{"id":7357,"date":"2018-07-12T07:23:52","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T11:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7357"},"modified":"2018-08-16T07:40:54","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T11:40:54","slug":"borg-vs-mcenroe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7357","title":{"rendered":"Borg vs. McEnroe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BorgRight in the middle of Wimbledon\u2019s 150th Championships we scored a Netflix copy of director Janus Metz\u2019s 2017 movie about the classic 1980 matchup between Ice-Borg and the Superbrat, with a script by Ronnie Sandahl (trailer<\/a>). While their rivalry makes an entertaining film, I\u2019d still flunk a quiz on how to score the game.<\/p>\n

Sverrir Gudnason plays Bj\u00f6rn Borg, instantly recognizable, lean and riddled with doubt, and Shia LaBeouf does fine work as the temperamental, foul-mouthed McEnroe. Apparently, Gudnason had to put on muscle for the role, while LaBeouf had to take some off. They both looked in fine form for the on-court scenes at the 1980 Wimbledon. In what is regarded as one of the greatest tennis matches of all time, Borg blew seven match points as he attempted to win his fifth straight Wimbledon victory. McEnroe might be a bad boy, but he could play some tennis, and, in the end, he got a standing ovation from the Wimbledon fans who\u2019d started the competition by booing him.<\/p>\n

While the competition between them was always billed as a rivalry between opposites, fire and ice, what the movie shows is that from his youth Borg wanted to be best in the world. (The young\u00a0 Borg is played by his son Leo.) As a teen, Borg (played by Markus Mossberg) was every bit as fiery as McEnroe, arguing with the refs and his coach, throwing his racket, stomping off the court. They\u2019re also alike in how deeply they care about winning.<\/p>\n

Finally, Borg\u2019s coach (Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd) told him he was through unless he channeled his anger and frustration into his game. He needed to become emotionless. It sounds impossibly difficult, but he did it. What he also did was develop a lot of peculiar habits and rituals that had to be followed to the letter: the way his rackets were strung, the kind of car they rented. Sports stars are legendary for having \u201cgood luck\u201d rituals, and his were all-encompassing.<\/p>\n

McEnroe also got his comeuppance from friend and fellow tennis-player Peter Fleming (Scott Arthur) who told him he\u2019d never be regarded as one of the greats because nobody liked him. At Wimbledon, his volcanic persona was in check after that, at least in the film.<\/p>\n

We see less about McEnroe as a young man (it\u2019s a Scandi movie after all), and I would have liked to. Still, it\u2019s an engrossing film even for someone not obsessed with tennis (me!), and it deserves more attention.<\/p>\n

Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> critics\u2019 rating: 83%; audiences: 73%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Right in the middle of Wimbledon\u2019s 150th Championships we scored a Netflix copy of director Janus Metz\u2019s 2017 movie about the classic 1980 matchup between Ice-Borg and the Superbrat, with a script by Ronnie Sandahl (trailer). While their rivalry makes … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Borg vs. McEnroe - even if tennis isn't your game, this is a fascinating film about one of the greatest matchups of all time","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[265,366,57,1172,104],"tags":[1360,128,1359,416,1358,1361],"class_list":["post-7357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography","category-drama","category-movies","category-sports","category-the-morgue","tag-bjorn-borg","tag-history","tag-john-mcenroe","tag-real-life","tag-shia-labeouf","tag-sverrir-gudnason"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1UF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7359,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7357\/revisions\/7359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}