Sundance Review: ‘Tyson’

Outside of the first night screening this is our first official press screening, and it kicked the day off pretty well. Mike Tyson is one of, if not the best boxer of all time and if you have ever wondered why he has done all of the controversial things in his life, this doc will leave no questions unanswered.

James Tobak (‘Harvard Man’, ‘Black and White’) brings us a very intimate and in depth look at a personal friend of his. Mike Tyson’s voice is the only one you hear, and is in almost every scene of the movie. The film does what it was supposed to do and that is seeing the life of Mike Tyson from his eyes, and voice. For 90 minutes you are having a 1 on 1 conversation with one of the most brutal men on the planet and you start to empathize with him. He tells some pretty crazy stories, and you definitely go deeper into Tyson that you may have wanted to. You also start to feel what a force he was when he first jumped onto the scene and just how dominant he rocked the sport. At times you really believed that he was a boxing god, which is the approach he has taken to fighting.

I think that one of the draw backs to doing a movie about such a controversial character is that there is so much story to tell and it can be a bit overwhelming such is the case with ‘Tyson’. I am definitely not saying the movie isn’t entertaining, but there are moments when it just becomes repetitive. I would have preferred to see interviews with out people that know Tyson or have some kind of involvement with.

James Tobak used some very unique ways of telling the story on the screen when its just Tyson just sitting on a couch by himself.

All in all the movie was entertaining and for a fan of sports documentaries or boxing you will definitely enjoy this one.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5