Jesse R
Thith ith a thewiuothly fantathtic thewebwal exthpewienth. 4 an a half thtarth! Two Thumbth up!
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/04/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Loved this. Amazing footage of Tyson in his prime, breathtaking in the power and speed. In prison at 12, life turned around by boxing, world champion at 20, then his mentor dies and he seemingly goes off the rails, an 8 month marriage to Robin Given, jail time for rape of Desiree Washington with some of the most brutal assessment of prison time that you will hear, everyone swindles him including Don King who he ends up assaulting. Interesting fact - the face tattoo is Maori. Couldn't help thinking when listening to him that he sounded like a child, possibly the blows to the head, although the words and the analysis were certainly there.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/16/23
Full Review
Roy T
Raw and cringeworthy. On one hand, it's amazing what this man accomplished in the ring, and great that the sport afforded him the opportunity. But, on the other hand, it just showed how exploitive the sport of boxing. Tyson was and is mentally and emotionally unstable. It's a wonder that Tyson didn't end up dead on the street or in prison for life. Here it is, the year 2020, and we'll see how Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr turns out.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
08/12/20
Full Review
Audience Member
Mike is and was a scary man!
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
07/30/20
Full Review
susan j
When the singer Jewell just broke out, and was suddenly famous, I went to see her at the 930 Club in Washington DC. Afterward, a friend and I went backstage. My friend's brother was promoting her tour. When we got back there, there were like 35 people--not even fans, just these people who had *access* and who were greedy and starving to be near Jewell--to have photos with her, telling her to stand here, and hold this, and make this expression, and people putting their arms around her and making her put her arms around them, and hold objects they'd brought with them, and made her repeat over and over these stupid plugs about local businesses and radio stations that were being recorded---all of these people so pleased with themselves and each other. After the onslaught she went to the back of the room and faced the wall. Just stood there--it was this primitive response, like, "if I can't see them maybe they don't exist." It was like a cornered animal who was so traumatized and so trapped it didn't even have the choice of fight or flight. We had our chance to talk to her, but I didn't want to. My friend's brother was like "No, no, you should say hi to her!" So, reluctantly, the narcissistic PR tribe having cleared out, when Jewell turned around I thanked her and and told her something simple and true about her music and didn't expect or want anything (even a thank you) in return, which seemed to please her and be a little bit nourishing. I mention that because something similar happened re: Mike Tyson. In 2017, I was boarding a plane in Vegas, standing in First Class waiting for the people ahead of me to stow their bags in overhead. I idly glanced to my left and saw that unmistakable tattoo and was shocked---because I'd been thinking of something totally mundane like I wish I'd worn different shoes and boom there's Mike Tyson's face 16" away from me. He saw me see/recognize him, and his face registered the same vulnerability and trapped panic I saw in Jewell. He did look like a Maori warrior and at the same time like an unprotected 3-year-old child in a dangerous situation. I felt so sorry for him--empathized intensely--and looked away as casually as possible and forced myself to start thinking of my shoes again, so he could sense I wasn't about to stan him. I'd been intrigued by him since seeing him in the film Black and White, and always sensed he was fragile, confused, and complicated, but seeing him in person in an unguarded moment on both of our parts, drove all that home in an instant. This film captures all that. I almost wanted to look away, because it's so private, and I wanted to spare him from himself--from revealing so much of himself, and in such honest, jumbled, contradictory, delusional, unstable, unguarded, confused, hopeful ways. The film is wonderfully made----it may be disconcerting at a visceral level to have split screens of Tyson echoing himself, agreeing with himself, contradicting himself; but I think that technique was absolutely the right choice for the film because you see that not that Mike Tyson is mercurial in an attempt to be illusive, but because his own perceptions keep slipping and skipping around like a dusty stylus on vinyl. Sometimes his mind is clear and somewhat linear and other times his own mind is whipping Tyson hither and thither and he has no choice ability to stop or tame it. Seeing this movie gave me so much insight into him. I feel very sad for him---he has excellent insights as well as "black-outs" into himself, his motivations, feelings, abilities. We all have that but he is far more extreme than most. Excruciatingly hard on himself in some ways, believing himself never to be able to measure up to ideals, and on the other hand completely clueless and cavalier and grandiose. His former wife called him out on being bipolar on the Barbara Walters' show, as we see in this film, and as soon as she said that I thought "Bingo---that totally makes sense." He pooh-poohs it, but also says plainly and honestly that he is, and has been at different times, completely insane, out of his mind. He also says he either has to be on top of the mountain or underneath the ocean---the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. He doesn't understand the "in between," and he doesn't like the in between--which is just what bipolar people say. And yet toward the end he 1/2 yearns for having a normal calm family life...but only 1/2....because he knows he can't (our at least couldn't in 2008 when this film was made) actually live in the "in between" of normal life. As said, in summary, the film made me sad, but appreciative that it was made. It is a beautiful movie in that it is utterly warts and all, and doesn't try to manufacture a tidy narrative. There is no tidy narrative of Mike Tyson. And I'm grateful for having had the opportunity to see that laid bare. Tyson says he trusts no one; however, it would require great bravery to allow this film to be made and released, and he did it. So Tyson seems to have trusted the filmmaker and himself enough for this film to exist. And for that, I'm really thankful.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A revealing and inspirational look into the heart and mind of a great fighter, his motivations and insights, challenges and struggles.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
Full Review
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