What's it like: Very engaging, human. Well-acted and produced. Good reconstruction of early 70s culture.
What's it about: An account of women's tennis and the gender wars of the early 1970s in the US, focusing on women's battle for equal pay and culminating in a show-piece match between Billie-Jean King, women's No 1, and Bobby Riggs, former US Open winner. To gain more independence, the women set up their own Association and go on tour. This provokes a vigorous national debate about whether women tennis players should have equal pay and whether women's tennis is as good as men's tennis.
Meanwhile, Bobby Riggs, a showman and a hustler, to keep his career going, holds challenge tennis matches, include men v woman matches. To attract a big audience, he challenges Billie-Jean King to a one-to-one match, which is dubbed 'The Battle of the Sexes'. It is touted as seeking to prove whether women can play tennis as well as men - whether or not Riggs is serious about it, with the national debate ongoing, it strikes a chord with the public, and there is massive interest. The match gains a huge prime time audience.
Who's who: Billie Jean King is played by Emma Stone, Bobby Riggs by Steve Carrell. Both are well cast: Emma Stone brings steeliness and a sense of fun, Steve Carrell as comedic actor is good as the joker Riggs.
Comments: The film strives to set the events in context and cover attitudes of the time:
- the very condescending, sexist attitudes to women players from the US Lawn Tennis Association
- the lack of gay rights at the time. Billie-Jean is unable to be open about a relationship.
- a tennis tournament is sponsored by a tobacco company !
Historicity: Again, probably close to the truth.
However, the relationship between King and Riggs was probably not as friendly in real life as the film suggests: they both had a point to prove. This may be an example of movies smoothing things over for a mainstream audience.
The film reveals how important Billie-Jean King was in campaigning for a higher profile and better treatment of women in tennis - perhaps a side of her we are generally unaware of.
Interesting fact: The tennis match between BJK and RB had a worldwide audience of 70m, the highest audience ever for a US tennis match.
More detail on the match here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Sexes_
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Sexes_(2017_film)
Verdict: 4.5/5
28 June 2019
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