear Sam's "frumpy" style. Charley's style isn't traditionally feminine, though. Neither Charley nor Sam is frail or submissive.

Sam has a job, but as a teacher. Charley is an assassin. Not your typical woman job there.

Hal: "You do what you have to. But Sam, the person you used to be... what ever you find, I'm not scared. Never will be, not ever".
He had just seen his nice, feminine, girly-girl teacher girlfriend for less than 10 years kill a man with her bare hands. Now, that's trust. Wow.

There are some problems with gender neutrality here, though. A lot of things Mitch says are hard to think a woman would say. A lot of things Sam says is hard to think a man would say.

Sam/Charley and Mitch are not romantically connected or related to each other.

Charley is in control here. She is the boss. She does what she wants, she makes decisions, she is decisive, dominant and in control. There is nothing submissive and demure about her.
(To another note... Mister Charlie... Ouch.)

Now, there are a lot of guys who are in leading position though. The main villain is a man. The CIA boss is a man. Charley has only father figures. Her mother isn't even mentioned. The President is a man.
The other females, then; one of the leading ladies is a child. The third biggest female role is the hero's sidekick's assistant or secretary. That Caitlin is a smart and brave kid, and that Trin is a very capable, smart woman, doesn't really change the submissive position of the females.

Now, it's Charley who rescues and saves here. She solves problems, finds answers, protects, fights, defends and provides, and she is a loving and nurturing mother while doing all this.

In the beginning of the movie, Sam is fluctuating between a woman who needs to be protected and rescued by Mitch, and a woman who protects and rescues people. She kills the bad guy who comes to there house, and defends Caitlin and Hal.

Sam wears a skirt, Charley pants. Men have a very traditional male look. Different styles, nevertheless male. No-one has long hair or wears skirts.

Interesting thing here is that Sam/Charley is made ignorant, "stupid", in need of answers, by her amnesia, and she gets these answers from men...

Caitlin has a treehouse. On the other hand, she is shown to play dress-up with a dog, and she is learning to skate, though she is scared and doesn't dare to. She has figure skates.

Gender Safety:X

People are definitely not safe in this movie!
An 7-8 years old girl almost gets killed in her own home. Then she gets kidnapped and almost killed again and again and again. A lot of people die. She sees a lot of people get hurt and killed. She almost sees her own mother get killed. So, no.

I would say body shapes are healthy and realistic - as far as Hollywood goes.
BUT "Look at my inordinately large ass. Look what she did to me!"
What "large ass"? I just thought how skinny she is, and she's whining about her "large ass"? That's minus for body image message in this movie... And so unnecessary.

Also, her first scene is on Christmas parade as Mrs.Claus and the first line of the movie is: "Mrs Claus is hot!" er... no.

Clothing isn't especially sexual. In general, that is...
Now, Sam is shown half-naked. Trin is shown in underwear. Mitch is shown half-naked as well. Charley is shown fully naked

Now, Geena Davis was 40 when this movie came out and she is 6 feet tall, so no spring chicken here.
Samuel L. Jackson is just 2 inches taller than she is, and he is 8 years older.
Craig Bierko is also just 2 inches taller, but he's 8 years younger than Geena Davis.
Tom Amandes is just 1" taller and three years younger than Geena Davis.
So even though she wasn't over 45, she wasn't a child compared to her male counterparts, not in age nor stature.

Geena Davis isn't hourglass figured. Even in wet underwear is she especially sexual.

She has big eyes and lips, but I have to say Craig Bierko has more classically childlike feminine face than Geena Davis :-D He is really pretty.

Sam has long, curly hair, Charley cuts her off.
Sam has your traditional schoolmarm style with modestly long skirts and tops. Charley has a tougher, edgy style. Neither wears things that hinder them from moving and going things, and they do things.

People are not generally objectified in this movie. Now, Mitch has mudflap girl in his car, an address to a strip club and he catcalls after the jogger, but all the speaking roles are being respected. Sort of.
Sam, the traditional woman, a small-town schoolteacher, is basically despised by everyone, except her family and Mitch.Come on, really? "A lot frumpier"?

All the female roles pass the Sexy Lamp Test (except perhaps the jogger.)

Sexual abuse... now... this movie does not pass.

It starts with the teenage boy telling his teacher that she's hot.
The mistletoe kiss in front of everyone feels a bit not OK. He could have held the mistletoe over his own head and made a kissy face, and then Sam could have gone to him to kiss him. This way it felt a bit forced.
Trin participates in a setup where she plays a whore, and gets so far that she is in bed in her underwear with the guy. How much of that was of her free choice, how much was she persuaded to do that, how far would she have needed to go?
Then Sam gets sexually harassed by the drunken old guy.
There's Mitch's sexual innuendos and lewd language, and the catcalling incident.
Charley sexually assaults Mitch.
Timothy calls Caitlin "bitch" and uses the F-word in front of her. She's 8!

Trin: "I made us look good. Her other P.I.s couldn't find dick."
Mitch: "Of course not. Took a true dick-hound like yourself."
Er... no.

Social Justice and Equality:X

Most of the characters are white, straight and able. I don't think there is much talk about social justice issues here. There could be discussions about prison or divorce and absent fathers, but... nah.

Notes:

* One of the first lines of her husband-to-be is "yes". "Yes". "Yes".
* Caitlin has two friends and they have a speaking role
And after having listened to a podcast I'm not going to mention, because it was stupid,
* Caitlin is not acting like a drugged doll. She was screaming when the bad guy came to her home and when her mother threw her through the hole in the wall to the treehouse.
* I thought Charley was going to shoot Caitlin, which seems to be the reaction most people had. She just wanted to see her, and that she wanted to, was to show that all the tough talk and not caring about her child was just an act. She probably thought that Caitlin would be better off with Hal and without her. After all, SHE brought Jack into their home and almost caused Caitlin to die. Did you see the tears in her eyes when she looked at Caitlin and Hal? It wasn't some sort of realization that she loved her daughter. She knew. She just tried to harden herself up to be able to disappear from her life. And then Timothy kidnaps Caitlin, and she realizes that Caitlin is better off with her there to protect her. After all, SHE RIPPED HERSELF OFF THE PHOTO. She didn't want to have anything on her or leave anything after her, that could be connected back to Caitlin and Hal.

So; what could have been done better?

- more roles to women, duh.
- more roles to ADULT women among the primary and secondary roles.
- more words for women
- The President could easily have been a woman
- Half the CIA, police, villain's henchmen etc. could have been women
- there really should be more colored people, LGBT people, disabled people, people from different social classes, etc. - more diversity.
- Sam/Charley should have been a POC. 
- there should be more strong women in dominant position here, especially women of color. 
- in stead of drunken groping Earl, there could have been a drunken Earnestine who caused the accident with the deer
- Hal was good, but they should have done more with Mitch and his son and ex-wife. Show some feelings! He could also have spoken about women with the boy. Given him books or science kit or something else like that.
- I don't like the "amnesia makes her stupid" thingy. There should have been other women with a leadership role to balance that out.
- Mitch didn't need to objectify women
- All the sexual abuse should be removed. I mean, they could have invented something around Mitch being a thief to show what a sleazy person he is, in stead of the prostitution thing. I suppose Charley trying to seduce Mitch kind of fits her persona and the story, but it is still assuming men can't be raped and it's OK to touch a man without his consent. It's not, of course. It's just as much a sexual assault as doing that to a woman. And whether he likes it or not is irrelevant.

The Long Kiss Goodnight: It does so many things right!

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