Kristin Isakson

Bechdel Test

The movie “The Best of Me” is about a girl named Amanda and a guy named Dawson who fall in love when they are teenagers.  Dawson isn’t exactly close with his family because they are bad people so he moves out of the house to live with a guy named Tuck.  When Amanda and Dawson grow up, they both get a call with the news that Tuck passed away in his sleep.  They get reunited when they both have to go to Tucks house and spend a couple days together to take care of his belongings.  Even though Amanda is married now and has one child, she wants to leave her husband and be with Dawson.  Dawson, however, ends up dying and gives his heart to her son, which the son needed because he got in a terrible car accident. 

This movie didn’t pass the test because even though there was more than one girl in it, the girls never talked to each other.  I don’t think that this is a feminist movie because it doesn’t make the girls look vulnerable or desperate and the girls never talk about their significant other to each other.  Amanda does talk about Dawson in the movie, but she is either talking to Tuck or her husband once she grows up.  The other girl April, who is Dawson’s friend in the movie, talks about her significant other but only to Dawson.  April and Amanda never talk during the movie.  It’s just your typical movie about two people falling in love and the majority of the movie is filming Dawson and Amanda when they are teenagers and adults.