Movie review and director interview: Tyson

by Alex Bentley

Writer/director James Toback is one of those enigmatic film personalities who only pops up on the radar every three or four years. But the people he works with also seem to be extremely loyal to him, as Robert Downey Jr. and Harvey Keitel have combined to star in five of Toback's 10 directorial efforts (they both appeared in 1987's The Pick-up Artist).

Perhaps that is why Mike Tyson chose to entrust Toback with the telling of the story of his boxing career in the documentary, Tyson. And Tyson appears to have given himself over almost completely to Toback, showing the kind of candor that would almost be shocking if so many of his misdeeds weren't already so well-known.

Of course, if Tyson hadn't been so candid, the film would have been a major bore, as Toback makes the, shall we say, interesting decision of hanging almost the entire movie on Tyson's words via a one-on-one interview of Tyson recounting his career, interspersed occasionally with archival footage of his training and various fights. Thankfully, Tyson's story is so compelling that the film moves along at a brisk pace. It also helps that Toback uses 24-style split screens at various points in Tyson's interview, giving the film a bobbing and weaving effect that forces the viewer to pay attention at all times, almost as if you're another of Tyson's opponents.

What's immediately striking is the level of emotion that Tyson shows as he talks. And not just anger, though there's plenty of that, coming out in fiery bursts toward people like promoter Don King, who Tyson regards as nothing but a cheat, and Desiree Washington, the woman Tyson still says falsely accused him of rape, for which he spent three years in jail. No, the most surprising emotion that comes out of Tyson is sadness, usually when he's talking about late trainer Cus D'Amato. D'amato, who died in 1985, is obviously still the major influence on Tyson's life, and Tyson can barely muster the energy to speak when he's talking about him.

Of course, there's still that other Tyson, the one who speaks too quickly, often ending up in malapropisms. The non sequiturs he spouts are too numerous to mention, but even still, he never becomes a parody of himself. Despite his tendency to sometimes not think before he speaks, he obviously has a reasonable amount of intelligence and he comes across as someone who could have been (and still could be) successful if he would just get out of his own way.

Toback does an excellent job of juxtaposing Tyson then and now, showing that no matter how much he's changed over the years, the essential Tyson persona has stayed pretty much the same. And no matter how far he's fallen, seeing Tyson absolutely dominate all of his pre-Buster Douglas opponents is awe-inspiring, and a great reminder about how entertaining boxing used to be.

Tyson likely won't change anybody's perception of Tyson, good or bad. For every positive step he's taken in his life, there's still the continued bad behavior (he was convicted of DUI as recently as 2007) and bad-mouthing of people he should have long left in his past. But as entertainment, the film is top notch.

I sat in on a round table interview with Tyson director James Toback on April 2 at the W Hotel in Dallas. Below are some of the highlights of the 30+ minute interview, but one highlight that's only hinted at in the interview is Toback's, um, interesting dietary choices. He was served a rare cheeseburger, which he proceeded to douse with not one but two small bottles of ketchup. The sight of him eating the burger was only slightly less entertaining than the interview itself.

Anyway, the highlights of the interview were:

* How his personal relationship with Tyson led him to do the documentary

* How the use of high definition cameras gave Tyson time to say what he wanted to say

* Why Tyson's is the sole voice of the film

* Why he employed the use of the split screens in showing Tyson (and how it's not the first time he's done it)

* How Tyson did a six degrees of separation to link Oscar Wilde and the Marquis of Queensbury

* How both Toback and Tyson were surprised by some of the things Tyson revealed

* Why Toback almost considers Tyson to have multiple personalities

* How Tyson's concept of money is just a tad different than most other people

* How Robert Downey is now more difficult to access than he was in the past