When Billie Beat Bobby (Telefilm)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: D Film: B-
When TV movies take on a historic event that is serious
and amusing, they always come down on the side of comedy and Jane Anderson’s When
Billie Beat Bobby (2001) is no exception.
The battle of the sexes tennis match between tired old Bobby Riggs (Ron
Silver hamming it up all the way) and champion Billie Jean King (Holy Hunter on
target) that came out of him beating another top female player is the
focus. It became one of the many
interesting cultural events of the 1970s that has not been as examined as it
should be and the nearly 90 minutes exercise stops short on delving deeper into
the implications of what was really going on.
The telefilm begins with a flashback of King’s childhood
and the idea about girls not being able to play like boys. It is a reminder of how things were and
still are, especially in subtle ways being rolled and set back that way. This never goes far past the contest
results, but the portrayal of the 1970s is not bad. Fred Willard does a strange turn as Howard Cosell, which almost
works, still seeming like Willard yet with less difference than you might
think. Any more problematic and it
could have thrown off the whole thing, but Willard is just too funny no matter
what.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image looks to have
been shot on digital HD, but is not bad and has the color pushed to look like
the 1970s. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
has good Pro Logic surrounds with the marching band music being the only thing
that should have been pulled back on.
The combination is one of the better 16 X 9 telefilms on DVD to
date. There are sadly no extras, but
the results in the end are entertaining, but it is never as engaging as
theatrical films like Michael Mann’s Ali or the Kurt Russell vehicle Miracle. It is still worth a very good look, even if
it feels like it ended before it should have.
- Nicholas Sheffo
