Looking at the man now, it’s hard to remember just how feared he was. He has collapsed in on himself, becoming almost a caricature of what he once was.
Yet from the mid-’80s into the ’90s, there was no more dominant a fighter than Mike Tyson, and there has been no more spectacular a fall than that of the once unbeatable monster. That is what makes “Tyson,” available on DVD, so interesting.
Directed by James Toback — known up to this point for his fictional work — “Tyson” is the story of the man told by the man. It’s compelling to watch the retired boxer dissect the chapters of his life one by one, with a bluntness and candor that is shocking at first, endearing the further he goes into his tale.
Tyson was a street punk, running into trouble early in life while committing crimes both petty and grand. He had no noble intentions of embracing the sport of kings. He just wanted his score.
It wasn’t until he found boxing that he also found his direction in life.
His life is basically what we get here, and he doesn’t hold back on any subject. Tyson spares no detail about his short-lived and messy marriage to Robin Givens, his rape conviction, his controversial bouts with Evander Holyfield and his sad decline as a shell of the boxer he once was.
It is the contrast between the brash and cocky fighter in archival footage interspersed throughout the film and the man who opens himself up to Toback’s camera that is as jarring as anything.
Young Tyson was boiling over with anger, ready to take on anyone for any reason, doing whatever it would take to try to satisfy his monster appetite for money, fame and women. Older Tyson has learned that such brash cockiness is great to build a reputation, but reflects poorly on the man.
After watching him dismantle opponent after opponent in record fashion, he comes across as an animal on the screen. Yet watching him well up with emotion when discussing his late trainer and father figure, Cus D’Amato, Tyson seems more human than many thought him capable of being.
His pride in his children and his admission that the responsibility for his failed relationships rest squarely on his muscled shoulders adds further touches of humanity. One begins to feel almost sorry for a man who had the world at his feet yet squandered it all away.
Then, of course, there’s the other Tyson. Defiant still, he speaks out with vitriol against the woman he was convicted of raping, continuing to maintain his innocence without making much of a case for it.
I give credit to Toback for not only being able to get the enigma that is Mike Tyson to bare himself to the world, but to present his results in such a fascinating manner. The camera is used sparingly, so as not to take away from the real attraction of the film.
Since “Tyson” came and went in theaters, the subject has continued to face personal battles. His young daughter died last year, and he remarried yet again. Demons continue to rage within him.
But I can’t help but root for the man who is in real life what he rarely was in the ring: an underdog.
Address correspondence to Benji Tunnell, c/o The Joplin Globe,
P.O. Box 7, Joplin, MO 64802 or benjitunnell@gmail.com.
