THE STORY – World champion tennis trailblazer Billie Jean King has had a game-changing impact on culture and sports. Rare archive and candid interviews with Billie Jean and those closest to her reveal how one woman put changing the world ahead of saving herself.
THE CAST – Billie Jean King
THE TEAM – Liz Garbus & Elizabeth Wolff (Directors)
THE RUNNING TIME – 101 Minutes
One of the key errors a documentary can make is failing to align with its subject during the filmmaking process. Not so with “Give Me the Ball!,” the new non-fiction portrait of tennis superstar and pioneer of women’s rights Billie Jean King. Like the legend herself, the film is energetic and propulsive, thanks in large part to King’s overwhelming presence. Smartly, directors Liz Garbus and Elizabeth Wolff let King tell the story in her own words, centering the film around interviews with the athlete. Actually, “interview” isn’t exactly the correct description. King’s unfiltered, uninterrupted speeches more closely resemble a monologue, only interrupted by archival footage and occasional contemporary observations from fellow women’s tennis players. While the manner in which her story unspools is pretty standard for films of its type, it’s impossible to deny that King makes for an exciting subject, bringing enthusiasm and passion to the movie.
As many sports bio-docs do, “Give Me the Ball!” starts at the very beginning with King’s childhood. She makes it clear that from a young age, she was already breaking down barriers for women in sports. Whether being chided for playing football with her brothers or learning that an official photo of her was deemed unacceptable because she wore shorts instead of a skirt, King was exposed early to the imbalanced expectations and double standards placed on female athletes. And in every one of these many situations, she pushed back against unfairness with a simple “why?” or “why not?” This attitude carried through into her adulthood, when she became not only the world’s most famous tennis player at the height of her career, but also an essential figure in the fight for respect for women’s sports.
The film details the many areas of gender inequality in men’s and women’s tennis, highlighting each fight King took on and usually conquered. One of the more amusing, clever triumphs in King’s career-long battle was the way she obtained a skeptical manager for herself and a handful of other women tennis players by agreeing to sign a contract for one single dollar. It’s one of many moments the film highlights, showing that King’s ability on the court was matched by her ingenuity off it. Garbus and Wolff don’t hold back in showing the audience exactly what King and her fellow female athletes were up against. They show plenty of footage of their male detractors, with some truly shocking quotes and reactions showing the kind of vicious misogyny that was not only typical but societally supported at the time.
Of course, the most famous chauvinist whom King encountered in her career was Bobby Riggs, the braggadocious tennis star who spent his retirement years trash-talking not only King and her colleagues, but the very concept of women’s sports (not to mention the entire gender itself). 26 years her senior, he faced off against King in 1973 in the famous Battle of the Sexes, a historic moment for women’s sports and second-wave feminism. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the segment on this tennis match represents the longest singular chapter in the documentary, and the film is all the better for it. The footage of the match, coupled with King’s contemporary commentary, is priceless. She points out specific moments and highlights them, and she recounts exactly what she was thinking. It feels like watching the match directly beside her. It’s truly as rousing and exciting as it must’ve felt to actually watch the showdown live, especially the victorious match point wherein King bested Riggs.
That triumphant instance is punctuated by a spectacular editing feat that easily represents the directorial highlight of the documentary. It’s a standout moment, especially because the rest of the film is crafted in a fairly standard manner, both in its linear, Wikipedia-like narrative structure and its unshowy direction. But this allows King herself to remain the film’s total focus, and her story is exciting enough on its own and needs little embellishment. “Give Me the Ball!” earns the exclamation point in its title thanks to its subject’s enthusiasm, and just as women’s sports has King to thank for the progress made, Garbus and Wolff struck gold by getting the chance to have the animated, lively legend herself at the center of their film.
