Hot Docs 2009 Interview: Director James Toback Takes A Swing At Tyson

It’s not certain yet whether history will remember Mike Tyson as a convicted rapist who once bit off a chunk of an opponent’s ear, a sensitive animal lover and doting father, a naïve victim of unscrupulous predators who manipulated him out of millions, or simply one of the greatest and most feared prize fighters to ever step between the ropes.

Iron Mike has indeed worn all of those designations during his colourful and tumultuous life in the public eye.

But what went on behind the scenes, before Tyson became a media caricature and convenient punch-line, and what led him to such an ignominious retreat from glory?

Filmmaker James Toback allows the now retired pugilist to give his version of the events that shaped and altered his life in ‘Tyson’, a feature length documentary that uses creative editing, gripping interviews, and archival fight footage to unravel one of sport’s most intriguing, misunderstood, and ultimately troubled characters.

Photo Credit: Holly Stein, Getty Images

Toback first met Tyson on the set of ‘The Pick Up Artist’, which he wrote and directed. 

The two immediately hit it off.

“We really had a breakthrough right away, I mean sometimes you meet somebody and you know within five seconds that you have a connection with that person, and everything that happened that night, not only what we talked about but just the feeling you had with somebody, made us both aware of that.  And it carried though the years.”

Photo Credit: Focus On Sport, Getty Images

Photo Credit: Rodolfo Del Percio, Getty Images

Despite the fact that Tyson was raised on the mean streets of Brownsville N.Y., where he was educated in the fine arts of strong-armed robbery and street fighting, and Toback graduated from Harvard, the revered filmmaker and storied brawler actually have a lot in common.

“First of all we’ve both experienced madness…and we both have extreme personalities,” Toback unabashedly admits.  “And then there’s the obsession with death, with women, with pushing things to the limit, with boxing, there are loads of similarities.”

The unique bond and trust shared between the two allowed Tyson to open up about a slew of sensitive topics, from his issues with drugs and alcohol to his troubling desire to physically dominate women.

Initially Tyson’s ex-wife and some of his handlers tried to put a reign on what they talked about, but Tyson quickly KO’d their efforts to censor the film.

“He said anything Jim wants to do is fine with me don’t worry about it.”

Photo Credit: John Gurzinski, Getty Images

Photo Credit: Jeff Haynes, Getty Images

The story begins with Tyson’s early days on the mean streets of New York and the youthful incarcerations that inevitably lead him to father figure and fight guru Cus D’Amato, whom he is initially suspicious of.  But after absorbing Cus’s perpetual life lessons and building up his self-esteem, Tyson, at least temporarily, abandons his criminal ways and puts his heart and soul into the sport.

His natural gifts, crushing power combined with blinding speed, are clearly evident and he goes on to become the youngest heavyweight champion ever before losing the belt, and his direction in life.  Most of us know the rest of the story — Tyson’s conviction for rape, his troubles in and out of the ring — but the movie gives us a fascinating, previously unseen look into Tyson’s motives, his emotions, his longing for love and acceptance.  The retired fighter proves to be a thoughtful, philosophical man whose life has been shaped in large part by his own fears and insecurities.

Photo Credit: Jeff Haynes, Getty Images

Toback has always been mesmerized by the complexities of Tysons’s personality, but he vividly recalls the exact moment when the idea for a movie about his life was hatched.

Not long after Tyson was released from prison following a three-year sentence for rape, he was offered a role in one of Toback’s films, ‘Black and White’.  It was during a scene where Tyson thoughtfully talks about the humiliations he endured during his stretch in the penitentiary, that Toback knew he had to tackle the myth of the tough, but seemingly fragile individual. 

Seven years later, they finally made it happen. 

“The idea was to do a Tyson self portrait through the prism of my aesthetic sensibility….(to allow) Mike Tyson, who I regard as a fascinating human being, to reveal himself in his own way. 

“Rather than asking questions I kind of stood behind him and would suggest the subject and then just let him go as far as he could go, including long silences because often I felt if I let him go, more stuff would come out that he didn’t even know was there.”

Tyson and Toback: Angela Weiss, Getty Images

One scene in particular stands out in Toback’s mind.  When Tyson describes what it was like to be bullied and abused as a boy, he becomes emotional, and the man we are so used to seeing impose himself physically on others, suddenly expresses a childlike vulnerability.  But that feeling leads Tyson to a more familiar emotion — rage.  We suddenly see what drives Tyson, and what fueled his violent fury in and out of the squared circle.

It was also the moment that Toback knew Tyson was baring his soul.

“There’s one line relatively early in the movie where he says ‘I knew no one would ever bully me again, because…’ and then he almost hyperventilates and says, ‘I can’t even say it.’  In the movie there’s only about 12 seconds (of silence), in reality there was about four minutes…and then his face changes totally and he says, ‘because I would f****n kill them.’ “

“It’s almost as if at that moment he’s hoping someone would come to do it so he’ll have a reason to kill him.  His whole face changes then, it’s like another person coming in.”

“At that moment I thought ‘this movie is really going to get there’ because I could see he was not even unconsciously guarding anything, it was just coming out.”

michael.talbot@citynews.ca

Hot Docs 2009 runs from April 30 – May 10. For more information or to purchase tickets visit hotdocs.ca .

James Toback, Photo by Michael Talbot, CityNews.ca

Main Top Photo,  Al Bello, Getty Images

More boxing on CityNews.ca:

Boxing Photographer Pete Doherty’s Journey Through The Fight Game

Golden Gloves Slideshow

Rumble At Rama VII Photo Gallery

 

 

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today