The Swedish Björn Borg and the American John McEnroe, the best tennis players in the world, maintain a legendary duel during the 1980 Wimbledon tournament.
Sverrir Gudnason
Björn Borg
Shia LaBeouf
John McEnroe
Stellan Skarsgård
Lennart Bergelin
Tuva Novotny
Mariana Simionescu
Leo Borg
Younger Björn Borg
Marcus Mossberg
Young Björn Borg
Jackson Gann
Young John McEnroe
Scott Arthur
Peter Fleming
Ian Blackman
John McEnroe Senior
Robert Emms
Vitas Gerulaitis
David Bamber
UK Commentator George Barnes
Jane Perry
Kay McEnroe
Roy McCrerey
Björn Borg's Agent #2
Björn Granath
Bengt Grive
Tom Datnow
Jimmy Connors
Colin Stinton
Talk Show Host
Janis Ahern
Psychologist
Bob Boudreaux
Mr. Henderson
Wille Glyt
National Teamplayer #2
Anders Berg
Södertälje Tennis Coach
Iva Šindelková
Borg's fan (uncredited)
Zuzana Geislerová
Jamie Marshall
British Commentator
Ben Bradshaw
Umpire Wimbledon Final
Mats Blomgren
Rune Borg
Julia Marko-Nord
Margareta Borg
Demetri Goritsas
Björn Borg's agent #1
Jason Forbes
Arthur Ashe
Claes Ljungmark
Mats Hasselqvist
Dag Malmberg
chairman Södertälje
James Sobol Kelly
Phil, John's agent
Thomas Hedengran
Lennart Hyland
Jean Claude Okou
Tabac owner
Felix Engström
tennis coach Stockholm
Annika Ryberg Whittembury
Argentine tv reporter
Inger Järpedal
Mrs. Henderson
David Bowles
french commentator
Richard Drazny
american commentator Butch Waltz
Philipp Schenker
french commentator
Federico Cafaro
Argentinian TV translator
Vincent Eriksson
Brian Gottfried
Val Jobara
Ilie Nastase
Mohamed Shabib
Ismail El Shafei
Igor Tubic
Rod Frawley
Dan Anders Carrigan
Ove Bengtsson
Christopher Fänge
Kjell Johansson
John Runestam
Tenny Svensson
Director
Janus Metz
Screenplay
Ronnie Sandahl
March 28, 2020
7
You can't be serious!
Borg vs McEnroe is directed by Janus Metz and written by Ronnie Sandahl. It stars Sverrir Gudnason, Shia LaBeouf, Stellan Skarsgård and Tuva Novotny.
The Swedish Björn Borg (Gudnason) and the American John McEnroe (LaBeouf), the best tennis players in the world, maintain a legendary duel during the 1980 Wimbledon tournament.
Cut to the chase, this is one for tennis fans to gorge upon, but even then it's a bit too lop sided to fully delight. Being a Swedish production it's heavily loaded towards the personal worries that were plaguing Borg in the very early 1980s. Sadly this renders McEnroe - one of the games greatest and most colourful characters - as being a support player in what set out to be a biographical pic about sports rivalry.
However, what does come across is that both men were driven and actually both were tits for varying reasons. There's unsurprisingly some parental pressures, while Borg feels the strain of breaking records (as his wife chain smokes) and McEnroe strives to get on the ladder to greatness. Sure the tennis sequences don't hold up to scrutiny but both Gudnason and LaBeouf (excellent and excellently cast) come out of the physicalities very well.
Ultimately it's a character study that doesn't delve too deeply for equal parties, but come the 1980 Wimbledon final, with one of the greatest 4th sets ever played, you should be hard pressed not to rejoice. Not only in the sport of tennis played to the max, but in how two supposed rivals actually became the best of friends. 7/10