Tyson

[Neil]

First of all the fact that "I love a magician" contributed "skullduggery" makes me want to high five every one on this board.  Second, be it that i am not cultured, but i have never EVER heard the word skullduggery, and for it to come out of Iron Mike's mouth simply blew my mind. 

Although at times it may seem like Iron Mike is spouting lines from a psychiatrist, he shows intellect and deep introspection.  That sentence might contradict itself but in this film Mike seems to exist in such a way as to actually have learned something in his lifetime. 

I feel like this is a brutally honest portrait of a man who has his brain stem shuffled around randomly in his lifetime.  I understand boxing.  It is  pretty much the way of things before humans discovered reason.  Homer knows, and that shit is old.  Which is to say that before a "social contract" or mutual agreement of any kind, those who could fight the best had the desired life that human beings do FIGHT FOR and  here we have a guy who attained that lifestyle on separate occasions and his testimony is well documented. 

His perspective on both Holyfield fights really mad me think twice about the way that the media portrayed him (when i was ages 10-12).  More importantly i realized how the media wanted to portray mike tyson, and it still saddens me.  Every boxing interview, whether it be post event or prior, was a side never portrayed in the media. 

I've never heard such a prominent professional athlete be this real.  He admits that he doesn't want to disrespect the sport any more as well as it's viewers.  That's a big fucking deal to do for ESPN when you're a man who beats people up for a pay check.  He admits that he only did it because he cares about his family and the pigeon metaphor sums it all up.  Slit throats for money.  Once again, here we have a guy who gets to be Achilles and also avoid tragic death as to create a legacy for himself.

Also a guy who says something along the lines of, "I got a small amount of money from Don King, like 20 million dollars...Some small amount of money."

I guess although you can't take this too serious at times, it is an important introspective attempt at man whose life was based on caveman type behavior, and whether or not he was the best at strategically beating someone up with his fist.

To me, it's an interesting lifestyle and I believe the way the film portrays tyson.  Like i said, although it sounds like a guy repeating what his psychiatrist said, it is one thing to listen to what a psychiatrist tells you, but for a person to put it on record in that way (the way of a guy who has thought about his actions deeply) just moved me when I watched this.

[Stefen]

He's a fascinating character no doubt. He got taken advantage of for sure, but he also wasn't innocent. He's just a guy from the streets who's lived 10 lifetimes in 1. It's very interesting.

[Neil]

i'm not sure what innocence you are referring too, but I tend to agree with the idea that I laid on the sympathy thick for the guy in my last post.

The thing that is crazy to me is that I had no sympathy for him at all prior to viewing the film because like i said, I got the arrogant version that the media sold me.

I guess i shouldn't have been so easy on him, I realize that most likely he wasn't innocent in every instance, but this film was able to change my overall position on a pretty crazy man.