Any woman who has negotiated a salary or raise in the past five years (or the past 50) might feel a shiver of recognition watching Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ buoyant period piece Battle of the Sexes. In 1973, aging tennis legend Bobby Riggs, hoping to recapture the spotlight by crowing that he could beat any female player, challenged the much younger–and, because of her gender, much less well paid–champ Billie Jean King to a match that would become legendary. King won several victories that day: she triumphed over the posturing of insecure sexist dudes everywhere and also made an over-the-net leap toward pay parity for female athletes and for working women everywhere.
'Battle of the Sexes' Serves Up a Winning Portrait of Billie Jean King
