Tyson (2008)

The greatest movie ever made..!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Mike Tyson tells the story of his life from the mean streets of Brooklyn to his pigeons and his boxing life and his father figure trainer Cus D'Amato to his failed marriage and prison. It's great to hear him reflect on his life. He strikes me as a simple child-man who has gone through a lot and grown a lot. He seems honest and open. There isn't much that he won't talk about. It's a tour de force performance of a naturally charismatic man. One can see the man truly feel what he's saying. He may not be able to confront all of his demons yet. He is still a work in progress but this is a man on a journey and it's a fascinating one. Filmmaker James Toback dips his toe into documentary and it's a great start.

This documentary blew me away, before this I only knew of Mike Tyson the once great boxer who people spoke ill of and referred to as animal, anyone who thinks Mike Tyson is nothing more than an animal needs to see this film, you will only come to find that Tyson was an animal in the ring which is greatly shown in the movie as it details his power, speed, strength and the intense training it took for him to become one of the worlds greatest ever fighters, but it also shows what happened when he stepped out of the ring, his story needs to be heard and the way it has been portrayed in this film is amazing from a modern view not your typical HBO Documentary, if you want to see some brutal but effective fighting narrated by the man himself and also see Tyson like you have never seen him before, watch this movie.

This is the kind of honest, truthful portrayal that gives a whole new light toward the way you see a certain person. I know that some people have a strong opinion on Tyson,but I always saw past that bullying thing of his persona and recognize much, much more. Now at the age of 43, Tyson shares his life story in this revealing documentary from director James Toback. With age comes wisdom, not only for Tyson, but for everybody. It's a fact that time brings everything to light, and we can see things better. I shed some tears because I felt Tyson's pain. I understood that although it is so easy to judge, it's also way harder to put yourself in someone else's shoes. This documentary made me respect him (Tyson) even more, because if we as human being are in fault, what's way more important than to make mistakes is the capacity of being humble, admit the mistakes and move toward better days. Mike Tyson ins an insightful, humble, simple man, who was plain and simple the world's greatest boxer and is now in his most important mission in life - to succeed as a human being and a father. His best days are still ahead of him,and he is a living example of what we can make of ourselves,once we have the knowledge and the wisdom to become better men,a wisdom that only comes when we had our share of wrong choices. Bravo, Iron Mike!

In depth and eye opening documentary of former World Heavyweight Champion Iron Mike Tyson who tells it like it is, or was, about his wild and violent life in and out of the boxing ring.In a soft and almost angelic-like voice Tyson describes his turbulent life that brought him to heights that he never dreamed of ever attaining and depths which most men would have never been able to recovered from. Growing up on the mean streets of Brownsville Brooklyn Mike a shy and quiet kid had to learn to use his fists at a very young age in order to survive. For a while Mike was headed for the state penitentiary and a life behind bars or, like most young men like himself in the Brooklyn Ghetto, an early grave before he reached his 30th birthday.As things turned out fate had different plans in store for young Mike and that came in the person of wise old old Cus D'Amato who took Mike under his wing and instilled both respect and discipline into him. This was to later help overcame Mike's deep inferiority complex in him feeling that he'll never amount to anything positive in life. Cus a boxing trainer who had guided Floyd Patterson to became the youngest Heavyweight Champion in the history of professional boxing was going to do the same for Mike. But in the end it was Mike who was going to have to take as well as throw all the punches to archive that lofty goal!On the evening of November 22, 1986 Mike Tyson made history by becoming the youngest Heavyweight Champ, at age 20, in history by knocking out Trevor Berbick in the 2nd round of their title fight in Las Vegas Navada. The only thing missing for Mike was that the person most responsible for making all that possible Cus D'Amato wasn't there to see it happen ; Gus died at age 77 the previous year. Tyson turned out to be a fighting champ ducking no one and defended his title 10 times over the next 3 1/2 years. In what was to be the fight of the century, in Las Vegas on June 28, 1988, Tyson annihilated the former and undefeated world Heavyweight Champ Michael Spinks-to reunite the title-in less then two minutes of the first round! Not only did a fired up Tyson knock Spinks, who's never been knocked off his feet before, out cold but did it with a combination of bone crunching body, not head, shots!It was after the Spinx fight that Tyson's invincibility in the ring started to came apart at the seams. Dropping those who, trainer and adviser Rooney & Jacobs, guided him to the Heavyweight title Mike got in with blood-sucking manipulators like boxing promoter Don King who not only ended bleeding Mike dry of almost all his, estimated to be over 300 million dollars, purse money but drastically cut back on his rigorous training schedule substituting it with all night parties and non stop sexual escapades! It didn't take long for Mike to lose his boxing ability and that all came to the surface on February 11, 1990 at the Tokyo Dome when he was knocked out, in the 10th round, by journeyman boxer Buster Douglas losing the Heavyweight title at the ripe old age of 23.Being very philosophical about himself, during the hour and a half interview, and what he went through in life Tyson only lost his cool twice when discussing his relationship with promoter Don King whom he decked, in front of a number of eye witnesses, in public and beauty pageant contestant Desiree Washington. It was Desiree who claimed, which Tyson strongly denies, that Tyson raped her in his hotel room which ended his quest to regain the Heavyweght title. Being convicted of rape in early 1992 put Tyson's boxing career on hold with him serving three years behind bars for it. Out of prison in 1995 and more then ready to rumble Tyson ran up a string of knock-out victories that landed him a shot at his former Heavyweight Title against the reining Champ Evander Holyfield in Las Vegas on November 9, 1996. Tyson taking command early in the fight soon became frustrated when a plucky Holyfield refused to be intimidated by him and stood toe to toe with Tyson for the first five rounds of the champion fight. Holyfield not backing away but mixing it up with Tyson held his ground until he found an opening in the sixth round catching Tyson with a left-hook to the body dropping him flat on his back! Unable to defend himself against Holyfield's brutal non-stop barrage the fight was stopped early in the 11th round with Tyson barley conscious in the fact that he lost the fight! The rematch with Holyfield next June 28, 1997 had a desperate Tyson try to cannibalize his way to the title by almost biting off, a shocked and outraged, Holyfield's right ear! Disqualified by the referee for un-sportsmen like conduct Tyson who seemed not to give a sh*t about what people think of him was never able to came close to being the same destructive and unbeatable boxer, that he once used to be, again!Tyson now retired and happily married with six children has finally found peace in his very troubled and violent life with his converting to Islam being the main reason for it. Recovering from a serious drug addiction, while the movie was being filmed, Tyson has now become both older and wiser in his seeing what a mess he made of himself and is now doing everything to help correct it! With him putting the same dedication and determination into straighting himself out like he did in getting to the top in the boxing world that unattainable goal, for most people, should be nothing but a piece of cake for Iron Mike Tyson.