Starring: Steve Carell, Emma Stone, Andrea Riseborough, Bill Pullman, Alan Cumming, Elizabeth Shue, Eric Christian Olsen, Fred Armisen
Director: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
Release date: 24th November 2017
The year is 1972 and Bobby Riggs is the US Open Singles Men tennis Champion. A young girl called Billy Jean King (Emma Stone) is currently the Women’s Champion. After a row with Jack Kramer (Bill Pullman) about how the men are being paid almost 8 times as much as the women, Billy Jean says she will set up her own league. She calls it the Women’s Tennis Association. 1973 soon comes around and she’s still married to Larry King. Earlier she had met a girl called Marilyn (Andrea Riseborough) and there was an immediate connection between the pair. They bump into eachother again and their friendship is re-kindled. Bobby is a gambling addict and ends up calling Billy Jean late at night to ask her if she would play a huge and well paid match against him. Who will win? Bobby the chauvinist pig or Billy Jean King, the Women’s Champion?
Based on true events, ‘Battle of the Sexes’ documents the real life story of what happened when these two titans of tennis came together in a match that enthralled the World. It was one of the biggest televised sports events in history and amassed a viewership of around 90million.
I really enjoyed this movie. It’s always great to see Steve Carell in a serious role and he was great in this. The fact that it’s a true story as well made it that bit more enjoyable. Coming in at just over 2 hours, it doesn’t feel like an overly long movie, each piece of the story is there for a reason. It also said a lot about how women were treated back then. They were seen as inferior and not in the same league as men. Women were paid considerably less than their male counterparts and Billy Jean was just one of the women that helped them have a voice.
The movie definitely made me ‘think’ a bit more and as I left the screening, I wanted to know more about this amazing woman. Non tennis fans probably won’t have heard this story before and so it’s a great insight into a key event in Sports history.
If you want to see a movie that will educate as well as entertain then do go and see this movie. A really great cast and some great acting make this one to watch.
Overall: 8/10