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The year was 1979.
Players, as the film would eventually be retitled, is notorious.
OnSneak Previews With Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, the critics called it too corny to be believed.
It has never made any noteworthy lists of great sports movies (or eveniconic tennis scenes).
The BBCs voice of tennis himself, Dan Maskell, provides commentary.
This opening and its first flashback cut establish a visual pattern the films best sequences tend to follow.
Throughout, composer Jerry Goldsmiths score buoys the action marvelously.
The movie wants its spectators to follow along.
And for all the hate its gotten, fellow filmmakers appear to have followed inPlayers footsteps.
Interviewers would boil it down to God, this film is awful, she wrote.
(They count Tarantinos review, which is now only accessible via the Wayback Machine.)
Tennis matches should mostly stay pretty quiet anyway.
