DVD Review: Tyson

Film Reviews Thu, 17 Feb 2011 Written by triplew
Editor rating
 
 4.0 User rating
 
 0.0 (0)
Mike Tyson - Boxer & Ear-eater. Check out the documentary 'Tyson'

Read triplew.me' s review of the DVD Tyson - an eponymous documentary about the legendary fighter, showing him to, well, have a human heart after all...

Mike Tyson stares into the camera and says with his distinctive lisp: “My job was to hurt people. Walking through the crowd towards the boxing ring I am scared, I might look supremely confident, but I’m really scared. Once I am in that ring – I’m a God”.

It is easy to believe when you witness “Iron” Mike Tyson’s explosive shock and awe boxing prowess. He was a power-house, a dangerous animal, a man machine – a boxing brute whose destructive pump-action fists resembled that of two wrecking balls smashing through a brick wall.

American screenwriter and director James Toback has documented a revealing, pull-no-punches portrait of a boxing legend and one of sports most notorious characters. During one of several interviews, Tyson candidly admits that as a child he feared humiliation, of being bullied. He despised being the brunt of “fat jokes”, but also declares he was terrified of getting into a fight.

That was until he met old school boxing trainer Cus D’Amato; who took a troubled young Tyson under his wing, nurtured his obvious talent, built confidence, reshaped his attitude and taught him “the warrior code”. On camera Tyson struggles to discuss D’Amato without choking up, fighting back the tears and has difficulty speaking.

There is a very genuine sense of just how much Cus D’Amato meant to the teenage Tyson; and still now as a grown man.

Mike Tyson does have a heart.

As most sports fans would know, under D’Amato’s regimented training, Tyson went on to become the youngest undisputed heavy-weight champion of the world. He was just 20 years old. Some twenty years later, Mike Tyson admits to losing this warrior code and that he didn’t have the stomach for fighting any more; his boxing career had come to a sad and somewhat pathetic end. (Ed - remember the Holyfield ear biting incident?)

Toback’s documentary received a ten minute standing ovation after its showing at the Cannes Film Festival; and it’s easy to see why. Utilizing slick split screen visual edits, overlaying audio, poetic narration (From Tyson) and multiple camera angle techniques, the film almost seems to “float like a butterfly”. But, it is Tyson’s outwardly frank dissection of his own personal failings that makes this film a fascinating psychological study.

He has been labelled many things throughout his public life and his bad-ass reputation is well documented, but one feels that “The Baddest Man on the Planet” could actually accomplish a lot of genuine good.

STARRING

Mike Tyson

DIRECTED BY

James Toback (Harvard Man, When Will I Be Loved)

WATCH THE TRAILER HERE


Editor review

Raw documentary about a raw individual

Rating:
 
 4.0
Reviewed by triplew.me
February 17, 2011
 
Last updated: February 17, 2011
Love him or hate him (if you remember his latter years, you'll probably hate him), Mike Tyson is an interesting figure. A notorious sports legend, Tyson is remembered for as much as his infamy outside the ring, and then in it in his latter career. This is a great insight to a complicated man who is as much a product of his youth as anyone on earth.
 
 

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