Borg vs McEnroe is a 2018 biographical drama about the story of the 1980s tennis rivalry between the placid Björn Borg and the volatile John McEnroe.
Like the very sport itself, Janus Metz‘s latest sport drama Borg vs McEnroe is likely to have audiences choosing sides. On one hand, it’s a movie about tennis, delving into the machinations and philosophy of what it means to be a part of the game. On the other, and one where the film puts more of its energies, it’s an introspective glimpse into the minds of high-pressure athletes, examining what it takes to be truly at one’s peak on the world stage. Where your interests lie in watching this genuinely compelling story will most likely plant on you either side. It’s a great movie and for fans of the sport and the two men who got the world’s attention playing it, it’s an experience well worth having.
In 1980, the greatest tennis player in the world is Bjorn Borg (Sevirr Gudnason), a phenom that has won four straight Wimbledon championships and looking for his fifth. He’s an international superstar, stopped on the streets and drawing crowds wherever he goes, though he’s growing weary of the exposure, longing for his youth, training with the coach that got him here, Lennart Bergelin (Stellan Skarsgard). His challenger on the court is rising start John McEnroe (Shia LeBeouf), a volatile, controversial powerhouse who seems to be the only one that can stop the Swedish powerhouse. Showcasing a number of matches, the two men, who are famed for entirely different approaches to the game, both on and off the court, are shown to be much more alike than they seem as the contest eventually becomes a battle.
Shaping the film more like a fable than an actual true-to-life narrative, Metz creates a sort of exaggerated truth, though if you know anything about these players, they are already, especially then, larger than life. In doing this, the movie cycles from past to present, spending a lot of time off the court, demonstrating the growth of these men as players and representatives of the game. Borg is ice cold, seemingly emotionless, a supremely focused and stoic man who carefully considers his every move. McEnroe is naturally the opposite, a bellicose hothead who is fired up by nearly anything, taking the game and his play extremely seriously. It’s a perfect storm.
We spend far more time with Borg though, with McEnroe cast as the villian of sorts who is about to upset everything traditional and gentlemanly about the sport. Borg has been trained to be flat and machine-like, and it’s because of this McEnroe’s explosive personality seems all the more so. There are personal issues among both and we slowly begin to connect them, lines intersecting outside the game that draw them close.
Both and LeBeouf are well cast with the latter really exciting to watch. He is young McEnroe personified and blurs the line between himself and the volcanic athlete all the way through. I was a child when these two ruled the game and I can remember well their matches, including this famous contest. The movie devotes nearly all of the second half to that match and it’s thrilling to watch, maybe playing into the sports conventions a little too often, but nonetheless, great fun to watch. The beginning of the movie has a title card that compares a single game of tennis to that of life itself and Metz does well in making his film an explanation of just that.