Emma Stone Steve Carell Andrea
Riseborough
Sarah Silverman
Bill Pullman
Alan Cumming
Elisabeth Shue
This was a full-blown battle, made more public
by the macho boasting of Bobby Riggs for weeks beforehand. It was a contest with a winner-take-all
prize of $100,000. By the time the
match between him and Billie Jean King took place, they had an audience of 50
million in the U.S. and 90 million worldwide, with 30,472 present in the
Houston Astrodome. King was passionate
in proving that women’s tennis was just as important/entertaining/professional
as men’s, and that they should be paid the same. Male chauvinism was common in the 1970’s, so men were aghast
that women should expect such a thing, saying men were stronger, faster, and
better than women who were weaker and “couldn’t stand the pressure.”
All this seemed to spur King on even more; she
was still stinging from Jack Kramer’s (a former tennis star and radio
commentator, smoothly played by Bill Pullman) banning women from a major
tournament when they demanded to be paid on the same scale as the men. Later, when Riggs and ABC wanted Jack
to be the commentator for the Riggs/King match, King protested, and threatened
to withdraw from the contest unless they hired someone else, reasoning that
Jack did not believe in women’s tennis.
“Either he goes—or I go.”
She got her way.
The match is filmed extremely well by
cinematographer Linus Sandgren, starting out slower so each lob is carefully
shown, and gradually speeding it up to real time, and the music is well chosen
by Nicholas Britell. With a
filmography that includes movies about Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., and
Smashing Pumpkins, the directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris likely had
some informed input for the music as well. Although I enjoyed the music immensely, it was often too
loud for my ears, overpowering the drama and dialog.
Emma Stone and Steve Carell demonstrate their
considerable talent in portraying two colorful characters. Carell’s Bobby is as obnoxious and full
of himself as he is supposed to be, which is in stark contrast to Carell as
I’ve seen him in real life. I was
especially moved by King as she is shown in the film and beautifully exemplified
by Stone; always dignified, magnanimous enough to initiate the arms-around-the-shoulders exit at the end of the match, and keeping her cool amidst rude taunts
and tense negotiations.
There were a couple of scenes that made me
shake my head (a last-minute hair fix just before the major event and Billie
Jean King by herself at the end of the match), and sure enough, these seem to
be Hollywood elaborations on the real story. They are unnecessary veneers to a story that is already
sufficient in itself.
Battle of the Sexes exemplifies the
ongoing struggle between males and females, but in an entertaining manner.
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