Battle of the Sexes tells the story of the 1973 tennis
math between Billy Jean King, one of the top women players in the world in the
1970’s and 80’s, and Bobby Riggs, one of the best male players in the 1940’s. Billy
won Wimbledon 6 times between 1966 and ’75, and Bobby had won the
Wimbledon Triple, Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles in 1939, and was many
times the US Champion.
So this is a movie about
an important tennis game, in terms of the equal rights women and of the claims
of Feminism, well set in its period, and
a bizarre match between two of the greatest tennis players of their different
periods. But more than that. This is a film about human beings, our
passions, our failings and our fidelity.
The game came about because Billy Jean had campaigned
against the lower pay of women players and, with the active support of her
husband Larry, set up the Women’s Tennis
Association, in opposition to the Lawn Tennis Association. Bobby was a self confessed hustler and
self-promoter. With Feminism in the
game being championed by Billy Jean and
Larry King, Bobby saw an opportunity to prove male superiority – and to make
money. Although he was 55, he played
and beat the Australian Margaret Court, the current world number 1, in straight sets.
Billy Jean, 29 at the time, and who Bobby had
previously challenged for a match, decided to take him on. Bobby ramped up the public interest with a
series of stunts, claiming to be a proud Male Chauvinist Pig, and they played
in the Houston Astrodome in front of 30,000 spectators and a Word wide TV
audience estimated at 90 million. The prize for the winner was $100,000. That was not what mattered to Billy Jean, who
understood the positive and negative consequences of the result.
Early on in the film we see Billy Jean, married to
Larry King, falling in love with Marilyn
Bartlett, her hairdresser. Billy Jean
is played by Emma Stone, with absolute
conviction, and Marilyn by the wonderful
Andrea Riseborough (Stone and Riseborough were both in Birdman). So apart from a
game between a man and a woman there are a number of other battles here,
Feminism vs Chauvinism and sexual freedom vs prejudice.
Although one might be tempted to see Billy Jean as the
heroine and Bobby Riggs as a pantomime villain (which he painted himself
as, show man that he was), but in fact the film plays both sides of the net
fairly in a number of ways. We see Riggs as he makes the play, sure he
will beat Billy as easily as he beat Margaret Court - who had taken over from
Billy as women's number one - and then we see fear in his eyes as he faces the
utterly focussed Billy on the court. Steve Carrell plays the outrageous,
gambling addicted Riggs well (and looks just like him), and wins our sympathy
despite his faults.
Bill Pullman plays Jack Kramer, the tennis star who
helped found the LTA and became a very successful TV commentator. Kramer is shown as being in opposition to
Billy Jean’s claims for equal pay and the WTA.
Pullman is a very consistent actor – and dedicated community worker - and his
son Lewis plays Riggs’ adult son. The rest of the cast includes the multi-talented
Sarah Silverman as Gladys Heldman, the WTA organizer, Alan Cumming as Cuthbert ‘Ted’ Tinling , the girls couturier and confidant to Billy Jean,
Austin Stowell (Francis Gary Powers in Bridge of Spies) as Larry, Elizabeth
Shue (is it really 22 years since Leaving
Los Vagas?!) as Bobby’s Prescilla, and the Australian TV actress Jessica
MacNamee as Margaret Court.
The bright colour and period music recreate the American
1970's wonderfully, but we also see the misogynist, homophobic – and it seems anti-Semitic
- atmosphere that pervaded even California.
Jonathan Dayton has previously directed many cutting edge music videos and
documentaries in his time, particularly with The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, this
film has the energy and pace of a music video, but Dayton does not ignore the
human dimensions, as we saw in his Little
Miss Sunshine, which also starred Steve Carrell. The tight script is by Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty, Slumdog Millionaire, Hunger
Games; Catching Fire etc. ). The
music was composed by Nicolas
Brittell (Moonlight) and the photographer was Linus Sandgren (La-la Land and American Hustle). The Production Designer was Judith Becker, who did such good period work
in Brokeback Mountain, American Hustle
and Carol, and worked with Dayton on Ruby Sparks.
For those who are not tennis fans there is
just enough tennis to tell the story, but not to bore them, and
for those who are fans it looks very authentic - remembering how wooden rackets
made the game so much slower then.
But this movie is about love as much as it is about
tennis. We see Billy Jean falling in
love with Marilyn Barnett. We see Billy
Jean’s husband Larry coming to terms with her developing lesbian sexuality – and
her primary passion for tennis - in good grace.
No, it is more than good. There
is something quietly heroic about his love and acceptance of her, exactly as
she is. Larry and Billy Jean eventually
divorced in 1989, freeing Billy to live with her women’s tennis and life
partner Llan Koss, but they remained close.
Priscilla Riggs also remained married to Bobby, despite his gambling
addiction. Bobby was diagnosed with
prostate cancer in 1989, and died in 1995. Billy Jean had become his friend, phoning and visiting
him until the end. She said her last
words to him were ‘I love you.’
I recommend it heartily.
