Un Certain Regard: “Tyson” by James Toback

Tyson explores Tyson in this documentary by James Toback, selected for Un Certain Regard. Permitted to speak for himself, the fallen champion sincerely does so, in a no-holds-barred recollection of his life and career in the ring. His reminiscences, flowing with innate eloquence, are by turns shocking, comical, and ferocious. The portrait begins with Tyson’s earliest memories, of his childhood on the mean streets of Brownsville, Brooklyn. It follows his debuts as a boxer, handled by his coach Cus D’Amato, and retraces his tumultuous, hair-raising ride on the roller-coaster of world fame, his triumphs and setbacks.

“It’s a Greek tragedy,” explains James Toback, ” in the sense that you have somebody who starts with nothing, from very humble origins to put it mildly, who goes on to reach heights that are inconceivable, and then crashes through his own hubris. It’s a double Greek tragedy because he comes back, and reaches the heights again and crashes again, again through hubris.”

James Toback came up on stage to present his film: “ It seems that the film was destined to be here, and in one way or another, it has come here. When Thierry came to Los Angeles about six months ago, when I was still assembling the movie, I kidnapped him, hijacked him, put him in the trunk of a car, made him invite me… Anyway, I wanted to say before introducing Mike that the sort of portrait that is the emergence of this movie of a very complex, iconic and in many ways noble human being, this is ultimately what we do better than any other human being, in creating connections and bridges among people ordinarily divided.”

Mike Tyson added, “I greatly appreciate the welcome I received here. I haven’t ever had an experience like this in my whole career… I was on my way to rehab, an AAA meeting and James called me and told me how this could be a really great work. I never believed it. I had no idea that it would come to this kind of spirit for a film. I’m an athlete and this is totally out of my field. I had a great deal of trust and I believed in Jim and once we decided to do this program, I decided to be totally honest with him and thank you very much for coming today.”