You can already read Neil's review of Tyson here, which I think is spot on, but on Saturday I had the chance to see the movie introduced extensively by the film's director, James Toback, which offered me an uneasy perception of the film—largely because during the Q&A, Toback painted himself as a biased and somewhat unreliable source.
Toback was present at the Festival to receive the Kanbar Award, which acknowledges excellence in screenwriting. Toback has certainly reached a level worthy of recognition with three decades of work from 1974's The Gambler starring James Caan, to the Oscar contender Bugsy, to 2004's Neve Campbell vehicle When Will I Be Loved.
He has a way with dialogue, though he has an unusual method of writing. Toback admitted to having a hard time writing stuff down, preferring to dictate his screenplays to a transcriber.
His latest film Tyson is a documentary that was born out of his deep friendship with Mike Tyson. The boxer had previously appeared in Toback's 1999 film Black and White, where in one memorable gym scene, Tyson delivered a riveting monologue describing the terrible feeling of being strip-searched in prison. Realizing that there was plenty more for Tyson to say, Toback offered to expand that monologue into an entire film. Tyson quickly agreed, but they never got around to doing it until Tyson's 2007 arrest for DUI and cocaine possession, which Toback realized was the perfect time to do it.
After securing permission, Toback snatched Mike away from rehab for 5 days and simply shot whatever Tyson had to say.
In the film, Tyson defends himself as a targeted victim who was wrongly convicted in his 1992 rape case, claiming that the false conviction eventually led to his mid-90's breakdown. Though Tyson strongly maintains his innocence, there's enough contradictory behavior presented in the film and not enough evidence to support the contrary for the audience to really know for sure. Yet when the subject indirectly came up during the Q&A, Toback referred to that chapter as the period when his friend Mike "went to jail for a crime he did not commit."
The unlikely pals first met back in 1985, when Tyson was an up-and-coming nineteen-year-old fighter who wanted to meet Robert Downey, Jr. on the set of Toback's 1987 film The Pick-Up Artist. Toback had been living with NFL running back Jim Brown for some time, and when Tyson showed up on set, he immediately recognized Toback as the only white guy who was always in Jim Brown's orgies.
They became fast friends.
That fact was made clear by Tyson's willingness to trust Toback by giving him complete control of the film, something Tyson's close circle kept telling him was a bad idea. Tyson is listed as an Executive Producer on the film, but it's a meaningless title given to him just because he asked for it. Mike Tyson will not—and legally cannot—make any profit off of the film.
Interesting tidbit: Werner Herzog had offered to pay Mike Tyson a sum of money for Herzog's version of a Tyson documentary at around the same time, but Tyson refused and went with the unpaid version.
While I won't pretend that I wouldn't love to see Herzog's take on Mike Tyson, it would have been a very different movie. Better? Maybe... But having his trusted friend on helm certainly helped Mike Tyson to be so forthright, unrestricted and vulnerable on camera, which what makes Tyson as compelling as it is.
