Dates
Opens Sep 3In 2002, NFL player Pat Tillman left his career in football to enlist in the United States army. He immediately became a symbol of the feelings of patriotism and national devotion that swept the country after September 11. Less than two years later, Tillman was killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire, creating panic for the brass of the U.S. army. How exactly was Tillman killed? What will happen when the public finds out? Will Tillman’s death damage the war effort?
The documentary The Tillman Story follows the efforts of Tillman’s family to determine what really happened during the final moments of Tillman’s life. After Tillman was killed, his family and the world were told that he died heroically, defending his fellow soldiers against insurgents. However, the real story soon leaked out. Tillman had been shot by an American soldier in a confused moment in an Afghan valley. What enraged Tillman’s family was the implication that the U.S. army had lied to try to create a hero out of their son, to use him as propaganda. After leaving the Arizona Cardinals to join the army, Tillman knew that he would inevitably be seen as an icon of patriotism, but he fought being reduced into a symbol or political sound bite as best he could. Seeing her son’s image co-opted posthumously, Tillman’s mother began digging into the details behind her son’s death to reclaim his identity from a military-created fiction.
Through a complex narrative, The Tillman Story tries to piece together the multifaceted implication of the life and death of Pat Tillman on the war, the inner-workings of the United States government, and Tillman’s personal identity. The strength of Amir Bar-Lev’s documentary is that it unfolds its highly politicized story in an un-didactic way. Rather than moving us along systematically towards a clear argumentative conclusion, The Tillman Story meanders, allowing various characters to tell their stories, jumping around in the timeline, and eventually allowing the total picture to emerge much as it did for the Tillman family – arriving through confusion slowly.
2012 Oscar Nominated Shorts - Animation
2012 Oscar Nominated Shorts - Live Action
Movie Reviews: Safe House, Journey 2, and The Vow
Safe House
2 comments
This makes you wonder if the government can pick and choose what they want to tell us, make us believe things that are false, isn’t that dictatorship? They say democracy but its really free to be clueless.
I watched the Pat Tillman Story on DVD. All the way to the LYING, DECEITFUL, COWARD, INEPT, CRIMINAL Supreme Court members. All the LIARS at the hearing was SAD. A country like the U.S. built on HOPE, TRUST, INTEGRITY, HONESTY and all the other good words. It’s a shame WE THE PEOPLE let it get this far out of hand. If, WE had policed the situations from the start, WE would’t have to deal with this much bigger problem now. These people are not AMERICAN. Somewhere along the line they got out of touch with what this country stands for. With all the foreign interference it is tough. Anyway, at the end of the Supreme Court hearing (or not hearing) an official came over to Pat Tillman’s father and the dad said, GET AWAY from me, the man would not. I can say one thing, IF that was me, I would have kicked his ass. Mr. Tillman has since written several letters to the president and Congress asking what happened to his son. In my mind, he was killed by the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA’S troops. In one of his letters Mr. Tillman, at the end of the letter wrote, “In summation, F–k you and yours. Not politically correct but then again, neither was the murder of his son. How can they justify it. Reason, because he was saying too much about the war that hit home with certain high officials. If and I know I’m most likely correct, this is true, HOW SAFE ARE ANY OF US? I have absolutely no trust in government and especially Barry Soetoro Hussein, the Little Muslim, Faker, Taker, LIAR (oh you were right Joe Wilson) and Un-American. Can’t wait til Barry and his band of cowards are GONE. Concerned AMERICAN, L.V.