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Tyson

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by Zoë Morgan Chiswick
As one of the most notorious boxers in history, Mike Tyson has been judged both for his genius and for his madness in the ring. Nimbly shifting from interview scenes with Tyson, to footage from his fights, to spilt screen close-ups, a hypnotic interviewing process carries us through one man’s life story. Director James Toback’s non-apologetic insight gives us Mike Tyson, an irreverently witty and ferocious talent, who can’t believe he’s made it to forty and whose dreams have altered from winning heavyweight titles to having a grandchild and being a decent human being.

Beginning with footage of Tyson winning the Worldwide Heavyweight Championship, Toback proceeds to piece together Tyson’s life chronologically. With shots so close you can almost smell his breath, the boxer talks about being overweight and bullied as a child. Despite growing up in a crime infested neighbourhood, Tyson has never had a physical fight until a bully pops his pet pigeon’s neck and wounded madness wins him the fight. Respect feels good but taken for a criminal he is sent to a detention centre. It is here where he starts to box and his raw talent is soon passed onto a man who will become Tyson’s mentor, trainer, father figure and friend – “no one really knows Mike Tyson, no one except Cus D’Amato”. Cus, as Tyson fondly refers to the old man, cultivates a faith in the boy which feeds his success. His first appearance in the junior Olympics wins him a record-breaking knockout in just eight seconds and Tyson’s ferocity begins to find its expression. In 1985 his trusted trainer and mentor dies and Tyson takes the knock hard. Unwaveringly the camera stares into the boxer’s partially tattooed face as he struggles to finish his sentences but Toback leaves him to fend for himself as he fights to speak, creating the feel of a personal conversation with the boxing legend.

Using his former trainer’s mantra, the hero uses his fear by projecting it onto his opponents; they “lost the fight before they got hit”. Becoming Heavyweight Champion is an incredible honour and Tyson fondly remembers how he wore the belt for at least three weeks “even to the score”. But honour soon turns to arrogance as Tyson loses his determination to the temptations of sex and drugs and all he can do is look back reflectively. After his failed marriage to Robin Givens in 1988 Tyson lets himself go and suffers the first fatal blow of his career as Buster Douglas whips the championship title from under his feet.

Tyson spirals out of control, is convicted of rape and imprisoned, losing everything he worked so hard for. Unblinkingly, Toback focuses on Tyson throughout and true to the boxer’s recollection we watch his reputation come crashing down on his career. The incident for which Mike Tyson is most renowned - and most hated - for is slipped into the running order as just another fight: his re-match with Holyfield in ‘97. During the fight, Tyson blacks out as Holyfield head butts him. The event is presented just like the rest of the documentary: we see the fight, we feel the unfairness, we burn with anger; Tyson is ‘totally insane at that moment’. No judgement is passed, no headliners shown, no gossip heard; his disappointment is surprisingly not at having bitten Holyfield but at losing his discipline in the ring. The aftermath rings like a day which should have been important but was not: he went home, got high and went to sleep.

Knowing he cannot make up for the past, the former heavyweight champion and boxing phenomenon reflects, “the past is history, what I’m gonna do in the future’s a mystery”. And the mystery of the man who was “old too soon and smart too late” is revealed only to the extent that he is a man afraid of everything, scared of nothing.

The documentary is captivating, not altogether escaping the occasional trite beach sequence but achieving its purpose in setting the boxer at ease and allowing him to tell his fascinating life story. Tyson takes the blows in life as he took them in the ring, just another fight, just another win or another loss. In this unique documentary, Toback gives us an exclusive view right into Tyson’s head, where no enemy, no court of law, no judging eye can penetrate, only the most critical, only his own.
Dir. James Toback
US 2008, 90 mins

Tyson was shown at the 2008 Times bfi London Film Festival

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Read Zoe Morgan Chiswick's interview with director James Toback in DFGDocs/Articles

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