DopeSickReviews

TYSON

REVIEW BY BRIAN JAMES

I grew up watching boxing at a very young age. I'd eventually get into the sport as a kid for a brief period of time but that's a whole other story. The Monday and Friday Night Fights were always an event in the household. Pops would just be gettin out of the shower. He'd enter the "TV Room" in his towel. He'd throw a leg over a knee. His nut sack would hit the carpet and he'd order me to change the channel to 36. Whatever anyone else was watchin at the time was irrelevant. Pops paid the bills. And it was Fight Night. Channel 36 it was.Most of the time the fight cards featured nothing but a bunch of up-n-comers who never really "came up". If you were lucky enough you got to see Sugar Ray Leonard, Sweet Pea Whitaker, or Hector "Macho" Camacho beat some fuckin ass. Very rarely was it a Tyson fight cuz his shit was usually reserved for an HBO "special" event. We didn't have a HBO. But we did have wunna them newly invented VCR's. Pops always had a copy of the Tyson fights the day after they originally aired. I saw em all. I was 7 years old when Iron Mike became the youngest Heavyweight Champion of the world. I was too young to comprehend the importance of the event but I did pick up on the energy and excitement of it all. The next four years of the boxing world would be dominated with nothin but brutal first round knock-outs and a ferocity that still stands the test of time today in the archive footage left behind.But like all good things in life, nothing lasts forever and all things come to an end.I was 11 years old when I watched James "Buster" Douglas become the first man to not only defeat Mike Tyson, but knock em the fuck out. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. And that 10th round KO would set off a chain of events that would inevitably lead to the personal and professional unraveling of "The Baddest Man on the Planet." Mike Tyson would never be the same fighter again.What separates this doc from others is that the story is told almost entirely by the subject himself. This is also what makes the viewing experience so unique. Iron Mike holds nothing back from the viewer. From his crime-filled teen years, to the time he caught "the clap" from a Brooklyn hooker, to his struggles with hard drugs and alcohol, no topic is off limit. His story-telling is honest and revealing, and unintentionally hilarious at times. There's not a dull moment in this whole film.What really makes this documentary so compelling to watch however, is the underlined tragedy throughout its entirety. You can't help but feel sorry for Tyson on a number of different levels for a number of different reasons. He chokes back tears when talking about his former mentor and trainer Cus D'Amato, and you can't help but cringe at the levels his talent and career was exploited once it was handed over to the likes of Don King and the other shit-fuck scumbag fight promoters. You don't have to be a boxing fan to appreciate this shit. It's 1st person story-telling at its finest and the theme of struggle and survival is showcased throughout. Good shit. Check it out.TYSONYear: March 27, 2009Cast: Mike Tyson, Robin Givens, Don King, Cus D'AmatoDirector: James TobackWriter: James TobackGenre: Documentary | BiographyRuntime: 90 minLanguage: English Company: Fyodor Productions

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