The Tillman Story

How appalling and at the same time, how inspiring. Thank God for the Tillman's, even if God doesn't come in into their equation, their life is a model of integrity. Pat Tillman married his high school sweetheart. She was her first and only girlfriend. Always loyal to her as he was loyal to us, to his country, to his believes. Next to him, the government appears as a sleazy bunch, corroding our standards. Films like this make sure we keep our eyes open. The sobbing in the movie theater where I saw the film made me feel very American because we now know and knowledge is power. We won't let this horrors happen again. We can'TV allow it. The world is looking at us.

Quite extraordinary documentary dealing with the emotional and intellectual issues around Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan and subsequent Army cover-up. A film of insight, humanity, and righteous anger, but it never feels manipulative of the people or facts involved.

Like Tillman himself, it avoids simplistic answers and tries to look deeper. This isn't a propaganda piece, but a complex study of a family's grief, and how powerful organizations like the Army sometimes put their own image ahead of human honesty and decency.

Tillman himself emerges as a highly complex man – someone who didn't go off to war looking for glory, and indeed, tried actively just to be treated like any other soldier – a desire the Army refused to honor, even in death (Tillman had specifically, in writing. requested not to have a military funeral should he die in war, but the Army tried to bulldoze the family into one for PR purposes).

He believed the Afghanistan war was a righteous cause, but politically disagreed with the decision to go to war with Iraq, while fighting with honor and distinction. He was an atheist who respected and was curious about all religions, and whose public memorial was co-opted by public figures invoking the name of God, until finally his little brother – in an act of slightly drunken bravery - stood up to tell them all that wasn't who Pat was.

His family emerge as heroes of another kind, working tirelessly to discover the truth of what really happened to their son and why,all the while fighting an Army and political establishment that just wanted them to stand there mute, and look sad and grateful for the cameras.

Amir Bar-Lev is emerging as one of our best documentary filmmakers, and I'd urge you to also check out his earlier work "My Kid Could Paint That" and "Fighter".

We have to be reminded, again and again, the sacrifices of our young soldiers. They should be honored in every possible way. I was born in Italy, a Country that got it wrong so many times and that, in many ways, seems never to learn, or wanting to learn the lesson. Democracy means the power of the people. America taught us that in the most spectacular way. That's why "The Tillman Story" is so disturbing. We can't and mustn't take anything for granted. I'm an American citizen now, for many years and proud of it. That's why we should unite our voices to those of the Tillman family and demand to be heard. If America loses its credibility, the entire world will suffer for it. Let's fight for America to remain as a beacon of light. "The Tillman Story" reminds us that together we must confront, question and fight. Thank you Tillman family and thank you to the filmmakers.

and even though people might be moved and/or outraged, it's not like that ever stopped what moves the human animal to do this sort of stuff. people here at IMDb have already written something to the effect that there is truth and then there's the government's truth. that's been true not only of the US govt, but pretty much all govts, when looked at from a certain perspective. and, yes. the US govt is no exception...in fact, it may set new standards in the atrocity cover up dept. but i'll leave that as a response to other documentaries... if you'd like a better idea of what the US govt has done since its inception, i'd advise reading howard zinn's 'a people's history of the united states'. it's a real eye opener. i don't usually like history(maybe b/c, even as a child, i intuited the lies being told), but this book was one of the best(of any genre)i've ever read. and, yes, it's 'biased'. what piece of information ever passed on isn't? but you can decide for yourself how much of it feels truthful. esp in light of America's actions these days. what one needs to understand, basically, is that alpha animals are willing to do whatever it takes to stay alphas. anything it takes includes a lot of things we, generally, consider immoral. but it's 'business as usual'. and the need to control that business/investment. it's done, as i said, worldwide. large companies not only have a large influence on policy making, they, pretty much, dictate policy making. AND, their leaders, as recently seen with wall street and investment bankers, are beyond/above the law. like it or not they ARE the law. i would imagine an effective protest might be to withhold taxes, if large groups of people did so... good luck to those of you with consciences who want to make humane changes. i say this without a bit of sarcasm or failure prejudice implied.

I would have given this documentary a 10 except for the fact I had already read Krakauers book "Where Men Win Glory" which goes into greater detail on exactly what happened that fateful day when Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire. The book also covers much more of what shaped Pat Tillman in his years growing up in New Almaden, California. The movie does hit you with more of an emotional punch than the book does, because it compacts the idiocy into 90 minutes rather than over the course of a week to read the story. Both will leave you very angry at our government.

The Tillman Story paints a picture of an All-American boy who doesn't exactly fit the mold. He isn't a Christian; in fact he is an atheist. He is not a dumb jock, but a very intelligent young man who reads Norm Chomsky, a progressive intellect. He is not arrogant but caring. He married his childhood sweetheart. He enlisted in the Army Rangers after 9/11, along with his younger brother. The movie covers all of this and does it very well. The movie stands out for contrasting Pat Tillman who was no flag pin patriot, with all of the flag waving leadership that was looking for hero's in order to promote the war effort. They started with Jessica Lynch which is portrayed at the start of the film as just a propaganda stunt to cheer up the home front. Tillman became disillusioned after that and made the comment that the Iraq war was "probably illegal as hell". He enlisted to fight in Afghanistan not Iraq, but when he had the opportunity after his Iraq tour to get out of the Army, and play football again, he turned it down in order to honor his commitment.

Where the movie doesn't get it quite right is in giving the audience a better perspective just how badly mistaken the Rangers were in shooting at Tillman. They weren't more than 20 yards away from him when he was shot. The book goes into great detail on this, whereas the documentary tries to show it but it doesn't jump out at you.

The movie is at its most persuasive in exposing how ridiculous the higher up general's were in explaining away why they were not informed about what happened. "We knew nothing" is just as alive in the American army as it was in Germany in WWII.

This is a documentary that should be watched by all American's but of course it won't. It presents too many uncomfortable truths about our military, our leaders, our American culture, and our attitudes. We want nice tidy endings like in the movies but in real life our hero's aren't all like John Wayne. They are better actually. Wayne never even served in World War II. What a contrast. Tillman is the guy you would really want in the foxhole next to yours. He was a true leader and a true patriot and he had a wonderful family and a wonderful wife. They aren't very many Pat Tillman's in our country but we were fortunate to have him if only for a short time. It is too bad he was so ill served by his commanders.