Tyson (1995)

Image by HBO via IMDB

They say timing is everything. Earlier today, Mike Tyson posted videos on his Instagram account, showing off some vicious training. It ends with him looking into the camera and saying “I’m back!” Watch this crap, dude! Apparently, at 53, Tyson is returning to the sport of boxing. What he’s going to do, I’m not sure yet, but I’m glad I decided to post this today instead of on Friday.

These days, in 2020, Mike Tyson is a bit of a parody of himself. He learned to stop taking himself seriously years ago and it’s paid off financially in his old age. He’s literally a cartoon character (Mike Tyson Mysteries in Adult Swim) famous for his face tattoos, his lisp, and being “tough.” But this wasn’t always the case.

In the 80s and early 90s, Tyson earned the nickname “The Baddest Man on the Planet” for a reason. He won a gold medal in the Junior Olympics in 1981 and 1982. When he made the move to a professional career, he went undefeated, 37-0, from 1985 to 1989. Most of his fights lasted between 1-2 rounds before the knockout. Coming into 1990, he was the WBA, WBC, and IBF Heavyweight Champion. He was a staple of the early days of pay-per-view, and along with the WWF events, helped establish the format as producing must-see sporting content. At 1.99 million buys, 1997's second Tyson vs Evander Holyfield fight is to this day the sixth highest-grossing PPV event in history. And there are plenty of other Tyson fights on this list from Business Insider.

He was intimidating and scary. It wasn’t just how hard he hit. Check out this video of him fighting Mike Spinks on June 27, 1988, defending the Undisputed World Heavyweight Title. Watch how he walks. How he moves. His body language. His aura. He’s the toughest man in the building and he knows it. That’s what not only made him a champion, not just a boxing legend but a mainstream household name.

I'm kinda legit scared Mike is gonna read this and then come after me

Image via Flickr

It’s hard to describe how big of a deal Tyson was in the 80s and 90s. Maybe this story will give you an idea. I have an uncle on my dad’s side. He’s a recluse, a hermit, and it has gotten progressively worse over the years. I haven’t heard from him in about eight years and I don’t expect to again. The number of times in my life that he has been the one to reach out and contact my side of the family has been… I’ll say probably around 10 times in my lifetime. It’s probably more, but that’s what it feels like. It was always a rare occurrence when he was the one to initiate contact.

At some point in 1991, one of the few times he reached out to contact us was regarding Tyson’s arrest for the rape of 18-year-old Desiree Washington. Iron Mike was arrested in July of 1991 and the trial took place in January and February of 1992. It was probably around the point of the arrest when my Uncle made the call. I’m not sure what prompted him to reach out over this. I think it was just the shock that this larger-than-life figure would do something like this, though it wasn’t as if Tyson was ever viewed at in the same light as, say, Mr. Rogers. Maybe it's sad that one of the times my Uncle reached out was to talk about Tyson. Hell, he even wanted to talk to ME about it. Maybe my Uncle was a sad and pathetic man who didn’t have his priorities in order. Or maybe it speaks to the volume that Tyson was in 1991, that my hermit Uncle broke radio silence to talk about him. Or most likely some of both.

Mike Tyson is an interesting character with many different layers. He raises and cares for pigeons. He knocks people out for fun and profit. And he was a petty thief and a rapist. He made millions upon millions and lost everything through poor life choices. And it’s all these different aspects that HBO’s 1995 movie, Tyson, explores.

 

The worst thing Mike Tyson ever did was not take this chance to knock out Carrot Top

Image via Flickr

The movie covers his life from a street kid on the run from the police, where you see him raising pigeons in a crowded apt in a bad neighborhood in New York City. He had a lot of run-ins with the law as a teenager, but he loved boxing and ended up being discovered by trainer Cus D’Amato. D’Amato trained him, treated him like a son. The movie shows his amateur career and then transitions into his professional fighting career. You see bits of his pursuit of and disastrous marriage to Robin Givens. The movie doesn’t hold back any punches on his complicated courtship with legendarily famous promoter Don King as well as turning on his old trainers to work with King and make millions upon millions of dollars. Of course, you also see Tyson losing the Undisputed World Championship to James “Buster” Douglas in one of the biggest sports upsets of all time, and the movie ends with his conviction at his rape trial.

Tyson could knock out Bill Cosby AND Khan without breaking his stance

Image by HBO via WendyShow

The movie is exceptionally well-acted. Michael Jai White is the spitting image of Tyson and, honestly, if I didn’t know this was a movie I would think some of the scenes were actually with Tyson. Cus D’Amato is wonderfully done by the legendary George C. Scott, who always brings the cantankerous old white man attitude. Paul Winfield, who I remember mostly for playing Captain Clark Terrell in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, is the sleazy and scheming Don King. Mills Lane plays himself but, sadly, does not say “Let’s get it on.” Two performances that were distracting for me were Clark Gregg, playing trainer Kevin Rooney, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who did Tyson’s childhood friend/trainer, Rory Holloway. I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say that they were distracting because they were bad, but it’s just distracting to see Phil Coulson Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Theo Huxtable interacting with Mike Tyson. The first time I saw Gregg, my initial reaction was “Are they going to ask Mike Tyson to join The Avengers?” Then I immediately thought of Tyson punching Thanos and screaming “I WILL EAT YOUR CHILDREN.”

