Tyson

Mike Tyson sits in front of the camera and talks. Nobody else speaks in the film; no family, no journalist, no expert. He starts with his childhood in Brooklyn: the pigeons, the fights, reform school. Then Cus D'Amato appears; the man takes him in and teaches him to box. Tyson is world champion at twenty. Then everything comes apart: D'Amato's death, Don King, the marriage, the trial, prison, the bitten ear. Tyson describes all of it, defending himself in some sections and not in others. James Toback directs. It is an American production. The film was shown in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. Its form uses split screen; Tyson's voice overlaps itself and several sentences are heard at once. Toback and Tyson had known each other for a long time and that closeness sets the film's form. Its method is a single source; every event including the rape conviction is given only through Tyson's account, with no other side. The method was criticised on release; that the film gives no room to those affected was argued over. Archive fight footage is used widely. Its limit is viewpoint; the narrative is partisan and offers no verification. Who it is for: anyone curious about the history of boxing and single narrator portraits. Who it is not for: it is one sided, the subject heavy, and some claims go unquestioned.