Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson (1993)

Synopsis: Using rare footage and interviews, Oscar-winning director Barbara Kopple offers insight into the life and career of former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson. This unauthorized biography... Using rare footage and interviews, Oscar-winning director Barbara Kopple offers insight into the life and career of former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson. This unauthorized biography follows Tyson's rags-to-riches-to-prison story from his days as a troubled child in Brooklyn through his meteoric rise to fame in the boxing world to his incarceration for rape. Interviews with former associates and personalities from the sports and boxing worlds reveal Tyson as a warmhearted kid in search of affection whose killer instinct--his best weapon in the ring--ultimately may have gotten the better of him. The film examines Tyson's relationship with his mentor and father figure, Cus D'Amato, and his eventual migration to the camp of controversial boxing promoter Don King following the death of one of his managers. Kopple looks closely at Tyson's volatile eight-month roller-coaster marriage to actress Robin Givens and delves deeply into the rape charges levied against him by beauty pageant contestant Desiree Washington, for which he was convicted. Archival footage and interviews and insight from journalists, former Tyson trainers, boxing promoters, and Tyson's former girlfriends, among others, add substance to a fascinating story. [More]

Director: Barbara Kopple

Director: Barbara Kopple