REVIEW: ‘Untold Mr. T: I Pity The Fool’ Is A Criminally Short Look At A Living Legend

“I pity the fool!” People around the world know exactly one person when they hear that iconic phrase: Mr. T. The man who starred in The A-Team, Rocky III, and more has used the line for nearly 45 years. In the Netflix docu-series, Untold, director Scott Weintrob tells the story of the man behind the catchphrase in Untold Mr. T: I Pity the Fool. Unfortunately, the 48-minute runtime is egregiously short for a man with such a rich and compelling story to tell.

Mr. T got his big break in Hollywood in 1982’s Rocky III, but even before that, Laurence Tero had already adopted his iconic name. In Untold, Mr. T recounts its amazing origin story. He explains that his father grew up with white people simply calling him “boy.”

Then, his older brother came back from serving in Vietnam, and people called him, a literal war hero, “boy.” When Laurence Tero became a bodyguard, he put on his business cards “Mr. T.” so that “Mister” would be the first way people addressed him.

Untold Mr. T: I Pity the Fool doesn’t shy away from the hardship and racism that Mr. T experienced.

Untold Mr. T: I Pity The Fool is an excellent look into the 80s and 90s icon. Interviews from sports and culture writer Scoop Jackson, as well as Terry Crews, Tero’s manager Peter Young, his daughter Erica Clark, and Mr. T himself help the audience take a peek behind the curtain.

Their commentary lets audiences look past the catch phrases and gold chains to see the human being behind it all. Archive footage, including talk show interviews with Sylvester Stallone and documentary footage from the late Hulk Hogan, fleshes out Mr. T’s story from angles he doesn’t personally have access to.

Where Untold Mr. T: I Pity The Fool gets it right is by reminding the audience that Laurence Tero isn’t just some celebrity who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and groomed for the big times. Mr. T was raised in the projects in Chicago and spent much, if not all, of his childhood on welfare.

Untold takes care to showcase a man who simply wanted better for himself and for his family. Terry Crews talks about how impactful it was to see Mr. T being interviewed with David Letterman and not pulling any punches about what it’s like coming into the industry as a black man.

Scoop Jackson talks about the culture around black people in Hollywood during that time and how the industry treated them as only capable of delivering a joke, and Mr. T was forcing that culture to change.

Unfortunately, Untold Mr. T: I Pity The Fool ends up feeling very incomplete. Its 48-minute runtime means a lot of story was simply left on the cutting room floor.

One such story involves the WWE. Mr. T made history with the company when he became part of the main event at the very first WrestleMania in 1985. While Untold mentions that he teamed up with Hulk Hogan in the first WrestleMania with Mr. T’s personal hero, Muhammed Ali, as the guest referee, it doesn’t give any other information.

Archive footage from a 2014 interview with Hulk Hogan says the two met on the set of Rocky III, but it doesn’t explain how that led to the A-Team star main-eventing WrestleMania. It becomes an even harder thing to reconcile when you consider that Untold Mr. T: I Pity The Fool was heavily promoted in recent weeks on weekly WWE programming.

Unfortunately, the docu-series only contains a short segment about WWE. Even more interesting is that WWE’s own Chief Creative Officer, Paul “HHH” Levesque, is credited as an executive producer.

Untold Mr. T: I Pity The Fool is too short a documentary for a life that has been so iconic.

Another issue that could be from the runtime but is more likely a creative decision is a lack of context or response to specific situations. While Scoop Jackson, Peter Young, and even Mr. T’s daughter, Erica Clark, make pointed claims about how fame and fortune were beginning to change Mr. T into someone they didn’t recognize. 

Mr. T never responds to those criticisms but rather pivots to talk about his mid-90s cancer diagnosis and faith journey. Untold portrays Mr. T’s battle with cancer and his faith journey as a de facto answer to these allegations by showing how they both changed him into a better human focused on making a positive impact.

Whether the producers chose not to ask, Mr. T refused to answer, or if the answers never saw the final cut isn’t known, but Untold Mr. T: I Pity The Fool makes a serious accusation about the character of Laurence Tero and never shows him responding to it.

Untold Mr. T: I Pity The Fool is mostly a celebration of the iconic bodyguard turned legend. It says a lot about Mr. T’s origins and career, and his relationship with both his personal and professional life. Untold is amazing when it focuses on Mr. T’s legacy and the parts of the story it bothers to fully flesh out. Unfortunately, with less than an hour to cover 74 years, much of the story is simply left untold.

Untold Mr. T: I Pity The Fool is streaming exclusively on Netflix.