HOWZAT

The picture takes Tyson, who turns 42 next month, from his humble beginnings on the mean streets of Brooklyn to his phenomenal rise as a boxing champion, through his epic fall marked by addiction, humiliation in the ring and a rape conviction.

Told entirely from Tyson's point of view, the portrayal allows the gentle giant with the high-pitched voice and a lisp to take the long view of his rocky past and extraordinary career.

He describes his start in boxing as a reaction to vicious bullying when he was a chubby child. "It was kill or be killed," he explains.

Locked up in juvenile detention at the age of 12, he began sparring and was eventually taken on by legendary trainer Cus D'Amato, whom Tyson describes as a father figure who built up his battered self-esteem.

Once his body was steeled by countless hours of training, D'Amato taught him the tricks - tactical and psychological - necessary to bring an opponent to his knees.

"I knew all the skulduggery," Tyson says. "Most of these guys lost the fight before it even started."

Tyson, who went 50-6 with 44 knockouts, became the youngest heavyweight champion in history in 1986 at age 20 and was the undisputed champion from 1987 until 1990, winning his first 37 fights with ferocious force.

"Once I get in the ring, I'm a god," he says.

The now-vulnerable Tyson reflects upon his mistakes, including an unhappy marriage and bitter divorce from actress Robin Givens.

"We were just kids," a milder Tyson now says.

Tyson lost his crowns to Buster Douglas in Tokyo in 1990 and the flaring temper returns when he recounts his three-year stint in prison after his 1992 conviction for raping an 18-year-old beauty pageant contestant.

"I may have taken advantage of women before but not of that woman," he insists. "That still bothers me today."

Tyson reclaimed the heavyweight throne but lost to Evander Holyfield in 1996 and bit Holyfield's ears twice in a 1997 rematch, adding banishment to his ridicule.

One final chance to recapture the crown in 2002 resulted in an eighth-round knockout at the hands of Britain's Lennox Lewis.

Tyson filed for bankruptcy in 2003 after squandering an estimated 400 million dollars and retired after losses to Britain's Danny Williams in 2004 and American Kevin McBride in 2005.

"I just didn't have it in me anymore," the father of six says. "I lost the desire to be a champion."

The documentary is screening in the festival's Un Certain Regard sidebar section and is to be released later this year.

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