Amazing Saga of ‘The Tillman Story’ Has Lasting Power

Printer-friendly versionE-mail page to friendPDF version

Rating: 5.0/5.0

CHICAGO – You are unlikely to see a documentary this year more powerful than “The Tillman Story.” This film will shake your concept of heroism, the marketing machine of government, the military complex, and the state of journalism in the new millennium. It is a remarkable film that sent me out of the theater as angry as the people who refused to let Pat Tillman become the exact opposite of what he wanted to be. Don’t miss it.

Pat Tillman was an NFL superstar. If he hadn’t changed his course, he would probably be a multi-millionaire by now and still playing for the Arizona Cardinals. But he answered the same call that many young men did after 9/11, choosing to give up his lavish lifestyle and fight for our country in Iraq. Far too shortly after he got over there, he was killed in an ambush, valiantly dying in the line of fire.

The Tillman Story
Photo credit: Weinstein Films

Or so our government wanted us to believe. The truth was that Pat Tillman died in a valley as he cowered under friendly fire screaming “I’m Pat F**king Tillman!!!” until one of his fellow soldiers put a bullet in his head. It was a tragic, senseless death, but it’s what happened after Tillman’s accident that should spark outrage. A man who made his desire for privacy well-known, having never given one interview about his decision to join the military and even filling out paperwork asking that he not have a military funeral, was turned into a martyr; a face to sell an increasingly-unpopular war. The marketing hook was too good to pass up. If the enemy could kill a hero like Pat Tillman, who could possibly oppose wiping them out?

What the men who tried to turn a true hero into a marketing tool drastically underestimated was the drive of Pat Tillman’s family. If one takes anything away from “The Tillman Story,” it should be that all of us should be so lucky to have such intelligent and passionate people in charge of defending our legacy. It’s not just Pat. All of the Tillmans are heroes in my book as they refused to let their son, brother, or husband be used in a way that he never wanted to be.

The Tillman Story
Photo credit: Weinstein Films

Through a series of interviews with the Tillmans along with many one-on-ones with the people who served with Pat, Bar-Lev recreates not just what happened to Pat but how the false narrative around his passing was first created and then exposed. Bar-Lev pulls no punches; clearly implying that powerful figures like Bush and Rumsfeld knew how Tillman had actually died when they tried to pass it off as an ambush, but the most remarkably thing about “The Tillman Story” is that it’s an apolitical piece. This is not a documentary about the Iraq War and I would hate to think that war supporters or serious Conservatives would turn off to the film without even giving it a chance. This movie is for you too. Because it could happen to you too.

Pat Tillman didn’t want to be used as a symbol to sell the war and Bar-Lev wisely doesn’t use him in the opposite way either. He merely pulls apart the seams of shoddy journalism, corrupt government action, and bald-faced lies that tried to craft a hero out of someone who never wanted to be one. It should be must-see viewing for everyone regardless of political party or support of military action in the Middle East. This is the story of Pat “F**king” Tillman not the entire war. And it’s a story that makes for one of the best documentaries in years.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com