Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers
basketball team during last season's regular season game against the San Antonio
Spurs in Spike Lee's documentary "Kobe Doin' Work", and Mike Tyson in
James Toback's documentary "Tyson". Both films examine psychology, one of
the game, the other of the man and the game. (Photos: ESPN/NBA, Sony
Pictures Classics)
FILM - THE POPCORN CHRONICLES - SPORTS
American Sports Legends Under The
Microscope, In Their Own Words, In Two New Feature Documentaries
By
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Tuesday, May 5, 2009
With all the fanfare of a three-pointer or a knockout punch, two new feature
documentaries chronicle controversial American sports figures who have had their
share of trials and tribulations over the years but have also tasted glorious
heights. Kobe Bryant, the superstar basketball player of the NBA team the
Los Angeles Lakers, who are currently in a battle with the Houston Rockets in
the playoffs, and Mike Tyson, the former world heavyweight boxing
champion, whose "Iron" moniker has long since been
stripped from his name.
In "Kobe Doin' Work", Spike Lee's documentary which debuted at this year's
Tribeca Film Festival, skill and artistry are at their peak as Mr. Bryant
narrates in the moment as if talking while playing a late season game last year
against the San Antonio Spurs that he revisits almost a year later, in February
2009. Mr. Lee uses at least 15 cameras of his own to capture the angles of
a legendary American artist on the court at the Staples Center, the Lakers'
home. We see the wrinkles, flaws and greatness in Kobe Bryant's game and
the wonders of his basketball knowledge as he guides us through a rare
front-seat on court view of the anatomy of competition and camaraderie, before,
during and after the Spurs contest.
"Kobe Doin' Work" is the perfect illustration of a blue collar employee's lunch
pail work ethic, a man -- albeit a super rich one -- who takes care of business
on the basketball court with a no-frills mentality. He executes
clinically. We hear what he's thinking and like a tenured professor (for
12 years with the Lakers, his only team), Mr. Bryant indulges our curiosities
about the game of basketball and its psychology and analyzes it relentlessly.
Aside from a few shots of Mr. Lee filming and occasional questions of Mr. Bryant
from the director, "Kobe Doin' Work" is All-Access Kobe. Mr. Lee's
documentary however, doesn't get anywhere near the adulterous incident involving
Mr. Bryant that occurred in Colorado in 2003 with Katelyn Faber, a hotel
employee, for the title of the documentary would then be "Kobe Doin' Mischief".
(The incident, in which Miss Faber initially alleged was a rape but later
refused to testify to such in court -- a matter that Mr. Bryant admitted was a
consensual encounter in a subsequent statement and settlement agreement -- had
been huge tabloid and broadsheet fodder at the time.)
Be that as it may, Mr. Lee's documentary, done specifically for the ESPN sports
cable television network, exalts its hero but doesn't elevate him any higher
than he jumps for a loose ball rebound. There are very few if any dunk
shots during the game action or the documentary overall. The hero worship
stays low on the radar but Mr. Bryant's maturity, skills and floor generalship
speak highly for themselves.
Mike Tyson's candor and passions also speak volumes for themselves in "Tyson",
James Toback's new documentary which opened recently in New York City and opens
in San Francisco and several additional cities in the U.S. on Friday.
"Tyson" is less a documentary than a portrait of the psychology of one of the
boxing world's most feared and troubled legends. Mr. Tyson reflects on his
upbringing and evolution from streetwise tough in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where
he says it was "kill or be killed", into lethal fighting machine under the
stewardship of his father figure and mentor Cus D'Amato. Unfiltered and
unblinking, Mr. Toback's documentary gives its audience little time to breathe
as Mr. Tyson's now-deeper voice dominates the proceedings, interrupted only by
some devastating footage of his conquests of men in the ring as well as his
triumphs and troubles with the opposite sex, including with beauty pageant
winner Desiree Washington, of whom he was convicted of raping. He has some
choice words for her in Mr. Toback's documentary. Unlike "Kobe Doin' Work"
the first-person expose and ruminations of Mr. Tyson don't shy away from
controversy, which is as much the fuel for Mr. Toback's film as the former
boxer's fighting
skills are.
"Tyson" is similar to "Kobe Doin' Work" in the sense that psychology and
preparation are the most clear-eyed and appreciable thing about both sports
legends in their film, and to hear them discuss this element as a tactic in their
respective sports is fascinating. Often American society believes that
boxers, basketball players and athletes in general are "dumb jocks", but both
documentaries show men fully aware of themselves and the arena surrounding them.
These two men are far, far away from stupid, even if they both have made
mistakes and miscalculations like the rest of us. Mr. Bryant, 30, is the wiser figure but his insights rarely if ever
penetrate beyond the bubble-like world of the exclusive NBA brotherhood, while
Mr. Tyson, 40, has a breadth of perspective that is richer due to his older age
and is more evolved because of his real-life experiences before, during and
after his boxing career. He has learned the school of hard knocks so
completely and from an early age that by the time he looks back on the ups and the
downs of his life and career the process for the viewer has become both humorous and
moving.
Mr. Toback's film uses what looks like infra-red or at least oversaturated
color footage of Mr. Tyson's past boxing heights as vivid memories of the former
fighter's conquests in the ring, the arena which he had been most comfortable
in. Violence has clearly been this newly-enlightened poet's language, whether in the
ring or out of it. Fear is never far from the horizon, and it is fear and
his embrace of it which makes Mr. Tyson a full-blooded, full-bodied man, who
also describes himself as an "animal". There are some extraordinary
admissions that Mike Tyson makes before the camera, and he is self-critical
almost to a fault, making "Tyson" one of this year's great visual
autobiographies, a cinematic memoir to be digested, marveled at and discussed.
"Kobe Doin' Work" will have its ESPN debut on the sports cable television
network on May 15, while "Tyson", already playing in Los Angeles and New York,
will be in San Francisco and additional U.S. cities this Friday. Reviews
of both will appear this weekend here at The Popcorn Reel.
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