Tyson directed by James Toback, Fyodor Productions and Wild Bunch, 2008; 90 min.

James Toback's film, Tyson, might appear to be an unusual one for a psychoanalyst to take an interest in. What are we to learn from such a violent figure, a convicted rapist, a drug addict, and a host of other ugly things one might rightfully desire to look away from? As is always the case, however, what we see on the manifest level distorts and obscures other less likely images. I found Tyson to be mainly a story about the transformative power and perils of transference love between a very troubled, lost kid and an old man approaching the end of his life.

Toback uses a “psychoanalytic style” interview that enables the former boxing champion to get into a stream of consciousness, a free-associative process. One could watch Tyson's mind in action, moving from one thought to the next, noting his shifting affect and thought sequences the way one might listen to an analysand on the couch.

In his reverie, Tyson begins speaking of his earliest memories growing up in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York. It was a place of crime, poverty, and despair. Tyson describes it as a tough, gruesome place where as a young child he was bullied, mugged, and generally terrorized by the violence that was so rampant in his community. He speaks of how he initially had no idea how to fight and spent much of his childhood feeling afraid and humiliated by his experiences growing up in the slums. Tyson spoke of his chaotic home life. His father had abandoned the family when Tyson was a very young child, leaving behind a home that became increasingly characterized by domestic violence, promiscuity, extreme poverty, and unstable living conditions.

The portrait of Tyson's childhood, like that of many children who grow up in the slums, is rather bleak. Tyson says that most of the other kids he grew up with are now dead, in prison, or strung out on drugs. He desperately needed a strong, solid father figure to turn to in the midst of the chaos and