Billie Jean (Helen Slater) is often harassed by people in her hometown for her looks. In many ways this made it more subversive, more like an underground manifesto. As Billie Jean, she's got the clear eyes of a dreamer and the toughness of a winner. You know that FBI organization that subverted burgeoning political organizations so that they could contain them. Jay Boyar of the Orlando Sentinel stated that the film "has quite a lot going for it" and "doesn't get many points for finesse, but it has energy, good performances and more wit than you'd expect." According to Sports Illustrated, for their entrances, King was carried into the Astrodome by shirtless men Cleopatra-style on a gold litter while Riggs was pulled out in a rickshaw by attractive female models.

", After the release of the movie The Battle of the Sexes – based on her famous match against Bobby Riggs — in an interview with NBC News, Billie Jean King had a message for the young people of today: "It's your turn to lead and to step up.

She beat him handily, with scores of 6-4, 6-3, and 6-3. When Billie Jean returns home, she finds Binx beaten, and his scooter severely damaged. King had to endure quite a lot of gender-based discrimination early in her tennis career. In short, Helen Slater's career seemed to be going backwards. The plot for The Legend of Billie Jean was so simple, that probably worked against it. She attended California State University, Los Angeles, where she met her husband, tennis player Larry King. I loved the word freedom — I always have, even as a child. The movie's theme song "Invincible" by Pat Benatar peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1985, while Billy Idol's reissue of his single "Rebel Yell" climbed up to number six on the UK Singles Chart in October 1985. Billie Jean runs to catch the ambulance taking Binx away but doesn't make it. Bobby Riggs had suffered a particularly embarrassing defeat to Billie Jean King during the Battle of the Sexes after all his bluster. Riggs then handed King a Sugar Daddy caramel "sucker" (his sponsor), while King, in turn, presented Riggs with a live pig. Currently, the budget for this film is unclear but it did come out under the Sony Tristar Banner. We're still fighting the same fights.

King spoke out against former tennis pro Jack Kramer, who was running the tournament, and demanded that the prize money be the same for the women.

It makes one wonder if Tristar didn't act as their own private COINTELPRO? Mr. Pyatt tells him the gun is unloaded, but Binx fires it, wounding Mr. Pyatt in the shoulder. But his tennis prowess wasn't all Bobby Riggs was known for. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, at the age of 18, he was ranked number four in the US, and by the age of 21 — in 1939 — he was the number-one tennis player in the world.

No, sorry... its a re-telling of The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas an 1811 novel... that was based on a 16th century story based …

Instead, her rival Margaret Court accepted Riggs' challenge. According to Time, during the 1970 Pacific Southwest Tennis Tournament, it was discovered that the women were being offered only 15 percent of the prize money that was offered to the men — despite the fact that the women's final was selling just as many tickets as the men's. This says nothing of the soundtrack which featured the youth anthem "Invincible (Theme from The Legend of Billie Jean) by Pat Benatar, the Divinyls, Billy Idol, and Wendy O. Williams among others. The two would meet again many years later after the young boy had grown up to be the president of the United States. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Movieweb. Later, she became one of the first openly gay athletes and has been an avid supporter of the LGBTQ community.

To be fair, Fletch had already been gracing theaters for about two months at that point. Quite simply, The Legend of Billie Jean used Supergirl (Helen Slater) to subvert the Supergirl persona. Fried Green Tomatoes TV Show Is Happening at NBC with Reba McEntire, PAW Patrol: The Movie Cast Announced with Kim Kardashian & Tyler Perry, Spider-Man 3 Tobey Maguire & Andrew Garfield Casting Rumors Are Fake News.

Meanwhile, Binx has found a gun, and when Billie Jean flees from the back of the store, clearly distressed, he turns it on Mr. Pyatt. She would go to the local high school to practice, and Obama — a great fan of hers — would watch her.


King recalled her recruitment to the team in a 2019 interview with CBS Philly: "I've been coming here [to Philadephia] since I was 15, I love it. There were notably hardly any people of color involved in the sport. However, Billie Jean had to work two jobs to pay for her college education — despite the incredible acclaim she achieved at Wimbledon, there were no tennis scholarships available for women. However, the law Barnett invoked did not protect the assets of two women in a relationship, and she lost her suit. In addition to the red hot Helen Slater, it had new actors like Christian Slater, Keith Gordon, and the up and coming Yeardley Smith. Riggs had an eight-year battle with prostate cancer and died in 1995 at the age of 77. All rights reserved. Mr. Pyatt gets to his feet as the overturned torch begins to set his merchandise stands on fire, The onlookers (including Hubie), seeing how Billie Jean was exploited and their indirect involvement in it, throw all the Billie Jean merchandise into the rapidly growing fire and leave in disgust. So, they simply withdrew their support and perhaps hoped to hit pay-dirt with the film's soundtrack?
A remastered NTSC DVD including commentary by Helen Slater and Yeardley Smith was released on November 1, 2011, via their manufactured on demand service. Look at her roles in Ruthless People, The Secret of My Success and TV's much lauded Mad Men. However, she struggled mightily with her sexuality. However, she soon got a taste of the inequalities that women faced in sports.

