Line #23 Film/BattleOfTheSexes


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8	->''"He made a bet. She made history."''
9	-->-- '''The film's {{tagline}}'''
10
11	''Battle of the Sexes''' is a 2017 biographical sports film [[BasedOnATrueStory based on the famous 1973 tennis match of the same name]] between Billie Jean King (Creator/EmmaStone) and Bobby Riggs (Creator/SteveCarell).
12
13	Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who'd previously collaborated with Carell on ''Film/LittleMissSunshine'' (2006), and written by Simon Beaufoy. The supporting cast includes Creator/AndreaRiseborough, Creator/SarahSilverman, Creator/BillPullman, Creator/AlanCumming, and Creator/ElisabethShue.
14
15	----
16	!!''Battle of the Sexes'' contains examples of the following tropes:
17	* TheSeventies: Set in 1972-1973. The men have sideburns, women have long or shaggy hair, the tuxedoes have ruffles, people dress in primary colors. The movie actually captures the period very well.
18	* SeventiesHair: All over the place. Bobby's bowl cut type haircut with the sideburns, Billie's shag, Marilyn's wavy Breck Girl hair, the sculpted haircuts of some of the young men; the film even shows how some people still had traces of the stylings of TheSixties with their hair.
19	* AdaptationalCurves:
20	** Bobby in RealLife was [[http://www.espn.com/photo/2013/0702/mag_vintagebody02.jpg chunkier]] than how Steve Carell [[https://i0.wp.com/media2.slashfilm.com/slashfilm/wp/wp-content/images/battleofthesexes-stevecarell-naked-tennisracket-700x314.jpg portrayed him]] in the movie.
21	** Billie Jean in RealLife was never as slender as Emma Stone.
22	* AmicableExes: Larry and Billie did end up getting divorced, but the epilogue reveals that they are still friendly and he even made Billie and her current partner, Ilana Kloss, Godmothers to his children.
23	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The "Original Nine" broke away from the tennis establishment in 1970 and was far more prosperous than shown in the movie. The "Slims" as it was known attracted over 40 players by the end of that year. Around the time of Billie and Bobby's match it had grown so successful that it had absorbed the previous ILTF Grand Prix and became known as the WTA.
24	* AsHimself: Real footage featuring Howard Cosell from the original match is spliced with Natalie Morales as Rosemary Casals.
25	* AttentionWhore: Bobby Riggs cannot get enough of the spotlight, which is one of the main reasons that he proposed the Battle of the Sexes in the first place.
26	* BadassBoast: A succinct one from Billie before her match with Bobby: "I'm done talking. Let's play."
27	* BaitAndSwitch:
28	** There is a scene at the beginning of the movie that strongly implies that Bobby is slipping out to see his mistress: he claims that he has to go back to the office, and his wife questions what he could possibly have to do at the office so late at night. He ''was'' lying to her, but as it turns out he was sneaking out in order to to gamble. (Possibly [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] in the sense that gambling was, for all intents and purposes, "the other woman" in his relationship with Priscilla, and caused many of the same problems that a mistress might.)
29	** After being thrown out of his house by his wife Priscilla, Bobby is seen [[FreudianCouch sitting down with his therapist]] who tells him his problem may be that he is pursuing the wrong woman, comparing Bobby as the "Alpha Male" to the "Alpha Female". One thinks this is about his relationship with Priscilla, but it's quickly revealed they're actually discussing his pitch to have an exhibition match with Billie Jean King.
30	* BathroomStallOfOverheardInsults: The other tennis players are discussing whether Billie would beat Bobby, with a good amount of doubters, in the locker room. Out comes Billie out of the toilet stall, having heard everything, and marching out without any acknowledgement of the other players. [[WhatHaveIDone They look regretful]].
31	* BettyAndVeronica: Two.
32	** Billie (Archie), Larry (Betty), Marilyn (Veronica). Larry is Billie Jean's devoted husband of almost 10 years and Marilyn is a flirtatious hairdresser.
33	** Bobby (Archie), Priscilla (Betty), Gambling (Veronica). Priscilla is Bobby's takes no nonsense and loving wife of two decades who just wants her husband to be more stable for her sake and their children's. But he can't stay away from gambling.
34	* BrainyBrunette: Brown-haired Billie Jean is very intelligent and thoughtful, though less intellectual than the usual trope; Gladys is a darker haired and fierce version of this trope.
