Borg vs McEnroe

2017 Directed by Janus Metz Pedersen

Some stars shine forever

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 Shia LaBeouf Stellan Skarsgård Tuva Novotny Leo Borg Marcus Mossberg Jackson Gann Scott Arthur Ian Blackman Robert Emms David Bamber Jane Perry Roy McCrerey Björn Granath Tom Datnow Colin Stinton Janis Ahern Bob Boudreaux Wille Glyt Anders Berg Iva Šindelková

Alternative Titles

博格对决麦肯罗, Borg/McEnroe, Борг срещу Макенроу, Borg McEnroe, Borg

history drama

108 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by davidehrlich ★★½ 3

Shia LaBeouf is hardly a dead ringer for a young John McEnroe — he looks more like one of Royal Tenenbaum’s grandchildren than anything else — but it’s hard to imagine anyone more perfect for the part. As a rising superstar in the early ’80s, the hotheaded McEnroe was as famous for his mid-match tantrums as he was for his tennis. He was one of the most gifted natural talents the game had ever seen, but he would erupt at a moment’s notice, self-destructing on some of the world’s biggest stages.
The parallels between McEnroe and the volatile young actor who plays him in “Borg/McEnroe” are obvious enough to make themselves, but the saving grace of Janus Metz’s relentlessly self-serious…
Review by Allison M. 🌱 ★★★ 2

The real lesson to learn here is that Björn Borg threw fits when he was a kid too and his parents made him be an overachiever. If you want to see Borg and McEnroe throw tantrums (especially Shia LaBeouf as John McEnroe), then indulge yourself. It's not the greatest film ever, but it is entertaining enough.
Review by Ian Floodgate ★

The start of the Open Era of tennis helped the sport spread globally and has produced some of the most competitive sporting rivalries of all time, Bjorn Borg’s (Sverrir Gudnason) encounters with John McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf) being regarded as one of the fiercest.
Borg McEnroe briefly begins with an introduction into the infamous match between the two players that took place in the 1980 Wimbledon Final. Throughout the 1970s, Borg had established himself as the best tennis player in the world and in 1980 he was chasing a record fifth consecutive Wimbledon title. After the short preface, the audience is told the story of each player’s respective journey to the final with interwoven flashbacks into their childhood, revealing how the…
Review by The Armando Jimenez ★★★★½ 2

To experience, to witness, to be left breathless by the tension of THE GREATEST Tennis film in existence, is perfection, a life achievement. Tennis movies are done after this, not even worth replicating. None will ever dethrone this. Perfect: direction, vision, cinematography, musical score, acting by both stars.
Review by Amy Andrews ★★★ 5

Shit son I’m gay and even I got distracted by Sverrir Gudnason’s beauty.
ohthatfilmblog.com/2017/09/26/borg-vs-mcenroe-2017/
Review by Jak-Luke Sharp ★★★★

Artificial-Eye. Cinema
2.35:1
Color
Codex
15

I’ve always been a great admirer of tennis as a sport and the athletes who participate. Going into this with very little context and the previous entries about said sport in film filled me with great optimism. Focusing on one key event, cutting back and forth into the lives of both titular’s contrasting upbringings gives great insight into the world these men fought in. The adrenaline and intensity is felt throughout with both actors performances, in-particularly LaBeouf who embodies McEnroe with what seems like ease and puts forth an outstanding and emotional character.
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Review by Steve Robinson ★★★½

I was drawn to this movie for sometime but never got around to it. It had fairly good reviews but I knew it wouldn't do anything because the public can't seem to accept LaBeouf at the moment, which is a shame.
This is a good sports drama. Carefully crafted to show us nor only more of these two great tennis giants but to show us some of their internal battles, especially in Borg. This is a film that is more about the mind than about sport and the director does more in silence and long looks than any script could do. This is an incredibly visual emotional film and worth a watch.
All the cast do well and Labour shows us why we shouldn't give up on him. A delicate, deep and moving sports drama. Give it a go.
Review by Hollie Horror ★★★½

Borg vs McEnroe is quite enthralling for a movie about a sport I don't understand, sure it hit all the predictable sports movie beats but I ain't gonna complain 'cause Shia LaBeouf is hot and the role of John McEnroe was tailor made to suit his reputation, also don't ever make me try to say his name with my American-English shit-ass pronunciation of Scandinavian names, but Sverrir Gudnason was also a very nice-looking man & good actor, hva skjer SveRRiR 😉
Review by David Sims ★★½ 1

Utterly rote. Shia LaBeouf is so good, and then 30 minutes in I realized the movie kind of wanted me to be rooting for Borg rather than the scrappy underdog. That's a much harder trick to pull off, one this terrible script can't come close to doing.
Review by K. Austin Collins

The consensus seems to be that Shia is the performance to see, here, but it's a meme of a performance—as with Joaquin Phoenix in You Were Never Really Here, it's the casting we praise, because it so aptly picks up on the most thrilling nook of the actor's persona and lobs it at the discerning viewer with about as much finesse as a Devo needle drop in a piece of nostalgia porn. It feels good being "right" about Shia, who's such a perfect choice for McEnroe that the performance itself needn't amount to much. He can do better.
Sverrir Gudnason is quite good, though, as a man who sums up the broader psychological tensions of both men. He's one step…
Review by Gabriel Gundacker 3

Shia LaBeouf is to John McEnroe as Tom Hanks is to Mr Rogers.
Review by Connor Carey ★★★½ 1

A really solid sports film. It's pretty standard and formulaic, but this is still a really entertaining and well made film with really strong performances including possibly Shia Labeauf's best performance yet. I'm a big tennis fan so maybe that's why I liked this as much as I did.

