I messed up and missed a screening of James Toback’s Mike Tyson documentary Tyson a week or so back and now I am going to have to wait until closer to the April 24 release date to check it out, but some things just cannot be helped and it just means my anticipation will have to grow just a little bit more in the meantime.
The film made a nice little splash at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and was promptly snatched up by Sony Pictures Classics. I have no idea if it is good enough to excite Oscar voters, but there is always a chance.
You can check out the newly released trailer directly below or at Apple in high definition.
In Tyson, the former heavyweight champion looks at his own life in and out of the ring with a candor and eloquence that is by turns shocking, funny, hair-raising and never less than brutally honest. In other words, Tyson explores… Tyson.
James Toback’s film portrait ranges from Tyson’s earliest memories of growing up on the meanest streets of Brooklyn through his entry into the world of boxing under the stewardship of his beloved trainer Cus D’Amato, his misadventures with Don King and his tortured marriage to Robin Givens, his rollercoaster ride through the funhouse of worldwide fame, his fortunes won and lost.
Through a deft mixture of original interviews and archival footage and photographs, a complex, fully-rounded human being emerges – a legendary and uniquely controversial international
