The Tillman Story (2010)

 I watched this documentary on Veteran’s Day.

I work with Veterans in my every day life at work, and so Veteran’s Day is a time that I reflect on what service, country, heroism, respect and bravery.  This movie fit the bill for that.  This is a recap of a high profile enlistment post-September 11^th, and how things went from bad to worse after his death.

The filmmaker, Bar-Lev, who previously made the documentary My Kid Could Paint That, employs the conventional documentary format of talking heads, file footage, and insert shots, but he assembles it skillfully, presenting the Tillman The Patriot narrative first, then going back to show a more complicated man, whose real reasons for abandoning his lucrative football career to enlist in the military have never been fully revealed. Along the way, Bar-Lev blasts the media for merely parroting what the authorities tell them, and effectively accuses a succession of investigative bodies of entering outright, obvious lies into the public record. Most of the material in this movie has been seen, heard, or read before, but never with this level of useful illustration. 

Tillman’s death was warped into a message about recruitment into the military, but through extreme persistence his family uncovered the truth about his death, and worse yet, the cover up, which went well up the chain of command.

The anger at the disservice to veterans through the lying is palpable and made understandable.