Battle of the Sexes - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Battle of the Sexes

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

​

Movie
I was born a few years too late for the infamous 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, but it was one of the highlights of my Tennis watching father’s storytelling career. He had the matches memorized by heart and looking back on the historical and journalistic tapes of the era, it really was something to behold. The whole thing was like a three ring circus, with Bobby Riggs gleefully playing the part of the over the top misogynist, and the news stations eating it all up like cotton candy. However, this movie’s portrayal of the events that happens are hijacked by Billie Jean’s famous introduction to the LGBT community and focuses more on her (and Riggs to a smaller extent) personal struggles rather than focusing in on the match itself. In a way, the match plays second fiddle to King’s personal awakening, and Riggs broken family life than I would have preferred. But at the end of the day the movie is elevated by two excellent performances that really drive the film forward.

It’s 1973 and Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) was “king” of the female tennis world. However, women in genera were kind of behind the times in regards to the women’s lib movement. While the men were being offered $12,000 title matches, the female matches were much less. When Billie Jean heard that the latest years offerings were going to be $12,000 for the males Tennis match, and $1,500 for the women’s, she balked and decided to promote her own tournament and boycott the open (headed up by a sleazy sportsman by the name of Jack Kramer….masterfully portrayed by Bill Pullman). As much as Billie Jean and her female tennis cohorts wanted it to survive, making your own tournament and making it profitable was a harrowing challenge. But despite the odds the women actually pulled it off and they were on the news as heroes.

On the opposite side of the fence was Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell), a 55 year old retired Wimbledon cup champion who was a bit of a hustler in real life. Bobby can’t take no for an answer, and he can’t stop gambling and making bets to the chagrin of his wife Priscilla (Elisabeth Shue). Riggs was more than a hustler and tennis player. He was also a showman who reveled in the ludicrous. Taking offense (seemingly) at Billie Jean’s comments about being paid equal to men, Bobby arranges an exhibition match of the sexes, claiming to be able to beat any woman, any time (real life claim by Riggs). Seeing the bait for what it is, Billie Jean declines the match, but watches in horror as her female competitor succumbs to it and gets destroyed by Bobby (who loved to dance around the court, and make side bets with the onlookers). Now it’s more than just bait, it’s a matter of honor as Billie fights for the one thing she TRULY values above all else. The honor of her sex against a group of men who publicly decry them as inferior.

As much as I’d like to say that the entire 2 hour film is about this match, it really isn’t. Most of the time is actually spent with Billie Jean King coming to grips with her burgeoning sexual awakening as he falls in love with a beautiful hairstylist by the name of Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborough), and having to come to grips with that realization. Especially since the 1970s was not NEARLY as forgiving of people in alternative sexual lifestyles as they are today. The first hour is a nonstop, dreamy, soap opera where Billie Jean and Marilyn begin their relationship, and the upcoming awkwardness as Billie Jean’s husband, Larry King (no, not THAT Larry King) finds out about it. It’s not until the hour point that we actually get into the discussion about the film’s titular exhibition match, and by that point, it’s heavily saturated with the romance to the point where said romance is part OF the match.

I guess you could say the film wants to have its cake and eat it to, as it tries to bring modern sexual awakening subplots to the foreground, and yet still try to keep it about the historical match. Personally I feel the film would be smoother and more fluid if it had advertised Billie’s personal struggle as the primary plot of the film, and just weaved the match into it instead of the other way around. To make matters more interesting, both Billie Jean and Larry King have publicly stated that the romance with Marilyn was a complete romanticized work of fiction (at least how it was portrayed in the film). It comes across as this great eyeopener, and heroic moment for Billy, but the reality of the situation was that this romance was a NIGHTMARE for her. The film has Larry King finding out about the romance and pretty much giving his blessing to Marilyn and Billie, but what actually happened was that the two kept it from Larry until 1981, when Marilyn publicly outed Billie to the world as she tried to sue her (after a blackmail scheme for a $550,000 beach house fell through) after the two had separated. This pretty much destroyed Billie’s career for many a year, as her sponsorship left her just as she was winding down her career towards retirement. Instead, the film plays it off as a fluffy piece of cotton candy that is going to be roses and sugar rushes.

Battle of the Sexes is a solid dramatic sports film, with some problematic conflicts of interest in regards to competing story lines, but elevated due to the performances. Emma Stone plays Billie Jean quite well, and Andrea completes the romantic arc for their romance with great chemistry. But it’s really Steve Carell that steals the show as Bobby Riggs. Carell has really impressed me as an actor over the years, and he walks that tightrope between serious athlete and goofy publicity whore that the real life Bobby Riggs was. His comedic talents play out superbly, and you’re laughing and cheering despite the incredible misogynistic overtones that he spouts on a continuing basis (most historians believe Riggs used his verbal abuse as a means of self publicity more than actual dislike for the female sex, but no one really knows the truth).




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for some sexual content and partial nudity




Video:

Battle of the Sexes comes to Blu-ray with a very nice looking 2.39:1 AVC encoded movie that was given the appropriate “aged period piece” look by being shot on actual FILM (and then mastered at 2K resolution). The film is shot by cinematographer Linus Sandgren, and given a nice yellow and green tinge that is indicative of the 70s by most film makers. Detail is usually excellent, but the film does look rather soft at times, which gives it an authentic feel, but robs the image of some detail levels that more modern looking film benefit from. There’s a bit of noise going on in the background of some shots, but usually the film grain is even and finely layered, and the black levels of the movie are more than adequate (some teensy washing out due to the yellow filter employed). A solid performer, Battle of the Sexes was shot with a highly stylized look in mind, and that keeps it from being a razor sharp stunner as a result.






Audio:

The 7.1 DTS-HD MA track that is used is a bit surprising. With so much interpersonal drama going on I was actually expecting the track to be your average front loaded dramatic track. Instead the mix is quite open and spacious, allowing the tennis matches to sound quite boisterous and encompassing. Sure, there IS a good bit of drama with the relationship material, and that IS front heavy as expected. BUT, there is a goodly amount of sports action in the film and that gave it a much more vibrant sound than I would have expected. LFE is punchy and used as a support for the sports matches, and surrounds get quite a bit of action with the crowd yelling and cheering. It’s a good track, nay, a great track, and once again Fox knocks it out of the ballpark.





Extras:

• Raw Footage: Billie Jean's Grand Entrance
• Reigniting the Rivalry
• Billie Jean King: In Her Own Words
• Galleries

Final Score: ​

I really did enjoy Battle of the Sexes, mainly due to the incredible performance of Steve Carell, but it is a conflicted movie that seems to want to have its cake and eat it to. The film has a hard time deciding whether it wants to be a film about women’s equality, a story of sexual awakening, or sports drama. As such, it’s a bit bloated and by the time the match actually happens, much of the tension has been lost. Carell and Stone do a wonderful job with their performances, and this is the real pull of the movie, but overall I felt it could have been so much better with less sub plots running around. 20th Century Fox brings us a solidly technical Blu-ray, with decent extras and great audio, and I would recommend this as a good watch, or at the very least, a good rental.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Emma Stone, Steve Carell, Andrea Riseborough
Directed by: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Written by: Simon Beafoy
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 7.1, French, Spanish, Russian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Thai, Turkish, Hindi DD 5.1
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 122 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: January 9th, 2018

Image

• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Good Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will watch it once available on netflix/amazon prime.