Tyson

Director James Toback traces the career of heavyweight champ Mike Tyson, largely in Tyson’s own words in an extensive interview which Toback intersperses with archival footage of Tyson’s career, including his stormy marriage to Robin Givens and his prison term in Indiana for raping Desiree Washington (neither of whom, unsurprisingly, come off very well in the film). Toback says he insisted that Tyson would have no control over the finished film, but the champ is listed as one of the producers and he could hardly have wished for a more sympathetic portrait. Tyson is shown to be surprisingly articulate and, while not particularly bright, not entirely stupid either; in fact, the only person who comes off better than Tyson himself is Cus D’Amato, the trainer who saved him from the mean streets of Brooklyn.