性别之战

题材是好题材，可惜没有拍好。非主流性取向与性别不平等的议题按理说任意一条线只要钻入得深一点都会是一部好片，但很遗憾影片中这两条线相互交织，出现在同一个人物身上，却没有深入表现出主人公的这种双重心理压力，相反却在小丑似的Bobby身上铺入了大量戏份，在我看来这不过是为这位大男子主义人物“开脱”而已。从电影海报的设计也能看出影片的重点可能不在描画女主人公是如何顶住自我认知的迷惘而努力争取女性权益的，更像是一部集中在男女主人公之间争斗的“喜剧”。人物剧情设计的不合理从海报上也能窥得一二，海报上的Bobby占据了视线主导，而女主人公则是笑着看向他，也完全与片名的“battle”对不上号，或者我们可以看做这场battle是以和局告终，说实话，我在还没有看完全片之前看到这张海报会以为海报上的两位人物是并肩作战而非态度对立，而女主人公的视线引导向男主则更像是在暗示，Bobby才是这部电影想要重点刻画的角色。
在人物的设定上，反复暗示与强调网球对于Billie Jean的重要性，网球运动员的身份在她心里是要高于女性这一个身份的，我们每个人对自己的认知都会有这样一个先决性的设定，但很遗憾影片在表现她对于网球这项运动的执著与坚定的方面也很欠缺。
虽然我很喜欢看百合，但也不得不承认这部电影在感情戏方面的进展过于迅速，在我还没消化好网球圈的背景时，突然告诉我女主人公出轨了她的发型师……以至于我在影片前半段都是带着姨母般的围笑和满脑子问号看过来的，一边为这段同性之爱进展之快而鸡冻，一边又在怀疑自己是不是在看狗血三角恋爱剧而不是体育题材剧情片。不过全片最值得表扬得的地方也在这里，导演唯一值得称赞得地方就是把这段同性恋情拍得很美。可能单独把这段拿出来看还是不错的。
说到要表现的网球运动部分则逊色了很多，比赛的片段不能很好地调动观众的情绪，毫无来由的转折让人难以入戏，赛时的镜头缺少动感，显得很不流畅，这也让影片想要传达的主题淡了很多。配乐稍显突兀，结局的也很一般。从平权的角度来说，这部电影比不上《隐藏人物》，从体育的角度来说，这部电影比不上《摔跤吧！爸爸》，实在很可惜浪费了这么精彩的题材。
或许现实中真实的故事要比电影更动人吧。

The True Story Behind the Battle of the Sexes Movie

The 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs was a spectacle made for Hollywood. King was at the top of her game, the first female player to win over $100,000 in a year. Riggs was an over-the-hill showboat and self-declared chauvinist pig with a gambling problem. Riggs hoped for one last minute of fame, King to prove that women deserved as much prize money and respect as men.

Ninety million people tuned into “The Battle of the Sexes,” and 44 years later Emma Stone and Steve Carrell are bringing the match to the big screen. The movie details both the on-court drama and the behind-the-scenes turmoil affecting the two tennis legends. The married King had recently begun an affair with a woman, while Riggs was struggling to connect with his family. Here’s what the movie got right about the historic game that made King an icon — and what the filmmakers exaggerated.


Fact: Billie Jean King came into conflict with Jack Kramer

Once a tennis champ himself, Kramer (Bill Pullman) was running the Pacific Southwest Tennis Tournament in 1970. That tournament offered women just 15% of the prize money that it awarded the men, despite that the women’s final sold as many tickets as the men’s final did. King challenged Kramer about the pay gap, and when he would not agree to up the women’s prize money, King led a walk-out. She and several other women went on to create the Virginia Slims tour and later the Women’s Tennis Association.

Kramer and King came into conflict again three years later on the eve of the Battle of the Sexes game. Kramer was set to be a commentator for the game, and King threatened to call off the match at the last minute if Kramer wasn’t removed. She argued that he was biased against female tennis players. The network conceded to her demands.


Fact: Virginia Slims sponsored that women’s tennis tour

In retrospect, the cigarette company was probably not the best sponsor of an athletic tournament. But it was the only advertising money they could get. Sarah Silverman’s character, Gladys Heldman, did indeed arrange the Virginia Slims tour. She asked the players to sign symbolic $1 contracts before they had enough money to pay the players and then wrangled sponsors. The women were suspended by the USTA but when the women’s tour proved successful, the two tours merged again.

Once a tennis player herself, Heldman founded World Tennis magazine and supported female tennis players in their support for equal pay. Her own daughter, Julie, even joined the separate women’s tour.


Fact: Riggs played poker with his therapist

He was, truly, a hustler.


Fiction: King and Riggs were old friends

In the movie, the two tennis players seem to know each other well — not only does Riggs call King in the middle of the night to challenge her to a match, but King dismisses the call as typical Riggs behavior. In reality, King says she barely knew the former champion, who was 25 years her senior.

However, after the Battle of the Sexes the two became friends and remained close until his death in 1995. King said she spoke to Riggs the day before he died, and they said “I love you” to each other.


Fact: King did initially turn Riggs down for the match

And he did then ask Margaret Court (Jessica McNamee) to play him instead. Riggs defeated Court in the “Mother’s Day Massacre,” which changed King’s mind about playing Riggs.

King and Court really were rivals, their careers intertwined. King’s first major singles success came in 1972 when she upset the top-seeded Court in the second round of Wimbledon. For the next decade, they competed for the top spot of the women’s rankings. Over the course of their careers, Court won 24 majors, and King just 12. That made King’s ability to defeat Riggs after the Mother’s Day Massacre extra sweet.


