Borg/McEnroe
In 1980, during the rainiest summer in London, the paths of two tennis stars would cross in the final of the Wimbledon Grand Slam, causing a collision that some still call the best match in history. Björn Borg arrived at the event looking for his fifth title on the London turf at the age of 24 and defending the top position in the ATP rankings, and John McEnroe was emerging as a promising contender to topple the king at just 20 years. The match lasted 5 memorable sets during which both players showed enormous concentration and confidence. “Björn and John both had a special ability to go to the limit and exceed it,” explains Janus Metz, who adapted the intra-story of this match for the big screen. “I think that characterizes the greatest champions, those who achieve their goals. And even though the world saw them as complete opposites, they had this thing in common; in factthey both recognized it in each other. Both players played tennis like their lives depended on it.“.
Borg/McEnroewhich opens in Spain this Friday, is a story about the price of success. At that time, tennis was a highly industrialized industry which found a huge source in the rivalry between these two tennis players. While Borg was nicknamed “Ice Borg”, McEnroe became known as “Superbrat”. “In my opinion Borg/McEnroe It’s the tennis version of wild bull” explains Metz. “In reality, it’s about two young people who fight to be the best, to prove something to themselves, to be important, because they want to be something or someone.
Caught in a legendary rivalry, one of the greatest in sports history, they were ultimately playing against their own demons. Both men worked as if their lives depended on their ability to hit the ball with enough force that the opponent couldn’t reach it. As the story unfolds, with Sverrir Gudnason as Borg and Shia Lebeouf as McEnroe, we see how these two lonely people only seemed to find understanding in their rival. “Tennis players were rock stars at that time and they were the two biggest icons,” explains the director. “I was just a kid in 1980, but I remember that era of tennis very well. At home, we waited for the 1980 Wimbledon final as if it were the sermon at midnight mass in St. Paul’s Cathedral. I remember a guy with a funny hairstyle crying on one side of the net and another guy on the other side letting loose his furious temper. “Now I think the heart of the problem was the way they behaved with each other.”
The film focuses more on the figure of Borg, who few people knew at the time was near the end: discouraged, exhausted and consumed by anxiety. Exploring this inner confusion, the film presents a form of visceral photography, with lots of hand-held and still camera work. “The goal was to accentuate the feeling of immediacy and realism,” explains Metz. “And then this is juxtaposed with iconic elements – which provide stability – and the creation of rich and sometimes even symbolic atmospheric images, which lead to the theme and its historical significance. The film addresses a clash of titans and this imposes a scale. We place the spectator’s point of view in the shoes of Björn and John, but we also manage to escape from this saturated and sometimes claustrophobic space, through large-scale images that accentuate the magnificence of the match and the existential dimension of the match. history.”
