Director James Toback contends in commentary and a Q&A included on “Tyson’’ (2009) that the film isn’t really a documentary of the hard-living heavyweight champ, and you’ll likely agree. What’s offered here is 90 minutes of Iron Mike giving a candid, contradictory, stream-of-consciousness recap of his life, with the occasional significant fight clip thrown in. “[This] is like a self-portrait in the way that Gauguin or van Gogh or Rembrandt painted himself,’’ says Toback, who’s known Tyson since the fighter’s youth. “Each artist in effect was saying, ‘This is my notion of who I am.’ ’’ Less grandiosely, he adds, “You make up your mind yourself . . . you’re moved, you’re not moved, you feel he’s heroic, you feel he’s pathetic, you feel he’s truthful, you feel he’s lying. It’s up to you.’’ (Shades of Toback’s profiling of Bugsy Siegel as both thug and Vegas visionary in his Oscar-nominated script for Beatty and Levinson’s biopic.) It’s actually the storytelling approach more than Tyson’s familiar saga that makes the film captivating. Because really, haven’t we heard more than enough about Tyson by this point? (The accidental death of Tyson’s 4-year-old daughter shortly after the movie’s theatrical release is another, very different reason to let the man’s story go. Of course, the show does go on for the DVD release, but apparently without referencing the tragedy in supplements.) Meanwhile, as a pure sports document, “Tyson’’ is an indisputably poignant look at a one-time world-beater’s competitive fire slowly, publicly dying. (
NOW ON DVD
DRAMA
HUSBANDS (1970)
In John Cassavetes’s follow-up to “Faces,’’ Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, and Cassavetes are middle-aged suburbanites who do some naturalistic soul-searching, both at home and in London, after a friend’s untimely death. Here somewhat more than in his other films, Cassavetes’s push to capture real behavior and attitudes can feel self-defeatingly forced. Extras: Critic and Cassavetes biographer Marshall Fine puts the film in context, notably as one of the first screen meditations on midlife crises. He also notes that Cassavetes actually novelized his story during post-production to clarify things for his editors. Gazzara is interviewed in a half-hour retrospective. (
DOCUMENTARY
AUDIENCE OF ONE (2009)
Countless filmmakers have said a silent prayer at moments when it looked like their project would unravel. San Francisco Pentecostal pastor Richard Gazowsky and his congregation do their praying loud and long in a documentary about Gazowsky’s doomed bid to shoot a big-budget sci-fi update of the story of Joseph - at the Lord’s behest - with no prior filmmaking experience. A semi-diverting variation on the usual sort of snickering in “objective’’ documentary form. Extras: Commentary by director Michael Jacobs; a look at the couple of minutes of footage that Gazowsky’s crew actually completed. (IndiePix, $24.95)
DRAMA
THE TIGER’S TAIL (2006)
The distributor seems to be pushing this Irish-made odd duck as a psychological thriller, but it sure doesn’t commit to that tone, just as it can’t make up its mind to be a full-blown black comedy or melodrama either. (The last tag is closest.) Veteran director John Boorman (“Deliverance’’) casts Brendan Gleeson (“In Bruges’’) in the dual role of a wealthy Dublin developer and the creepy doppelganger who sets out to take his place, and succeeds with amusing ease. Kim Cattrall tries out a Lucky Charms accent and engages in a bit of Samantha-esque man-swapping as Gleeson’s wife. (MGM, $26.98; available now)
HANNAH MONTANA: THE MOVIE (2009)
And the phenomenon rolls on, as Miley Cyrus takes a Hollywood hiatus to spend time on Dad’s farm. With Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts, and Vanessa Williams. Extras: “Hoedown Throwdown’’ tutorial; on Blu-ray, music videos and bloopers. (Disney, $29.99; two-disc edition, $39.99; Blu-ray, $44.99)
THE GARDEN (2008)
Documentarian Scott Hamilton Kennedy earned an Oscar nod for his look at a South Central LA urban farm project caught in a conflict among developers, politicians, and self-serving community leaders. Extras: Director commentary and interview. (Oscilloscope Laboratories, $29.99)
THE LAST STARFIGHTER (1984)
The ’80s vibe is dated, but the high concept endures: A video game ace is recruited by aliens to use his mad Galaga skills in space. All this, and Robert Preston doing sci-fi, too. Extras: New retrospective; filmmaker commentary. (Universal, $19.98; Blu-ray, $29.98)
IP5 (1992)
Yves Montand gives his final performance in a thoughtful drama about a pair of Parisian street kids (including a young Olivier Martinez of “Unfaithful’’) who steal a car and discover that the old man sleeping in the back has some profound lessons to impart. Directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix (“Betty Blue’’). Extras: Beineix interview. (Cinema Libre Studio, $19.99)
PETE’S DRAGON (1977)
Disney’s tale of a live-action boy and his animated dragon is as quaint as can be, for everything from the Americana period setting to the effects to a cast that includes Helen Reddy, Mickey Rooney, Red Buttons, and Shelley Winters. Extras: Effects featurette; demo recordings. (Disney, $29.99) Titles are in stores Tuesday unless specified. 
