Down goes 'Tyson'
Director James Toback calls Mike Tyson "a figure of staggering complexity." (Sony Pictures Classics)
Tyson
Running time: 90 minutes
MPAA rating: R (harsh profanity, violence, disturbing images, drugs)
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By his own admission in James Toback's documentary "Tyson," the former heavyweight champ grew up fat and fearful on the mean streets of Brooklyn, New York.
"It was kill or be killed," Tyson says.
Not many people are going to admit that doing some juvie hard time did them a world of good. But Mike Tyson will. He learned to take out his anger/frustration/fear and loathing (and probably more) in the boxing ring as a teen-age prisoner in upstate New York.
"Tyson," a heavyweight, hard-hitting documentary, features not one, but two bloodied Evander Holyfield ears (chomped on by Tyson in a particularly brutal) rematch in 1997).
Toback, an accomplished filmmaker with "When Will I Be Loved," "Two Girls and a Guy" and "Black and White" on his list of credits, tries something daring and unconventional.
This is a nonfiction roller coaster ride through fame, a gladiator-like mentality and, on all-too-regular occasions, the ride stop off in the darkness of life's house of horrors.
My first thought was that Toback was letting his subject just sit on his couch and blabber too much in that familiar high-pitched lisp that belies a body sculpted (in Tyson's prime, at least) in right angles.
Listen to what the former champ is saying, though, and the filmmaker is correct in his assessment that Tyson, despite his obvious brutal approach in the ring and out, is also a desperately lonely and complex man.
And, believe it or not, he also comes across as a deep thinker.
"I had no idea I'd live to be 40-years-old," he admits at one point. "It's a miracle."
The documentary itself, shot in 2007 long before Tyson's young daughter died in a freak treadmill incident, weighs in at something less than championship status, however.
Toback's attempt to bring Tyson's complex nature to life by using two cameras and overlapping images (and even dialogue at times) distracts more than it registers as creative inspiration.
I'll say this, though. "Tyson" pulls no punches.
Archival fight footage and Tyson's comments on what was going on in his life and in his head at the time have almost as much bite as the bloody teethmarks in Evander Holyfield's ears.
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