Academy Award-winner Barbara Kopple completed her portrait of one of the most controversial figures in boxing history in 1993, just after he was convicted of rape. As Mike Tyson’s meteoric rise swiftly turns into a precipitous fall, Kopple interviews scores of people from the boxer’s troubled boyhood to reveal a talented athlete easily led astray. Reprieve came in the form of Cus D’Amato, the trainer and mentor who ignited Tyson’s career. These exclusive interviews, together with rare footage of Tyson’s life inside and outside the ring, give shape to the themes of redemption, violence, and the need for love that have marked Tyson’s life. Careful neither to indict nor to acquit Tyson for his various controversial actions, Kopple offers an unflinching glimpse of a complicated man as well as of the violent world of boxing that has helped shape his psyche.  ST