Recent reviews

Review by Gill ★★★★

'Borg vs McEnroe' is one of those films that is entirely formulaic and still happens to be enjoyable to watch. The rules and scoring of tennis are never mentioned in this film, so some viewers might have trouble following along (with one notable tense sequence that is explained). As a tennis fan growing up, I had absolutely no problem following along, but non-tennis fans might be confused on how a game is scored. The film does point out key critical moments during the game though. Mileage may vary.
Once the titular match begins, boy does it deliver. The film uses every filmmaking technique to make the match as exciting as possible.
LaBeouf's McEnroe is the performance to see here, yet…
Review by artofromanzo ★★★

Shia as McEnroe is just common sense casting. I wish that a movie with versus in the title didn’t take such an obvious approach to competing (ahem, ahem) narratives. This being a Swedish film, it does feel like a forgone conclusion that Borg would be the hero—that is, that the story would favor the gentleman over the rebel. Tragically, the stoic Swede will never make as compelling a lead as the American brat, or so says this exceptionally American viewer. I don't think this film means to deliberately misunderstand McEnroe, but it gets nowhere close to apprehending the method to the madness explored in the documentary, In the Realm of Perfection. Almost 30 years on, it's more a bad call by the director than it is McEnroe's fault (yuk yuk).
Review by agr5184 ★★★★

An enjoyable film as a major tennis fan. You might not be captivated if you aren’t a major tennis head though. The performances are great though. A well made film.
Review by Maximilian Ehling ★★★½

Ziemlich cool dargestellt.
Ich habe / spiele hin und wieder selbst Tennis, aber von diesem Duell habe ich bisher noch nie etwas gehört.
Wenn du spielen kannst, ist Tennis eine reine Kopfsache.
Sofern du mit deinem Gegner auf einem Level bist kannst du eigentlich nur gegen dich selbst verlieren.
Meiner Meinung nach sollte man sich hin und wieder auch ein bisschen aufregen und fluchen.
Ich glaube eine Kombination aus beiden Spielern wäre der ultimative Tennisspieler.
Review by AlecGuinnessFan ★★★★½

Pretty much delivers what it says on the tin. Highly entertaining if you are a fan of either player or of sports generally. The friendship and respect that the players have for each other is remarkable.
Review by tnrverdi ★★★★½

kendim de tenis oynadığım için oldukça heyecanla başlamıştım - ki sonunda tenise daha da kapıldım
spor üzerine olan filmler genelde sırtlarını maçlara yaslar ama bu filmde maç gösterimleri oldukça düşük hatta final maçı dışında maça dair pek bir şey yok. final maçı da özet şeklinde ama buna rağmen ne kadar gerilimli bir maç olduğunu anlaşılıyor
oyuncuların, özellikle borg'u canlandıran abimizin benzerliği filme daha çok çekilmeme sebep oldu. kullanılan akseauarlar da apayrı bir mesela... ahhh! bu filmi ne kadar sevdiğimi nasıl anlatabilirim bilmiyorum
Review by Abdullah ★★★★

İsveçli tenisçi Bjorn Borg ile Amerikalı tenisçi John McEnroe'nun rekabetini konu alan bir filmdi. Genel olarak anlatım Bjorn Borg üzerinden gerçekleşiyor. Genç yaşında ortalığı kasıp kavuran Borg'ün iç dünyasıyla karşı karşıya geliyoruz. Aslında görünenin arkasında nelerin olduğunu, bir sporcunun psikolojinin nasıl olduğu, özellikle de duygularını bastıran bir insanın psikolojisinin nasıl olduğu gösteriliyor.
Heyecanla ikilinin karşılaşmasını bekliyorsunuz, o zamana kadar biraz ağır ve kasvetli bir hava hakim. Ne zaman maç geldi, o zaman film heyecanlı hale geliyor. Tenisle arası olmayan birisi için bile o sahneler heyecanlı olmuştur. Çok iyi bir filmdi.
Review by Drscott213 ★★★

Not a tennis player but liked the story anyways
Review by Aitor Ramos ★★★

Biopic que intenta trasladar todos los traumas y meternos en la psique de cada uno de los personajes utilizando la gran final de Winbledom del 80.
No soy muy fan de este tipo de productos y se hace algo largo el final debido a que es poco cinematográfico el deporte del tenis.
Review by Lee Balius ★★★

Awesome tennis film! Shia LaBeouf steals the show!
Review by Jorge ★★½

Otra prueba más que para ser un tenista top tienes que tener muchas taras. Vamos Rafa.
Review by Ani ★★★½

9/365
Note to self: watch more films about tennis