Tyson

Director James Toback gets Mike Tyson to sit down for some very honest interviews, and it’s captivating stuff. Using archive footage mixed with Tyson’s tattooed talking head, the film is alternately informative and frightening when it comes to the things that propelled and torpedoed Tyson’s career. Amongst the archive footage featured would be an uncensored, post-prison tirade where Tyson threatened a journalist who asked a stupid question. If there was any doubt that Tyson served hard time when he went away to prison, his words during this exchange dispels them. Also amazing is Tyson’s recounting of the Evander Holyfield, ear biting fiasco. (It appears that the constant, possibly accidental, head butting awakened the cannibal within.) The movie is always interesting, and Toback gets a lot of credit for presenting Tyson in such upfront fashion. It appears that every subject was game for this movie, and Tyson holds nothing back.