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McEnroe

McEnroe

  • Status: Released
  • 15-07-2022
  • Runtime: 104 min
  • Score: 6
  • Vote count: 25

Legendary "bad boy of tennis" John McEnroe finally tells his side of his storied career and famously hot-tempered performances on the court in this engrossing documentary revisiting the record-setting career of one of the all-time greats.

John McEnroe

Self

Patty Smyth

Self

Kevin McEnroe

Self

Emily McEnroe

Self

Ruby Smyth Meyers-McEnroe

Self

Anna McEnroe

Self

Ava McEnroe

Self

Mark McEnroe

Self

Patrick McEnroe

Self

Billie Jean King

Self

Björn Borg

Self

Keith Richards

Self

Chrissie Hynde

Self

Phil Knight

Self

Peter Flemming

Self

James Malhane

Self

Muhammad Ali

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Arthur Ashe

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Dick Clark

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Bud Collins

Self (voice) (archive footage) (uncredited)

Jimmy Connors

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Howard Cosell

Self (voice) (archive footage) (uncredited)

Novak Djokovic

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Roger Federer

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Vitas Gerulaitis

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Mark J. Goodman

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Ivan Lendl

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

John Patrick McEnroe

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Kay McEnroe

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Meat Loaf

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Rafael Nadal

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Ilie Năstase

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Tatum O'Neal

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Pelé

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Carlos Santana

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Margaret Thatcher

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Tina Turner

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

CinemaSerf

Whilst it is quite interesting, this documentary, it is still little better than a self-indulgent reminiscence by the man himself that features virtually no contributions from those folks who suffered from his petulance and immaturity - both on the court and elsewhere. Set against a long stroll through his haunts in New York, it takes us on a chronologically ordered career retrospective focussing on his rise to global success on the tennis court; his "superbrat" behaviour and his flawed relationships with friends and family alike but it's all done very much on his own terms. His moments of revelation - long since appreciated by anyone who watched him and his tantrums as they grew up (including me) - are presented by him in an almost celebratory way. Could he have achieved what he did - which, by even the standards of the day in his sport are nothing particularly remarkable - without the attention seeking strops? Sure there was gamesmanship going on a-plenty, but he seemed to revel in the extent to which he "recreated" tennis - or that is certainly the perspective I took from this very disappointing Barney Douglas feature. It completely lacks objectivity allowing this undoubtedly talented but supremely peevish man to write his own story and though there is the slightest hint of a mea culpa at the end, it's all very much "How History Should Remember John McEnroe" - by John McEnroe himself. Worth a watch, but under-delivers.