Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there. Like blatant sexism. Thankfully, here in Space Year 2018, all such issues of equality have been definitively settled, and we can all enjoy our utopian lives in this certainly not blasted hellscape of moral torpor at all, oh no.
Although a distant memory for us in what’s now a permanent golden age (am I leaning too heavily on this?), inequality was very much a thing back in 1973 where women’s number one tennis player, Billie Jean King, played here by Emma Stone, protests over the vast gulf in prize money between the men’s and women’s game by breaking away from the establishment to form a new Women’s Tour with several other athletes.
The establishment, represented here mainly by Bill Pullman’s overtly dismissive Jack Kramer, doesn’t take this lying down, throwing them out of the US Lawn Tennis Association, thereby knocking them out of contention for the Fed Cup and other tournaments. Which is presented as an act of spite rather than an entirely obvious consequence of their decision, which I suppose makes King an oblivious Brexiteer railing against the EU?
Also slightly concerned by the unequal pay between the seniors and men’s tour prize pot is former No. 1 Bobby Riggs, played by Steve Carell, although really he’s more focused on a great opportunity for a spot of hustling. Latching on to King’s demands for equality, he goes full throttle comedy chauvinist pig, declaring men the superior sex and issuing challenges to King to meet him on the court of battle to settle this question, in front of a large paying audience, of course.
I recall the trailer for Battle of the Sexes presenting this as more of a roustabout comedy than anything, with Rigg’s sideshow circus antics being prominently featured, and it does play a prominent part in the final act, but this is much more a film about Billie Jean King’s assorted internal battles than it is about a poxy game of tennis.
A closeted King’s relationship with her hairdresser lover, her perceived need to keep this secret given the attitudes of the time and how this impacts her husband, takes up a good portion of the running time, along with how that affects her mental preparations going into the match with Riggs that she’s taking much more seriously than he is, seemingly.
As for Riggs, whether it’s overconfidence or that he’s simply more focused on pulling sponsorship, ticket sales and cash in general, it’s only at the end that he seems to realise what this match means, and perhaps that he’s been playing with fire of a higher temperature than he intended. It’s perhaps a missed opportunity here – Riggs’ habitual gambling and hustling is mentioned, but almost as off-handedly as the pro-wrestling style sexist promos he gives to promote the match. This film presents Riggs’ shtick as harmless banter, with a wink to the camera, and that he’s not a bad guy at all. Which may well be the case, but it’s still prodding hot-button issues for commercial gain, which isn’t exactly the most defensible position.
This is mainly glossed over in the presentation here, and, well, I suppose it didn’t make much of an impact as I still rather enjoyed this film, but, as I say, perhaps an opportunity missed to get a little more into Riggs’ mindset. However, as a film much more focused on King, who has the more interesting, wider story anyway, it’s probably not a critical flaw.
It does a slightly better job of characterising King, but it’s still not an in-depth look at her character. Thankfully, Emma Stone makes the most of what she’s given, and makes her a hugely empathetic and courageous presence on screen. Similarly Carrell shows enough charisma to get away with his shtick as being more cheeky than arse-cheek.
It’s no in-depth character-piece, for sure, and i get the impression if the dial had moved just a little from entertaining to analytical this could have been a really special film, rather than a really fun film that, I’m sure, I’ll not remember all that much from next year.
Of course, that very enjoyability dial setting does mean that it’s very easy to recommend y’all watch it.