Binx, after complaining about the cold, admires a red snowmobile. They perfectly underscored the idea of a female warrior coming into her own. Right after the match ended, as reported by Time, Riggs himself went to congratulate King, saying, "I really underestimated you.". Between the excessive media hype and Bobby Riggs in full force, the Battle of the Sexes match was a theatrical, almost cartoonish event. Why else would Slater release a remastered version of this film with a commentary track?

It's almost like the writers of The Legend of Billie Jean, Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner, who would also produce this film with, among others, Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious) and Peter Guber (Batman), crafted this tale knowing that it's ultimate fate would be a succes d'estime.

The Legend of Billie Jean featured (gasp!)

Known as the official theme song, it was shuffled off to Benatar's 1985 studio album Seven the Hard Way, with the song getting nominated for a Grammy and hitting #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September of 1985. They just knew that this film would be completely overlooked upon its release in 1985.

King said forget it.

I want you to see this article as a call to arms. Her representatives urged her not to acknowledge the reports, but King felt she needed to be honest. He said, 'You wouldn't have hit with me anyway, would you?' Mr. Pyatt issues a bounty for her apprehension, and Billie Jean realizes the best plan is to turn herself in. He and King spoke just days before his death, and Larry Riggs revealed to Inside Edition the last words the two said to each other: "She said, 'Bobby, I want you to know I love you a lot.' This is the crazy real-life story of Billie Jean King. King then decided that she had an obligation to stand up for women everywhere and accepted a match with Riggs. Billie Jean confronts Mr. Pyatt and gets him to admit the actions that led to him being shot. The truly brutal scenes in these films were almost comical. It would take decades for her to be able to speak openly about being gay. However, Riggs ended up crushing Court in what became known as "The Mother's Day Massacre." Since then, she has gone on to win 39 Grand Slam titles. As reported by ESPN, on the opening night of the US Open in 2006, King's name was given to the National Tennis Center in New York City — it was renamed as the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. She also won titles in mixed doubles in 1967, 1971, and 1973–1974. It wasn't just about female empowerment. Billie Jean is not a superhero in the spandex, cape, superpowers sense. This was also the year that Title IX was passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972 declaring that, "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. Remembering ‘Legend of Billie Jean’: The First Great Female Superhero Movie. And it is very much about female empowerment. Billie Jean King was married to tennis player Larry King for 22 years. Also, regarding the the film's star, Helen Slater, this film, at that point in her career may have made the proceedings downright confusing. On September 20, 1973, the highly publicized "Battle of the Sexes" match was scheduled to take place at the Houston Astrodome: Bobby Riggs vs. Billie Jean King.

(He would later become a Major League pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, Houston Astros, and Toronto Blue Jays.) As noted by PBS, she won her first Wimbledon doubles title at the age of 17 with her partner, Karen Hantz, making them the youngest team to win. He said, 'Billie, I love you, too, and we did something big together,' and she said, 'Bobby, we did.'". In 2009, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released in Europe a Spanish-titled DVD La Leyenda de Billie Jean, with 4:3 open matte image, but without any bonus material. She started out fighting for gender equality in sports and respect for women athletes — now she fights for equality for all. Bobby Riggs was well-known as an international tennis champion and a tennis protégé in his younger days. Arriving from Tri Star Pictures, The Legend of Billie Jean came out in nearly 1000 theaters. While initially appearing helpful and understanding, Mr. Pyatt propositions Billie Jean and then attempts to rape her. Maybe their release was only cursory in nature?

And the movie The Legend of Billie Jean serves as the perfect template for what has come since in the realm of female superhero movies, none-of-them, dare we even say Wonder Woman, quite able to live up to the excitement and adventure on display here in all its raw, 80s form. "[3] Janet Maslin of The New York Times said that the film is "competently made, sometimes attractively acted (particularly by Peter Coyote)... and bankrupt beyond belief. Billie Jean wants only the cash to fix her brother's scooter and an apology from Mr. Pyatt. He was also recognized as a bombastic prankster with a massive ego who made a fortune gambling on his own tennis matches. This made the violence safe. For Quadrophenia it was Mods and for The Legend of Billie Jean it was Rustbelt/river culture. It's hard to imagine that even the film makers, let alone audiences, can believe in a sweet, selfless heroine who just can't help becoming a superstar.