Tyson (2008)
Tyson(USA (DOC) Directed by James Toback
Iconoclast James Toback directs this documentary, which consists of interviews with boxer “Iron” Mike Tyson mixed with news and fight footage. Toback and Tyson have a long history going back some twenty plus years. Tyson has appeared in several of Toback’s films, most notably Black and White, where, playing a version of himself, he chokes a character played by Robert Downey Jr. when he tries to hit on him.
Here, at age forty two, sporting his infamous facial tattoo (modeled after a Maori tribal piece), he discusses past victories and failures, beginning with his horrific Brownsville, New York childhood, which included being beaten up by local bullies, then becoming a bully himself; his extensive youthful criminal history (thirty eight arrests by the age of fourteen); being sentenced to a juvenile facility, where he came across boxing trainer Bobby Stewart; and then, after his release, on Stewart’s recommendation, going to live and train in The Catskills with Cus D’Amato, who became mentor, trainer, and father figure.
This is not the first attempt to document the troubled life of a man who long ago became a symbol for a kind of monstrous, raging, animalistic type, with all the racial undertones that implies. First, famed fighter, trainer, and analyst Jose Torres wrote the 1987 book Fire and Fear, detailing Tyson’s childhood experiences and explaining how he used his deep rooted fear as a motivator, turning it into unfettered rage when in the ring. The book was later made into the 1995 HBO drama Tyson: Uncaged. Veteran documentarian Barbara Kopple also featured Tyson in 1993s Fallen Champ: The Story of Mike Tyson.
While there is no major revelation here, we do get an opportunity to hear from Tyson as he attempts to explain his personal life and career from the perspective of being out of the sport with no chance of doing anything to affect his professional legacy. We hear only Tyson’s voice in the footage Toback culled from some thirty hours of interviews, and there is an advantage to this kind of narrow focus. Toback uses split screen, and some audio effects in repeating certain lines, but essentially (other than the archival media footage and fight highlights) there is one voice.
Tyson’s boxing highlights include golden glove/amateur championships. At age twenty he became the youngest heavyweight world champ in boxing history. Tyson started his career with a ferocity unlike that of any modern day fighter - he not only knocked out his opponents (many in the first round), he terrified them, and his angry domination (and punches thrown with “bad intention”) caught the interest of the entire nation. As champ, he unified the title, and had a series of successful defenses, but losing D’Amato, his teacher and friend, seemingly weighed heavily on him, and the lifestyle his new found wealth and fame afforded himself began to take precedence over his disciplined training regimen. Once he won without having worked hard to prepare he began to imagine himself untouchable.
Tyson’s shocking 1990 defeat in Japan to Buster Douglas was only the beginning of the end of his fight career. He had previously disassociated himself with everyone connected to D’Amato, a fact which some experts point to as the key to his losing his famed discipline, his shift in style, and eventual downfall. During his interviews with Toback, Tyson talks in depth about marrying and divorcing Robin Givens, as well getting sandbagged by her on national television in an interview with Barbara Walters; getting convicted of raping beauty contestant Desiree Washington and doing three years in prison as part of a ten year sentence (he still insists he’s innocent); his conversion to Islam; winning another championship belt; and then losing twice to Evander Holyfield (and biting his ear twice during the second fight).
Beset by depression, bi-polarism, drug & alcohol addiction, and wild overspending, Tyson has fathered seven children by three women; lost all or most of his three hundred million in purses; declared bankruptcy; and, at the end of his career (fighting only for money) was beaten by several journeymen. Later, Tyson even got involved with professional wrestling, thoroughly embarrassing himself and tarnishing an already shaky professional legacy. He may have been used and abused by degenerate handlers like Don King, but, by his own admission, squandered the riches and talents bestowed upon him. The same anger and ferocity that made him successful eventually ate him up. In 2006 he was again arrested for drug possession and DUI, and served a brief jail stint as part of his sentence.
Despite the malapropisms, twisted grammar, and rambling free association that marks Tyson speech, he is not without introspection, and the spot when he repeatedly attempts to talk about D’Amato is heart-wrenching. Though often dispassionate when recollecting the traumatic events in his life - his experiences as victim and victimizer, the veneer breaks down during this section as he cannot even get a full sentence out to describe the effect that D’Amato had on his life, or his feelings about the man. It speaks to the deep pain and loss at the root of the man’s anti-social and self-destructive behavior.
There are huge omissions in the story here that, along with the details of the events surrounding the rape he was charged with, include Tyson’s dealings with several of the men closest to Cus D’Amato. Head trainer Kevin Rooney, who replaced D’Amato as Tyson’s trainer, was then replaced himself by Tyson soon after becoming champ. Current boxing analyst Teddy Atlas was part of D’Amato’s crew of assistants who worked closely with Tyson when he was an amateur. When Tyson was fifteen Atlas’ eleven year old niece accused him of fondling her, and Atlas subsequently threatened Tyson’s life with a gun. Though Atlas was reportedly offered 5% of Tyson’s winning for life, he refused the deal and walked away from the camp.
The relationship between documentary maker and subject is a precarious one, and here we benefit from the comfort and trust level between these two men, which translate into an inescapably fascinating intimacy. Though this is a valid and worthwhile document about one of the most controversial athletes in history, the film may ultimately lack the skeptical eye of a director without an investment in a long term personal relationship. It cannot ultimately be ignored that the subject is a menacing individual with a horrific personal history of violence (sanctioned or otherwise) that includes a rape conviction. Even at 42, theoretically wiser and removed from much of the turmoil that has long beset his personal and professional life, Tyson’s misogyny and seething, deep rooted anger emanates from his every pore.
As a postscript, Tyson has, since the film’s completion, lost a young daughter to a tragic death. He also made a successful cameo appearance in the hit film, The Hangover. As he says at one point in the interview, he never thought he’d live to be forty years old, a statement that perhaps gives us a glimpse into the psyche of man who has lived a reckless existence, and is still clearly haunted by the demons of his past.