BEFORE: John McEnroe carries over from "Citizen Ashe" to be the focal point of my next film in the JockDocBlock. My Black History Fortnight will continue after a short break for a couple of docs about white people, one who was very good at tennis, the other one with a great music career. Yep, my JockDocBlock is about to transition into a more familiar RockDocBlock. Well, OK, it won't be all rock, there's some soul and jazz and pop too.
THE PLOT: This documentary follows John McEnroe as he finally tells his side of his storied career and performances on the court.
AFTER: Some advice for any famous people who might be reading this - agree to appear in the documentary about your life while you are still alive. This way, you may get some control over the narrative - if John McEnroe had waited too long, the doc about him would have focused solely on his bad-boy behavior, the partying, the drugs, hanging out with rock stars, going out to the clubs, and then of course dropping f-bombs on TV when yelling at line judges during tournaments. He's the reason that live sports events had to switch over to an 8-second delay.
Ah, but if you are still alive and you agree to appear on camera in the doc, you can point out that your father/manager was never very affectionate to you when you were young, and you stressed out over your grades in school and that led you to seek nothing less than perfection on the court, and you got married to try to "fix" your life, and then you had kids to try to "fix" your marriage, and well, then, I guess nothing is really your fault in the end, then, is it?
It might have been better to just rely on the tennis stats here, because that way when McEnroe claims to be one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, male tennis star of all time, we'd have something to back that up, instead of just his say-so. Or am I just too cynical for my own good? Sure, he had a few good years as the 1970's turned into the 1980's, but come on, let's see some numbers. OK, an 86% winning record is better than Arthur Ashe's 76%, but Mac had 77 singles titles, which is only 6th in the Open Era. He was ranked #1 in 1980, but was that the only year? And how come he only made it to #1, was that really the BEST he could do? (JK.)
OK, there was 1984, when he had an 82-3 match record, that's the highest single-season win rate of the modern era - but aren't the 1980's really the problem, here? That was the "Me" Decade, when everybody wanted more, more, more for themselves and consumerism was at its peak and nobody gave a crap about the ozone layer or the dying sea turtles, Reagan was on the side of big oil, big business and big banks, and didn't we all pay the price for that in the decades that came later? The icecaps are still melting because of all the CFCs in the hairspray that was used in the 80's. Everyone was so self-centered, and that included the athletes - McEnroe wasn't the only "bad boy" in tennis, there was Ilie Nastase, Jimmy Connors and Vitus Gerulaitis. Jonny Mac followed in their footsteps and became the baddest of them all. People were watching tennis JUST to see if he would lose his temper and swear.
McEnroe was portrayed yesterday as the antithesis to the polite, non-radical Arthur Ashe, but he was also the foil character to Bjorn Borg, who never lost his temper, even when he played against McEnroe. But then McEnroe's extreme highs in 1984 were followed by the lows of 1985, when he couldn't seem to get past the quarterfinals at Wimbledon or the Masters, and to help relieve the pressure, he took six months off AND got married. Yeah, that'll fix it - hey, maybe it did for a while because he won 3 tournaments in 1986, but then none in 1987. Tying your personal life so closely to your game probably isn't the best idea in the long run, I guess.
After retiring in 1992, McEnroe pursued a different goal, becoming a musician - but just playing guitar and having famous friends doesn't make you a rock star. Notice that he didn't stick with the band, and found a whole new career as a tennis commentator. And in making fun of himself, he's been in numerous TV shows and commercials where he plays fictionalized versions of himself, or pretends to lose his temper, or utter his catch-phrase "You can NOT be serious!" And based on what's seen in this documentary, he apparently spends a great deal of time walking around NYC at night, comtemplating his career and the many mistakes he's made. Hey, if that wasn't accurate, they couldn't put it in the documentary, right?
Also starring Bjorn Borg, Peter Fleming, Chrissie Hynde (last seen in "New Wave: Dare to Be Different"), Billie Jean King (also carrying over from "Citizen Ashe"), Phil Knight, James Malhane, Patrick McEnroe (last seen in "Venus and Serena"), Keith Richards (last seen in "Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain"), Patty Smyth.
with archive footage of Muhammad Ali (also carrying over from "Citizen Ashe"), Arthur Ashe (ditto), Jimmy Connors (ditto), Dick Clark (last seen in "Mr. Saturday Night"), Meat Loaf (ditto), Tina Turner (ditto), Mark J. Goodman (last seen in "Under the Volcano"), Vitus Gerulaitis, Ivan Lendl, John Patrick McEnroe Sr., Ilie Nastase, Tatum O'Neal (last seen in "The Kid Stays in the Picture"), Carlos Santana (last seen in "Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation"), Margaret Thatcher, and the voice of Howard Cosell (yep, also carrying over from "Citizen Ashe").
RATING: 5 out of 10 broken rackets
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