The King-Riggs match was epic in large part because of its historical backdrop and the way in which it crystallized the feminist and sexual revolutions. 8, 2017): “We were particularly intrigued by Billie Jean’s private life … and at the same time, she was fighting for equal pay for women.” They were referring to the fact that the ratio of men’s to women’s prize money in tennis was about eleven to one. Off screen, they’re a married couple with a keen sense of the personal and the political. The film was written and directed by the duo of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who also created Little Miss Sunshine. Emma Stone fairly channels King and her athletic stride, and Steve Carell captures Riggs’ brazenness while softening some of his roughness around the edges. In the film, both principals are impeccably cast. The film even hints that King’s victory was in some way helped along by Marilyn’s love and support. She is married to a man-a not unattractive man at that-but finds herself irresistibly drawn to her team’s favorite hairdresser, Marilyn Barnett, with whom her affair is heating up even as the showdown with Riggs is approaching. What is surprising is how forthright Battle of the Sexes is in depicting Billie Jean King’s inner conflict over her growing lesbian feelings. It is hardly surprising that this Roman Coliseum of sexual politics has finally become a feature-length film. The match itself turned into something of a rout for King, who won in straight sets (6-4, 6-3, 6-3), taking home the $100,000 in prize money. Ninety million spectators worldwide tuned in-the largest live audience ever for a tennis match. Among the notables in the stands were Salvador Dalí and Glen Campbell. In return, Riggs (sponsored by Sugar Daddy candy) handed King a lollipop larger than a human head. On meeting Riggs, she handed him a piglet, a squealing symbol of the male chauvinism that he wore as a badge of honor. The wildly hyped match took on huge symbolic importance as a “battle of the sexes.” On the big day, King was carried on a palanquin into the Houston Astrodome by a group of musclemen. Billie Jean King, then age 29, was undoubtedly the greatest tennis player of her generation, and certainly the most famous, while Riggs had been a champion in the 1940s and became a well-known tennis hustler and promoter thereafter. The movie follows the lead-up to the 1973 exposition match that featured Billie Jean King and her 55-year-old opponent, Bobby Riggs, who challenged her to a winner-take-all match that September. This explains why Battle of Sexes squeaks by for me as a watchable film, namely for its absorbing balance of professional tennis and some things I do care about, such as love, marriage, and selfhood. However, my mom was an avid tennis fan, so sometimes I watched tournaments with her, though I was usually thinking more about André Agassi’s mane or Ivan Lendl’s legs than about the match. Growing up as a Jersey boy in the early 1990s, I was so bad at baseball that I used to hide in the porta-potty reading Ginsberg’s “Howl” or the like to avoid playing. I had never set eyes on a Super Bowl game until Lady Gaga starred in the halftime show last year, dropping from the rafters like a bejeweled spider. It was the demonstration tennis match between the reigning champion of women’s tennis, Billie Jean King, and the faded but formidable male champion of yesteryear, Bobby Riggs.īut first, a disclaimer: I hate sports. Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie FarisīATTLE OF THE SEXES recounts what was in fact the battle of the decade: the women’s movement and the sexual revolution versus the inevitable male chauvinist backlash, all telescoped into a single event in 1973.
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