Battle of the Sexes 2017
It is hard to make a movie about a 45 year old piece of pop culture, given the 15-minute lifespan of pop culture. The Battle of the Sexes tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King means almost nothing today, but it was heavily hyped at the time. This movie is mostly about that match, but fortunately also shows a story about the start of the Women’s Tennis Association and Billie Jean King having to hide the fact that she was a lesbian, albeit while married to a man. There are a lot of connections to things today. Now Billie Jean King is legally married to a woman, but women’s soccer players still struggle for equal pay, paralleling the pay disparity that led to the founding of the WTA. And we still have ill-mannered loudmouths who can’t deal with changing times. Therefore, even though the movie is about a publicity stunt from the 1970’s, it still feels current in a way. Audiences, including me, didn’t turn out for the movie when it came out, but it is definitely worth watching (if you don’t remember who won the match, do yourself a favor and don’t look it up before watching). Emma Stone is good as King and the movie touches on a lot of issues and obstacles to the early days of women’s tennis. It also shows an appalling level of accepted sexism and the complicated relationship King had with her husband. Like movies that deal with Civil Rights in the 60’s, we can feel better at how far we have come and the bravery and strength of the people who helped change things. It makes for a good movie. However, that said, the movie is still about a publicity stunt and King’s struggles were mostly personal rather than epic and the movie doesn’t go too deep, so it gets a B+.
Written: 25 Dec 2021