Sadly Over-hyped

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It's the 1973 "The Battle of the Sexes" tennis match between Billie Jean King (Holly Hunter) and Bobby Riggs (Ron Silver). This concentrates mostly on the year before the iconic match. Billie Jean had never been lady-like and her parents forced her to play tennis instead of playing sports with the boys. She tries to set up a ladies tour and fight for equal pay to the men. She organizes the ladies but number one player Margaret Court (Jacqueline McKenzie) is not cooperating. Bobby is a degenerate gambler and a loudmouth hustler. He keeps challenging Billie Jean to play for the new women's lib movement. Margaret accepts the payday and quickly loses. Billie Jean is forced to accept for the honor of the women's game.This is a perfectly TV movie and there is poetic justice with the original being an iconic TV event. There are some simplification with history that makes this an easy underdog sports story. It treats both Billie Jean and Bobby rather well. The two performances are great. Bobby comes off as a loveable lout and his respect for Billie Jean's game is a great asset to his character. His connections to the darker side of gambling is papered over and the theory that he threw the match is never mentioned. Billie Jean is of course the heroine but her lesbianism is never mentioned. The simplification highlights the bigger woman's liberation ideas and makes for an easy good sports movie. The tennis action could use a little help. This is a great story and this is perfect for the TV treatment.

This movie (which I bought on DVD, having missed the initial TV run) takes a decidedly tongue-in-cheek approach to the legendary King/Riggs "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match...which is totally appropriate! Silver and Hunter do a magnificent job of portraying the combatants, who actually cared for each other and had no ill will towards the other. The movie does a fine job of showing that their "battle" was co-opted by others, rather than by anything they actually did (though both rode the hype to their own successes).In addition, the movie is a hoot. King's nightmare sequences are absolutely comical, and you can actually feel Riggs' bewilderment with his "hustle" that has gone completely beyond his wildest dreams, as well as spun out of his control. And, the tennis playing is quite 'serviceable', to excuse the poorly adapted pun. Also, the historical accuracy is commendable (many forget that Riggs thumped Margaret Court before playing King--an event well adapted here, as well), and ABC file footage of the event is inter-spaced nicely.The ONLY real criticism is the use of Fred Willard as Howard Cosell. He makes NO attempt to be anything except good ol' Fred with plastic hair (not even Howard's rug looked THAT bad), and every appearance of him on screen leaves one wondering, "WHY??" A definite drag on what was otherwise an excellent production.

This is one of the best TV movies to come along in years, maybe longer. As usual, Holly Hunter turns in a wonderful performance as Billie Jean King (both as the person and the tennis player). But the real shocker here is the writing and directing. "When Billie beat Bobby" has a wonderful sense of style that rarely, if ever, is available for free in the comfort of your home. It makes use of visual grain, hand held camera work, jump cuts (when was the last time you saw a jump cut on TV), and non-diagetic visuals. This does not deserve to be on TV and it does not deserve to be called a movie. I would have loved to see this film in a theater and ABC got their luckiest break since "Millionaire." From an artistic standpoint, seeing this in a theatrical release would have taken a great TV movie and turned it into one of the year's best films. From a business standpoint, someone would have made a lot more money if this was on the big screen. I don't know if this will be availiable on video one day (or in theaters) but if you ever get a chance to see it then do. It really harkens back to the TV movies

Holly Hunter as Billie Jean King gives her usual great performance, and Ron Silver is absolutely brilliant as Bobby Riggs. The story told me a lot I didn't know about the things that went on leading up to the match. One major revelation was what Bobby Riggs inadvertently did for women's tennis and women's liberation.