The Battle of the Sexes

Tennis Hits the Books (and sometimes media)

“All In: An AutoBiography” by Billie Jean King was released two days ago. I am in the middle of a very busy week at work and haven’t yet completed my initial reading. Last weekend, in anticipation that I would not be able to turn around a review in two days, I hedged my bets by rewatching the “Battle of the Sexes” movie starring Emma Stone as Billie Jean King and Steve Carell as Bobby Riggs. My review of “All In” will run next Thursday.

This was my second viewing of “Battle of the Sexes.” The first was via a seatback entertainment system on a flight between Washington Reagan and DFW. It was long before the launch of this site, which sparked a dramatic increase in my reading on the history of the sport. Movies really aren’t my thing, but this was one that I felt I should take in out of a sense of obligation of a tennis fan. Probably everybody should.

It is important to be aware that the “Battle of the Sexes” is a dramatization rather than a documentary. Even during my first viewing, I was aware of the creative license and compression of some of the events made in the film. In essence, it gets the broad strokes of the story right, but viewers need to remember that the details are not always exactly historical fact.

Emma Stone and Steve Carell were amazingly convincing in their roles. At the end of the movie some still shots of Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs were presented in a slide show and it took me a moment to realize that they were the real photos rather than staged recreations by Stone and Carell. The tennis action was entirely convincing as well, which is hard to pull off as evidenced by all the movies with incredibly poor tennis form by the actors.

The factual liberties taken in the movie were more obvious to me on this most recent viewing. I am much better versed on the history than I was the first time through.

For example, Gladys Heldman was presented more as a sassy sidekick that implemented Billie Jean Kings ideas rather than the driving force behind the tour that she was. There are many instances in the film where she is portrayed in a way that is inconsistent with historical events as well as how she plausibly would have acted in certain situations.

The following is an excerpt and a link to a previous post on this site that more accurately captures the spirit of Gladys Heldman.

The tennis world very recently marked the 50 year anniversary of the “Original Nine” that signed $1 contracts that formed the basis of the women’s professional tennis tour. That seismic event does not occur without the visionary leadership and organizational savvy of Gladys Heldman. In the words of Billie Jean King, “Without Gladys Heldman, there wouldn’t be women’s professional tennis.”
The Organizational Dynamics of the “Original Nine”

Jack Kramer is portrayed in the movie as a misogynistic jerk. On my initial viewing of “Battle of the Sexes” I found myself wondering if he was really as much of an ass as portrayed. After reading more of the history in the interim, the answer is essentially yes. However, Kramer is used in the movie as a proxy for bad behavior of the USLTA. In many ways he was simply the personification of the adversity faced by the women that formed the professional tour.

Ted Tinling was delightfully portrayed in the film. The “Battle of the Sexes” accurately captured his personality even as it took creative license with the facts. In real life Tinling was bald while Alan Cumming portrayed him with a full head of hair, but otherwise the portrayal was spot on. Tinling’s autobiography “Ted Tinling: Sixty Years in Tennis” contains factual details on his life and involvement with the women’s professional tour.

I recommend “Battle of the Sexes” and regard viewing it as a moral obligation for tennis fans. Just keep in mind that it is a dramatization and not a documentary.