BORG/McENROE

Film Info

Sweden 2018 | 107 min. Director: Janus Metz

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BORG/McENROE

Synopsis

The story of one of the world’s greatest icons, Björn Borg, and his biggest rival, the young and talented John McEnroe and their legendary duel during the 1980s Wimbledon tournament. It's a story of two men that became legends and the price they had to pay.

Wimbledon, 1980. The rainiest summer in decades. The world is waiting to see the number one tennis player in the world, Björn Borg, claim his fifth Wimbledon title. But few know of the drama behind the scenes: at only 24, Borg is close to the end - run-down, worn out and ridden with anxiety. Meanwhile, the challenger John McEnroe, 20, has decided to replace his former hero on the Wimbledon throne.

BORG/MCENROE is a story about the price of success. How the world’s two best tennis players, already in their early twenties, are imprisoned by their own careers. Two athletes constantly reduced to each other’s opposites by a commercialised tennis industry: the cartoonish ”lce Borg” and ”Superbrat”. Two rivals who, during Wimbledon 1980, are forced to realise that the only person capable of understanding what they are going through is their worst enemy.

Cast & Crew

Director

Janus Metz
Producer

Fredrik Wikström Nicastro, Jon Nohrstedt
Screenwriter

Ronnie Sandahl
Director of photography

Niels Thastum
Main Cast

Sverrir Gudnason (Björn Borg), Shia LaBeouf (John McEnroe), Stellan Skarsgård (Lennart Bergelin), Tuva Novotny (Mariana Simionescu), Leo Borg (Björn Borg age 12), Marcus Mossberg (Björn Borg age 15)
Editor (Cut)

Per Sandholt, Per K. Kirkegaard
Sound Design

Rasmus Winther Jensen, Heikki Kossi
Original Score

Jonas Struck, Vladislav Delay, Jon Ekstrand, Carl-Johan Sevedag
Production Design

Lina Nordqvist
Specialeffects Supervisor

Torbjörn Olsson, Alexander Hansson
Costume Design

Kicki Ilander
Makeup

Anna Carin Lock

Director's comment

To me, BORG/MCENROE is the tennis version of RAGING BULL. It is about two young men fighting to be the best in order to prove themselves, in order to have importance, to be someone or somebody. Locked in a rivalry against each other – one of the greatest in the history of sports – they are ultimately playing against themselves and their own demons.

Björn and John both had the special ability to drive themselves to the edge and beyond. I think this characterises most great achievers. And although the world saw them as perfect opposites they had this one particular thing in common – and they recognised that in each other. They both played tennis as if their lives depended on it and as the story unfolds we see how these two loners ultimately find understanding and friendship in each other.

Exploring the inner turmoil of both Björn and John, the film deploys visceral cinematography with lots of handheld and steady-cam stressing a sense of immediate presence and realism. And then, this is juxtaposed with iconic establishers creating rich atmospheric and sometimes even symbolic imagery, driving at theme and historical importance. The film is about a clash of titans and that calls for scale. We place the viewer in Björn and John’s shoes, but we also step back from this saturated and sometimes claustrophobic space into largescale images that stress the grandness of the match and the existential dimension of the story.

As a biopic inspired by the real events of Björn and John’s lives and particularly their legendary 1980 Wimbledon final, BORG/MCENROE re-invokes an era in sports where tennis players were “rock stars” and where John and Björn stood out probably as the two biggest icons. Although I was only a kid in 1980 myself, I remember this era in tennis very clearly. In my family we were all waiting for the 1980 Wimbledon final as if it were a holy sermon at St. Paul’s Cathedral on Christmas Eve. I probably only saw a guy with a funny hairdo moaning and groaning on one side of the net and another guy throwing crazy temper tantrums on the other, but there was still an air of sanctity about it that I remember to this day. Now I see that it was all about the way these two players were being pitted against each other. This was not just two men playing tennis. This was two continents clashing. Two completely opposite attitudes and tempers facing off against each other. Two completely different ways of being human.

Biography

With ARMADILLO (2010) director Janus Metz (born 1974) stepped firmly into the international limelight winning the Grand Prix of the acclaimed critics programme, Semaine de la Critique at the Cannes Film Festival. His Danish breakthrough came in 2008 with the two films, LOVE ON DELIVERY and TICKET TO PARADISE. Metz’ body of work also include shorts, commercials, art films and music videos. In January 2015 Metz directed episode #203" Man is the Cruelest Animal" of the critically acclaimed HBO series TRUE DETECTIVE starring Vince Vaughn, Colin Farrel and Rachel McAdams.

Filmography:
2018 - HEARTBOUND: A DIFFERENT KIND OF LOVE STORY, doc.
2017 - BORG/MCENROE
2015 - TRUE DETECTIVE, tv series, episode MAYBE TOMORROW
2014 - THE SHORT LIFE, short
2011 – RUPTURE, short
2010 – ARMADILLO, doc.
2007 - FRA THAILAND TIL THY, doc.
2006 - TOWNSHIP BOYS, short