The previous publicity created a big misunderstanding for this movie… It has become a preconceived notion that Rush is a “great showdown” in sports biographies. …… is not saying Rush is bad, I like Rush quite a bit. Just say, these two films are completely different types, the perspective is also completely different, can not be compared, and can not take for granted that this film “should have been shot as Rush”. Borg/McEnroe is not a sports biopic, not from the beginning, at least not in the sense that most viewers understand it.
Janus’ claim to fame is the Cannes Critics’ Week award-winning documentary “Amadillo,” about a group of young Danish men fighting in the Middle East. Coming from a filmmaker like that, it’s hard to imagine that he cares about how exciting the sporting event was, how the two men met before, how convoluted the story was, and portraying a Hollywood-style journey of two superstars to success. Like the young soldiers in Amadillo, Janus is always about “them”, about “people”, about the personalities and psychology of individuals. He uses the small moments of the two men’s lives before and during the race to build, bit by bit, two characters at that particular time, just like the boys in Amadillo who do all sorts of chores every day – if such a film were a universal sports biography, then just depicting the two men in this one particular time and setting is clearly not enough. Even if childhood scenes are included, the purpose is not to tell the story of athletic growth (hard training, rebellion, transformation, success, blahblah. Including a large part of Borg’s teenage slapstick tantrum, but also not this purpose), but mainly to explain – the two psychological and character traits are how to develop.
So, it is a film about human psychology, in the words of director Janus and star Sverrir, “Borg/McEnroe” is a “psychological thriller”. The first two encounters between Borg and McEnroe off the field – the press conference, the locker room, Borg’s silent coolness and McEnroe’s obsessive gaze – are uncomfortably eerie. -was filled with an uncomfortably eerie atmosphere. The first two Acts, which were scorned by English-language press reviews and smacked of “dullness,” are instead the perfect vehicle for this atmosphere. In the parallel line of the two, although they do not meet, but more see the similarity of their bad psychological state (and almost pathological to each other… obsession?) The film is a good example. No one in the film is happy, Janus unapologetically shows a pair of rivals full of anxiety and fear (really two giant babies ah T T, a girlfriend to pack a backpack, capriciously contradict the coach, the other daily nightclub work, but also always call to find Dad This angle of the athletes’ description is somehow even quite…the jealous coach, the girlfriend who is overwhelmed by the psychological torture of the world’s number one superstar boyfriend …… For me, the only sunny moment of the film is the opening when Borg lies and chats with the bar owner who doesn’t speak the language and is not a “tennis superstar The only sunny moment for me in the film is the beginning when Boogie is lying with the bar owner who can’t speak the language and is not a “tennis star”. I once read a bad review that said “this film is for athletes who are narcissistic and masochistic”, and that’s when I… I wanted to quote McEnroe again: “you don’t know wtf it takes to play tennis”. For the commenter, it only takes a few seconds a finger to comment on the life of an athlete, and only a few people may see your comment, and your life will go on as normal. But they – the tennis stars of their time – had the world’s attention on their every move. Talent combined with hard work year after year to achieve one of the top world rankings, and once they were in that position, fans, media, national expectations, sponsors etc. etc.all started to become an inevitable part of their lives. The innocent child playing tennis against the garage door and dreaming of a world championship no longer exists. It is impossible to say that you did not think that you had reached such a high level that one day you would have to go downhill, to lose, to lose control. Such a pressure-filled sport is no longer pure, no one can enjoy such a life, no one is a saint. People are psychologically fragile creatures in the end. This is the most fascinating thing about these two characters: they are not Hollywood-style star players – Boogie is not the all-powerful Superman, the iceberg gentleman sought after by the world, and McEnroe is not the one-sided bad boy with a tantrum in the public eye in the media. They are real people, lonely, psychologically awful people going through stressful crises that real human beings would go through. The film goes beyond tennis on this level, and all who have experienced stress in their lives and work can relate to it. Anger leads the two men to different paths, and success makes them suffer physically and emotionally. That’s why the two men talk so well at the airport at the end – Borg and McEnroe were able to cultivate a friendship that lasts to this day, not because they met often on the field and were both enemies and friends (what these Hollywood sports biopics want to feed you), but because of their similar personalities and experiences, their similar psychological situations. Only people who have had similar experiences in this world can understand each other so deeply.
The performances of both leads are excellent, Sverrir Gudnason’s performance is understated, but very precise in its rendering of the anxious silence; Shia LaBeouf makes up for the severely underwritten script very well, and you can tell that real emotion was put into it, and it’s hard to imagine what kind of mental torture he was subjected to while making the film, because McEnroe suffered a lot of He has also experienced a lot of misunderstanding and media oppression. The talk with Fleming after the game and the performance after the final was really heartbreaking… Stellan Skarsgard’s performance is also impressive, he played the Rabe’s high hopes for Borg at the same time jealous feelings so real, to be honest, quite resonant T T . Sverrir walks with his chest like Borg, scary!
The beauty: the film is a Scandinavian investment, after the national treasure Borg set as the main protagonist, the excavation of McEnroe is unfortunately not enough, especially the planning and use of anger, as well as egoism retroactive, I feel that another 20 minutes on the McEnroe scene would be good. The script is a little hard ,But the beginning of the writing is “adapted from a true story”, not “completely true record”. Some of the dramatic treatment is understandable.
