Tyson

Tyson

Last night in Toronto was the Canadian premiere of Tyson, the documentary from filmmaker James Toback (Harvard Man, Pick-Up Artist). The film made its debut last year at the Cannes Film Festival. It showed again to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival, so the audience was expecting big things during the showing at Hot Docs at the Isabel Bader Theatre on the University of Toronto campus.

The film is billed as a “frank look at the life of Mike Tyson” and that is spot on. Director James Toback who attended the screening last night, put a camera in front of Tyson during a recent stay at a rehabilitation facility and had him speak on boxing, girls, fame, money and life. The camera just rolls, we see 90 minutes of the over 30 hours of footage that Toback shot.

The footage is just Tyson on a couch, speaking on the different topics, or walking by the water’s edge, philosophizing on how he got to where he is now. There are no other people interviewed during the piece to add fluff about how great a fighter Tyson was and how he ruined himself. It is Tyson speaking on how great he was and how he ruined himself. He is very honest with the camera, admitting to cheating on his wife, doing drugs, not training hard for fights, among other things.

You may think that watching Tyson on a couch for 90 minutes wouldn’t be interesting, but the man is insane and admits it. His ramblings on some of his personal activities, how he values money and people and how deadly he could be if unleashed in society scarred some in the audience, but made others laugh out loud.

The documentary does have footage of Tyson in the ring, on display is his power and speed. You forget how young he was (18 years old) when he turned pro. The film they have of him working out and developing while under the watchful eye of his first trainer Cus D’Amato is great to see. They also use some of his press conference footage (Lewis-Tyson Press Conference) and interview footage of old news shows, including a great one with Barbara Walters and Robin Givens where you see a man that has been sideswiped by the media.

Mike Tyson was a simple man. He grew up with a broken home, robbed and beat people up to make cash between the ages of 10 and 13. That was his lifestyle until he found boxing. He took all the rage and anger that society had thrust upon him and used that in the ring. When society decided to give back, with money and adoration he didn’t know how to handle it. It broke him and it led to him going to prison. He tried to recover, but his mind would no longer believe that boxing was right for him.

Now, he has had the chance to look back at his life at the early age of 40, scared himself and has almost righted the ship. Tyson will be a great mentor to young people one day. Showing them that fame and money are not everything it is cracked up to be.

For the boxing and sports fan, this is a no brainer – go see Tyson. For the non-sports fan, you get a glimpse into the life of an extraordinary man who crashed and is trying to build himself up.

10 Rocky Balboa’s out of 10 Rocky Balboa’s!