35	* TheCameo: Lornie Kuhle, who was on Riggs' team (and is played by Eric Christen Olsen), appears as one of the commentators in the film.
36	* ChasteHero: Billie Jean is a female variation on the trope. She is happily married to the only person she has ever been sexually intimate with and is practically fumbling when Marilyn first flirts with her; she is also very awkward when in a club and asked by a young man to dance.
37	* CherryTapping: Only alluded to a little in the film, but Bobby defeats Margaret Court by playing "soft", hitting lobs and drop shots to keep her off balance rather than the more powerful shots you might expect a male player to use to overwhelm a female opponent.
38	* CoolCar: Billie Jean's sports car and Larry's Rolls Royce that he won in a game.
39	--> '''Larry Riggs''': Nice car. [[ExiledToTheCouch You gonna live in it]]?
40	* CoolShades: Worn by Rosie Casals.
41	* DecoyProtagonist: Actually Decoy ''Antagonist''. Based on the premise and foregone conclusion it was easy to assume that Bobby Riggs would be the antagonist. However he is shown to just be a JerkWithAHeartOfGold. Jack Kramer as the head of the Federation who actively tries to hold back pay for the women is the real villain of the story and his anguish when Billie wins is quite satisfying. Margaret Court also serves as one to a secondary degree due to her viewing lesbians as degenerates. [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/01/20/margaret-courts-lgbtq-same-sex-marriage-views-leave-australian-open-honoring-her-grand-slam-not-her/ This is a view]] she continues to have today so it could also be interpreted as a TakeThat by contemporary audiences.
42	* DeliberateValuesDissonance:
43	** The open misogyny displayed by many of the men in the movie.
44	** PlayedForLaughs when Gladys tells the Original 9 that they need to smoke more at their press conferences because their tour is sponsored by Virginia Slims. ([[ProductPlacement For this reason]], Gladys is also actively delighted when she finds out that Rosie Casals is a smoker.)
45	* DoubleMeaning: In one scene Rosie Casals wears a t-shirt that says "You've Come a Long Way, Baby." The was the slogan of the Virginia Slims Circuits corporate sponsor; it is probably also intended to highlight the strides that [[TheHero Billie]], [[HeroOfAnotherStory Rosie]], and the rest of the Original 9 made for women's sports.
46	* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Priscilla, Marilyn, Larry.....Billie Jean and Bobby are married to them and the three do have wheat-colored hair.
47	* ExiledToTheCouch: What happens to Bobby as Priscilla cannot put up with his gambling and his male chauvinism, especially the gambling.
48	* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Billie's hair changes from mid length to shoulder length to neck length during the course of the film.
49	* ExternallyValidatedProphecy: Towards the end of the film, Ted, who is also gay, reassures Billie Jean that “people like us” will be able to love openly one day.
50	* FailedASpotCheck: When she gets a call informing her that her husband Larry is coming to her hotel room, Billie trashes a few things, hides tell tale signs of her sleeping with Marilyn only to miss Marilyn's pink lace floral bra, which Larry soon sees and can gather doesn't belong to Billie.
51	* {{Fanservice}}: Bobby's cheerleaders and the men that lift Billie at the Astrodome are to somewhat evoke this.
52	* AFatherToHisMen: Gladys Heldman is the manager and mentor to the Original 9.
53	* FindingABraInYourCar: Billie is alerted by a friend that her husband is on the way. King scrambles to hide all evidence of Marilyn having spent the night with her, but forgets a bra, which he finds in the bathroom. As it isn't her size, he realizes immediately what's been going on.
54	* ForegoneConclusion: Anyone who is up on their history would know that Billie did beat Bobby, and Billie and Larry's marriage eventually ended after Marilyn outed Billie and herself by suing for palimony.
55	* FriendlyRivalry: Billie Jean and Bobby were friends until he died from prostate cancer and she remains in touch with his coach and son, who both are on the team against her.
56	* {{Gayngst}}: Part of Billie's story involves her coming to terms with her sexuality and dealing with the threat of a possible fall out in both her career and personal life.
57	* TheGlassesGottaGo: Howard Cosell evoked this in RealLife and in-universe about Billie when she is being carried out into the arena, saying she'd be a Hollywood Beauty if she grew her hair and dumped her glasses.
