‘Borg vs. McEnroe’: The power and pain of sport
If you like tennis, you might be interested in seeing the movies "Borg vs. McEnroe," which is playing at the Magic Lantern Theater. Following is the review of the film that I wrote for Spokane Public Radio:
One question that pretty much every sports movie explores is fairly basic: What does it take to succeed?
In recent years, we know that the real-life answer – in one way or another – often involves cheating. How did Barry Bonds hit 762 home runs? How did Lance Armstrong win seven Tours de France? Why were so many Russian athletes banned from February’s Winter Olympic Games? Because of cheating.
Not everyone cheats, of course, just as not every politician is in the pocket of a lobbyist. Even so, athletes pay a huge emotional price both in reaching the top ranks of sports success, and then staying there.
Just how high that price can be is at the heart of “Borg vs. McEnroe,” a film by Danish filmmaker Janus Metz. Based on the 1980 showdown that the two legendary tennis stars, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, had at Wimbledon, Metz’s film is less about the glory of sport than it is about the damage that sport can do to an athlete’s soul.
Take Borg. During his glory years, from 1974 through 1981, his on-court demeanor was the epitome of a Nordic cliché: icily stoic, controlled and deadly. But Borg at a young age was a virtual wild child, hating to lose and liable to unleash his temper at every call that didn’t go his way. It was only through the efforts of his coach, Lennart Bergelin, that he learned to rein in his emotions and become, eventually, one of the great players.
McEnroe, too, was a volatile court presence. Three years younger than Borg, and the man who would supplant him at the top of the game, McEnroe seemed to revel in bad behavior, to actually use it as motivation. He’d rail at anyone who got in his way – court officials, other players and perhaps most of all, members of the press.
Inside both of these players, though, the same kinds of pressure ate at them – the kinds of pressure that only athletes at the very top can fully understand.
Metz’s movie shows how each man coped: Borg balancing precariously on the balcony of his high-rise apartment, insisting that everything around him be the same – even the feel of the fabric interior of his rented car; McEnroe, hungry for his own Wimbledon crown, lashing out at everyone – especially those who criticize him for doing exactly that. Each man alternately embracing, and pushing away, those closest to them.
Of course, Metz benefits by two perfect casting choices: Shia LaBeouf, who has had his own run-ins with the press, plays McEnroe, while Swedish actor Sverrir Gudnason is a virtual Borg clone. The Swedish actors Stellan Skarsgaard and Tuva Novotny are also good in their respective roles as Borg’s coach Bergelin and Borg’s fiancée, Mariana Simonescu.
Anyone with access to the Internet knows what happened during the championship match, which some call one of the greatest Wimbledon finals ever played. But only those inside each athlete’s camp know what happened behind the scenes.
It took a Danish director, nearly four decades later, to reveal that powerful story to the rest of us.