Tyson: Portrait of the Pugilist as a Young (and Old) Man

By Javier E. David 
Witnessing the grotesque spectacle he’s managed to make of his life, it’s almost difficult to imagine that Mike Tyson was once a singularly fearsome fighter who bestrode the boxing world and pummeled opponents into submission. His turbulent personal life and professional controversies often made for the ultimate reality television show, one that gradually chipped away at the hard-earned respect Tyson garnered by way of his boxing prowess.  

James Toback’s documentary, Tyson, is a compelling yet ultimately one-dimensional film that manages to spotlight many of the characteristics that makes Mike Tyson such a fascinating yet polarizing figure. This movie is a lot of things, but boring surely isn’t one of them.  

Everyone has an opinion about the man once known as “Iron Mike” – who rose from his hardscrabble upbringing in the Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant sections of Brooklyn to become the youngest fighter to unify the major heavyweight titles. Since retiring from competitive boxing several years ago, Tyson has become a caricature of himself – bloated, broke, highly emotional, and the butt of jokes that (to his credit) he at least appears to be in on.  

Tyson’s public persona would give a graduate student in psychology enough fodder for at least ten dissertations. Here is a deeply haunted, insecure man whom fame and fortune – $300 million by some estimates – has not treated kindly. He appears sure of himself in the ring, but deeply insecure outside of it. While at least some of the blame rests with the questionable cast of characters with whom Tyson surrounded himself throughout the years, certainly much of his misfortune lies with the boxer himself. Though judging by the documentary, the viewer would never reach this conclusion.   

Toback’s documentary treatment features most of the milestones (for better or worse) from the Mike Tyson reality show: grainy montages from Tyson’s highest-profile bouts, news interviews and file footage that serve as a compressed retrospective of Tyson’s eventful life. Interspersed in all of this are soliloquies that gives to Tyson a platform which he uses to vent, rant, and lash out at the injustice – real and perceived – he’s suffered at the hands of others.  

Thus does the documentary’s biggest conceit become its greatest flaw; the effort to portray Tyson as a sympathetic figure stumbles for want of unbiased perspectives needed to rebut Tyson’s self-serving arguments. Instead of being introspective, Toback’s direction creates a highly-flattering, almost absurdly hagiographic portrait of Tyson by failing to challenge any of his finger-pointing or blame-shifting. Tyson’s turbulent female relationships, such as with Desiree Washington, the beauty contestant he was convicted of raping in 1992who he was convicted of raping; or former wife Robin Givens, particularly deserve more probing by the director than what is ultimately given.  

In fact, most of Tyson’s memes, allusions and excuses for his assorted imbroglios and tough-luck situations go virtually unchallenged. Toback doesn’t make use of any interviews from the antagonists in Tyson’s life such as former spouses, business associates or opponents in the ring (not even Evander Holyfield, the fighter whose ear Tyson bit in a bizarre 1997 bout). The documentary’s unquestioning tone allows Tyson’s motivations to stand as self-evident truths, giving the film the look and feel of a glorified infomercial that allows the boxer to descend into self-parody amid foul-mouthed rants and name-calling.  

The film’s surface treatment of Tyson’s troubled life and various confrontations does little other than solidify Tyson’s reputation as one of the most celebrated yet controversial boxers of modern times. Overall, viewers will walk away knowing slightly more about Tyson than they did before, but whatever opinion they held of the boxer will likely remain unchanged. Because Tyson doesn’t do what a documentary is supposed to do – namely, shed new light on old material – the protagonist remains just as polarizing on screen as he does in life.

Javier E. David – Puts his country first, on Javier’s 18th birthday he was sent to basic combat training in the U.S. Army, where he served for 3 years. During this time, Javier was stationed in Germany and performed a brief tour-of-duty in Kuwait in the immediate aftermath of the Gulf War, before being honorably-discharged. Since then, Javier earned a B.A. and later a Master in Public Administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). Now he is a successful public relations specialist and advocate for the Republican Party.