58	* HeManWomanHater:
59	** Zigzagged with Bobby Riggs. He is a self-described "chauvinist pig" who openly mocks women's sports and female athletes, but he is also shown to have a genuinely loving relationship with his wife and is a much more affectionate and involved father to his young son than many men of his generation. He also [[GracefulLoser congratulates Billie Jean on her win and admits that he underestimated her]] after their match.
60	** In a conversation with Jack Kramer, Billie points out that while Bobby Riggs plays up his chauvinism for [[PlayedForLaughs laughs]] and [[AttentionWhore attention]], Jack, who genuinely does not consider himself to be a sexist, is actually a lot worse.
61	* HeroOfAnotherStory:
62	** Rosie Casals was also an extremely skilled tennis player and champion of equal pay for women in sports. Additionally, she was one of very few Latina women playing professional tennis in the U.S. in TheSeventies. She also made brightly-colored tennis dresses her signature after she was nearly excluded from Wimbledon for not wearing white. (The requirement that players had to wear all white at Wimbledon continued, and continued to be protested by female players, into the 21st century.)
63	** Gladys Heldman was the manager for the Original 9 and did a lot of the behind-the-scenes work to make the Virginia Slims Circuit happen. She was also a professional tennis player in TheForties and TheFifties, when female athletes got even less respect than they did in TheSeventies.
64	** Ted Tinling was a [[CampGay flamboyantly gay fashion designer]] who also happened to be a WWII veteran and former spy.
65	* HeroicBSOD: Larry, after being hit with the double whammy of Billie's infidelity and lesbianism. Billie herself falters in her subsequent match.
66	* HeteronormativeCrusader: Margaret Court and her husband view Billie as a sinner for being a lesbian and believe that Billie's moral crisis will help Margaret beat her. This is not a HistoricalVillainUpgrade, as Margaret would later champion the campaign in Australia against same-sex marriage.
67	* {{Hubris}}: How Bobby wins his first Battle of the Sexes and loses his second. Margaret, as in real life, underestimates the old clown Bobby and collapses under the pressure of the moment. In the second match, Bobby is riding high on his crushing victory and has spent most of his prep time lounging at the pool.
68	* IncompatibleOrientation: Billie and her husband Larry genuinely care about each other, but their marriage is doomed because she is a lesbian. The epilogue notes that [[AmicableExes they stayed friends after their divorce.]]
69	* IntimateHairBrushing: It shows a sign of attraction between Billie and Marilyn when the latter starts tenderly combing her hair in the salon.
70	* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: One of Billie's responses to Bobby's promotion of "male chauvinist pig vs. hairy-legged feminist"?
71	--> Oh by the way? I shave my legs.
72	* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Larry genuinely loves and supports Billie Jean, recognizing tennis will be her true love and figuring out that she really does need Marilyn.
73	* IWasQuiteALooker: Bobby looks funny now, but his office has a portrait of himself in his tennis glory days of TheForties when he was young and handsome.
74	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Bobby may be bombastic, insensitive and impulsive, and says a lot of sexist stuff. But he really loves his wife Priscilla, cares for and plays with his young son, and genuinely wants to get in his older son's good graces. Also after the game, he congratulates Billie by admitting he underestimated her.
75	* LargeHam: [[ExaggeratedTrope Bobby Riggs.]] In his own works, he puts the "show" back in "chauvinism."
76	* LipstickLesbian: Both Billie Jean and Marilyn. Billie Jean is too conventional to classify as a "Soft Butch", wears her hair simply and a touch of lipstick while Marilyn wears her hair long and styled and dresses in a manner that shows off her figure.
77	* LogoJoke: The Fox Searchlight logo is redone in the style of the 1970s 20th Century Fox logo (the Searchlight label did not exist in the 70s). TSG Entertainment also made a completely new logo that's more era-appropriate for the '70s (the studio didn't even exist before 2012).
78	* LysistrataGambit: Discussed and joked around with the tennis players, one of them suggests this and another asks "Wouldn't that punish us as well?" and another saying "I won't miss it" with another commenting her husband is inadequate in the bedroom.
79	* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast: While the film is portrayed realistically, it highlights the way American society in the 1970s was much more patriarchal than it is today.
80	* MeaningfulEcho: While [[LargeHam hamming it up]] [[AttentionWhore for the cameras]] at a press conference, Bobby Riggs says "Don't get me wrong, I love women. I love them in the kitchen ''and'' in the bedroom." In a much more serious scene later in the movie, when Jack Kramer tries to use his long-term marriage to hand-wave Billie's accusations of misogyny, she responds, "yeah, and I'm sure you love us [women] in the kitchen ''and'' the bedroom."