Fact: Margaret Court is opposed to same-sex marriage

The conservative tennis player has publicly called same-sex relationships “a lust for the flesh.”


Fact: During the “Battle of the Sexes,” Billie Jean King was involved with her hairdresser

The affair really did take place in the period before the Battle of the Sexes. King’s relationship with hairdresser Marilyn Barnett later became public in 1981 when Barnett sued King for a share of the tennis player’s property. In the suit, Barnett argued that because she gave up her career as a hairdresser to become a secretary, confidante, cook “and all other things necessary so that Mrs. King’s energy could be totally directed toward playing tennis,” under California law Barnett was due palimony, according to the New York Times.

King, who was still married to Larry King (Austin Stowell in the movie) at the time, initially denied the affair. But later that year she called a press conference in which she admitted her involvement with Barnett (Andrew Riseborough). “People’s privacy is very important, but unfortunately someone didn’t respect that,” she told The Chicago Tribune. “I did have an affair with Marilyn, but it was over quite some time ago. I’m very disturbed and shocked that Marilyn would do this in such a selfish way.”

Billie Jean and Larry King divorced in 1987. King is now in a relationship with Ilana Kloss, also a former tennis player. She has since become a prominent booster for LGBTQ rights.


Fiction: Barnett showed up right before King’s match to give her a haircut

The scene in which Barnett runs out of her salon to find King and give her a confidence boost (and a haircut) right before her face-off with Riggs is Hollywood fabrication. The haircut did happen but in Los Angeles before King left for the match in Houston.


Fact: Riggs was sponsored by Sugar Daddy

Fact: Designer Ted Tinling did indeed design King’s dress for Battle of the Sexes
Alan Cumming’s character really did dress the female tennis players for the Virginia Slims Tennis Circuit. A former World War II spy and tennis player himself, Tinling became infamous in the tennis world when he was banned from Wimbledon because his outfits were “too racy,” according to Cumming.


Fact: Howard Cosell draped an arm around tennis star Rosie Casals during the match commentary

The condescending move was all-too-real and broadcast on live TV. The filmmakers edited actor Natalie Morales into the real footage.


Fact: King wore blue suede shoes

Her outfit is now on display at the Smithsonian.


Fact: Riggs was taking 415 vitamins a day before the match

Before the match with Margaret Court, the 55-year-old Riggs enlisted the help of Hollywood nutrition guru Rheo Blair. He began a protein and dairy-focused diet and popped hundreds of vitamins every day.


Fact: Larry Riggs did not attend the match

Selena Roberts writes in A Necessary Spectacle that Bobby Riggs’ son foresaw his father’s downfall when Bobby didn’t take his training seriously. In protest, he refused to attend the King-Riggs match.


Fact: Billie Jean King was carried like Cleopatra into the Astrodome


Fact: When King won, Riggs said, “I really underestimated you.”

King has shared the mid-court conversation, included in the movie, with reporters. Riggs reportedly later said after the match, “This is the worst thing in the world I’ve ever done.”

ESPN once reported that the entire match was rigged by the mob. King denies that this was true, and the directors say that those they spoke to close to Bobby thought the accusation “ridiculous.” The filmmakers probably show Riggs betting on himself to win in the film in order to debunk the rigging rumor.


Fiction: King cried alone in the locker room after winning

King says didn’t get a moment to herself after the historic match. “They kept me so busy after that, but that’s how I was feeling, such relief,” King told USA Today.

P.S.
How Billie Jean King Won the Battle of the Sexes, as Told in 1973

先讲优点，女权激进程度的把握非常好，“I never said women are better. They just need to be respected and paid equally to man.”就是全片的主旨了。石头姐的演技稳定发挥没的说，Steve把贱兮兮也演到了刚好，让人有点生气也有点理解。

然后就是一些鸡肋：
1. 开篇没多久就在理发店讲Billie和Marilyn的暧昧火花，我说这也太突然了吧？？？上一秒还是大家风风火火地凹造型准备开发布会向世界宣战下一秒就直接开始俩人的大脸特写和不可描述的氛围？？？一点铺垫都没有的？？？我是一个很开放的人，对于同性恋完全理解且认为非常正常，但这个电影在情节处理上实在是太突兀了。

2. 这电影究竟是在讲Battle of the sexes这个事儿，还是在讲Billie Jean King这个人？如果是说事儿，在最后的决赛环节画面表现就太弱了，竟然用了大量的远景镜头你当你是拍电视转播呢？太潦草了。在体育竞技的视听语言上这电影甚至比不上炮总的体育爱情片Wimbledom，或者阿三的女性平权电影摔跤爸爸。 如果你是想讲Billie这个人，那也应该讲清楚她为什么在那么多同时代的女同胞中脱颖而出勇敢地开始平权运动，她平权的心理缘由有何而来，后半生又如何为此奔走，这些都大有文章可做。 所以这电影无论是讲事儿还是讲人都略有不足。

3.配乐。电影原声在尽力恢复六七十年代的风格看得出导演的用心，但不得不说有时候音乐和画面脱节了。影片中出现了很多次和去年《卡罗尔》相似的配乐，但有强行用配乐烘托情节的嫌疑。好的电影配乐不应喧宾夺主，而应该是妙得你几乎感受不到它的存在却又能突然注意到它并为它拍案叫绝，就像Hans Zimmer 为星际穿越的配乐。