Tyson 2008

I stepped into Tyson with a pretty distinct idea of who the subject was, where he came from, and what I thought of his legacy. Ultimately, I'd hoped that this kind of long-session chat in a comfortable place with the former champion would reveal some special insight into his complex identity and deliberately checked my preconceptions at the door to better facilitate an open mind. Turns out I really shouldn't have bothered. Despite his best intentions to prove otherwise, Iron Mike comes across as a simple man who desperately wants to be deep but is either unwilling or unable to hide the truth.

At the core of his being, he's pure reflex, which is a trait that served him well during his days in the ring but left him ripe for coercion outside its boundaries. Phenomenal athletes rarely double as tangible role models, and Tyson himself offers dramatic proof of that fact. Little more than an ego stroke, the documentary focuses almost exclusively on the ex-champ's point of view and skims over or accepts thin excuses for each of the more intriguing moments of his life. To my eyes, the most surprising thing about this whole endeavor came from Mike's old training footage, and the realization of just how blindingly fast he really was at his physical peak.