81	* MenAreStrongWomenArePretty: There is a lot of doubt that Billie could beat Bobby given that he is a man in spite of their wide age difference. Several characters (including archival footage of contemporary celebrities) directly stating that men are simply too strong and fast for a woman to ever defeat them in tennis. Men also repeatedly comment on the appearance of the female players, with Howard Cosell openly commenting on how Billie Jean King would be very attractive if she cleaned herself up.
82	* MinidressOfPower: All the women tennis players wear this or short skirts with shorts underneath.
83	* TheMistress: Marilyn becomes this for Billie. Their affair lasted for nearly a decade and [[{{Understatement}} didn't end well.]]
84	* ModestyBedsheet: Billie after she and Marilyn have first made love.
85	* ModestyShorts: All the women tennis players wear them under their skirts.
86	* NerdGlasses: Bobby wears them, as befitting his age and what he wore in RealLife.
87	* OneSteveLimit: Averted. Billie's husband and Bobby's older son are both named "Larry".
88	* OOCISSeriousBusiness: Bobby Riggs drops his hubristically hammy persona and starts taking the match seriously once it becomes apparent that [[WorthyOpponent Billie is a much tougher opponent than he expected.]]
89	* PassionateSportsGirl: Billie Jean and her fellow women tennis players. They just want to be paid their worth as players and be taken just as seriously as the men.
90	* PintSizedPowerhouse: Rosie Casals is 5'2 and an extremely skilled athlete.
91	* PresentDayPast: Mostly averted but one minor example is when Gladys calls someone NASCAR for driving too fast. In 1973 NASCAR was a regional sport popular only in the south. It’s very doubtful tennis players from California had ever heard of it.
92	* ProductPlacement: In universe with Virginia Slims which was, obviously, the corporate sponsor of the Virginia Slims Tour. At one point Rosie Casals wears a shirt featuring the Virginia Slims corporate slogan: [[DoubleMeaning "You've Come a Long Way, Baby."]] There is also a humorous moment when Gladys Heldman tells the Original 9 that [[DeliberateValuesDissonance they need to start smoking more at their press conferences]] [[StealthCigaretteCommercial in order to highlight their corporate sponsor]].
93	* PunchClockVillain: 55-year-old Bobby Riggs stages a comeback by publicly mocking women's sports and tries to bait Billie into playing him by claiming that she doesn't have the nerve. He is also shown to be a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold flawed-but-loving husband and a genuinely affectionate father to his young son.]] Billie herself acknowledges that Bobbie's performative chauvinism is mostly an act, whereas Jack Kramer's brand of misogyny is much more insidious and dangerous.
94	* RedOniBlueOni: Impulsive and loud Bobby (Red) and cautious and modulated Billie (Blue), they are even color coded with her dress (with blue suede shoes) and his Sugar Daddy jacket.
95	* SecretKeeper: Ted Tinling and his designing/life partner are this for Billie, figuring things out rather quickly and warning Billie to be careful.
96	* SilkHidingSteel: Priscilla, to the point that this conversation Bobby has with this therapist about "Alpha Female" Billie Jean could be mistaken for Priscilla quite easily.
97	* SpecsOfAwesome: Gladys Heldman in the boardroom, Billie and Bobby on the court and the press.
98	* SportsHeroBackstory: Riggs' success at the 1939 Wimbledon championship. He mentions winning all three draws (men's singles, men's doubles, and mixed doubles) but not as an amateur and that his playing during the amateur era is why he learned to hustle.
99	* TrainingMontage: Billie goes through one showing her getting prepped for the Match. This is contrasted with showing Bobby lounging around and partying.
100	* TranquilFury: Billie gets this when she calls out a man for proclaiming that men are better than women, she asks him if he thinks his Father is better than his Mother.
101	* TrueBlueFemininity: Billie favors this color, often with white. In the Battle of the Sexes, she wore a white dress with a blue trim with some white embroidery with blue suede shoes. Her femininity, or lack thereof, is not to be emphasized.
102	* TwoferTokenMinority:
103	** Justified with Rosie Casals being the only Latina in the group, the tennis world of 1973 was predominantly white.
104	** Gladys lampshades it when told she isn't allowed in the Smoker's Room, asking, "Is it because I'm a woman or because I'm a Jew?"

Context Film / BattleOfTheSexes