 

Ha! You call that tough? I once turned into Ghost Rider!

Image by HBO via Pinterest

Everyone else in this movie is fine. Kristen Wilson as Robin Givens is fine. James Sikking as promoter and manager Bill Cayton is fine. Tyson’s two biggest opponents at the time, Mitch Green (Michael Jace) and James “Buster” Douglas (Duane Davis) are fine. No one in this is offensively bad or anything. Maybe distracting, but that’s my fault, not theirs.

The movie aired on April 29, 1995. I don’t have any budget information and, since it was a made-for-TV movie, there is no box office info. It’s based on a 1989 book called “Fire and Fear: The Inside Story of Iron Mike Tyson” by former boxer and chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission, Jose Torres. Production-wise, I think the movie hits. Everything is slick and professionally done. Not a lot of stuff that made me go “Wow, that’s awesome!” but no real bad shots or camera work or anything. Tyson was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in 1996 for Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special. It would lose to The Tuskegee Airmen, another HBO film. Some of it was filmed on location at D’Amato’s boxing gym in Catskills, New York.

 

Remember Mike, there's no fighting in the boxing ring

Image by HBO via Microsoft

There is another movie called Tyson, an actual documentary released in 2008. I haven’t seen it, but it looks interesting. There is a biopic that will begin filming this summer called Cus and Mike, based on Montieth Illingworth’s book “Mike Tyson: Money, Myth, and Betrayal.” Anthony Hopkins is playing D’Amato and, as of right now, I couldn’t find out who would be playing Tyson, if it’s even cast yet. Nick Cassavetes is set to direct and the screenplay is by Desmond Nakano. Also, there is another, different trying to get off the ground is a different new biopic about Mike Tyson, starring Jamie Foxx as Tyson. Iron Mike himself is involved and apparently wants the project to be accurate. Legendary director Martin Scorsese wants to direct it. You can read a bit more about Cus and Mike here and the Jamie Foxx movie here.

 

But how does one replace Patton and Coulson?

Image by HBO via ClarkGreggReporter

I suppose my biggest disappointment with this movie is not the fault of the movie itself. It came out in 1995, around the time when Tyson was about to get out of prison. But the things he did afterward are so… he got weird, man. The face tattoos. The two fights with Evander Holyfield, the second of which he bites part of Holyfield’s ear off. Telling Lennox Lewis in an interview “I want to eat his heart. I want to eat his children.” Showing up on WWF’s Raw is War in 1998 to get into a showing match and brawl with Stone Cold Steve Austin and subsequent appearance at Wrestlemania XIV. His cameo in The Hangover. And of course, the cartoon. None of these things occur in the 1995 movie, because they hadn’t happened yet. I’m not going to lower the rating for that, but I wanted to make an observation about it.

Wilson sums up my feelings on this movie. Enjoyable but not exceptional.

Image by HBO via IconicGreats

Final Thoughts

I liked this movie, though it’s a little difficult to recommend. If you’re like me and you have a casual enjoyment stemmed from boxing of this era, you’ll probably enjoy this. Mike Tyson. Evander Holyfield. George Foreman. Lennox Lewis. Felix Trinidad. Oscar De La Hoya. Larry Holmes. It was probably seeing the video games and commercials for the fights when I was in my formative years, but I have a love and appreciation of boxing from this era. And I don’t at all consider myself a boxing fanatic. If this is you, watch Tyson. If you’re hardcore into boxing, you likely won’t get much out of this. The movie is pretty by-the-books, no huge revelations, and the character growth is less Raging Bull and Rocky and more akin to 90s melodrama. But I appreciate how it does include negative aspects of Tyson’s life, including things I haven’t mentioned like him allegedly grabbing the bottom of the 12-year-old cousin of one of his trainers when he was 15 and his really weird Barbara Walters interview, which you can see here, where his wife Gibbons describes all the abuse Tyson dishes out while he sits there, calmy and smiling, not saying a word. In the end, there’s nothing wrong with this movie. Nothing spectacular either. But I liked it.

Have you seen this movie? If not, you can go to JustWatch to see where it’s streaming. Let me know what you thought, or what you think of Tyson the boxer or Tyson the man. I’d love to see your thoughts about the movie and/or the person portrayed in the film down in the comments below.

Next time, let’s go back to 1991 and talk about a movie starring John Stamos in which he plays a WWII motorcycle instructor. Uncle Jesse stars in Born to Ride. Does this motorcycle movie show its tricks? Or does it run out of gas? Find out next time!

 

Tyson still looks terrifying today. Please sir, if you ever see this, please don't hurt me.

Image via WikiCommons