Movie Review: The Tillman Story

Marshall Fine
Author and film critic,
hollywoodandfine.com
August 17, 2010 09:40 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marshall-fine/huffpost-review-ithe-till_b_684588.html

Given the level of deceit it portrays -- and what it
says about the moral underpinnings of the Bush
administration's approach to the war in Iraq in general
-- it's surprising that The Tillman Story doesn't
positively set the screen on fire.

And yet that very sense of outrage seems muted in this
film by Amir Bar-Lev, whose My Kid Could Paint That
also dealt with the conflict between appearance and
reality.

Pat Tillman was a scholar and an athlete, a highly paid
player in the National Football League. But he was also
a patriot, moved by the events of 9/11 to put his
career on hold so that he could enlist in the Army and
serve his country. He joined the U.S. Army Rangers in
2002, serving in Afghanistan.

When he was killed in combat in 2004, he was hailed as
a hero: an American who sacrificed his life fighting an
evil enemy on behalf of his country. The Army and the
Bush administration couldn't cover him in enough
encomiums, giving him a posthumous Silver Star and
portraying him as an example of a real American --
unlike those "other" Americans who had resisted the
idea of invading Iraq and who didn't support the war on
terror, at least as the Bush folks defined it.

Almost at once, however, the rumors began to surface --
but it wasn't until more than a year after his death
that the truth came out: Tillman had, in fact, been
shot by his own men. And this secret had been not only
kept but covered up by military officials up to and
including Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, to prevent
embarrassing the Army and the Bushies and to avoid
casting doubt on the illegitimate military mission in
Iraq.

The Tillman Story chronicles the struggle of Tillman's
family -- from his brother, who was serving with
Tillman, to his parents, who battled to find the truth
-- to get the real story of what had happened to
Tillman. It is their anger that this film channels,
though that anger should belong to anyone who was
lulled into believing the neocons' version of reality
for most of the 21st century's initial decade.

Death by friendly fire is always tragic but it is a
fact of war. Accidents happen and people die from them.
You take appropriate action, learn from your mistakes
and move on.

But, as Watergate and all subsequent scandals have
proved, it's rarely the initial mistake that causes the
problems -- it's the cover-up. So it is with the Pat
Tillman saga. To this day, the Army and the government
have yet to apologize to the Tillman family for lying
about Tillman's death; wrongdoing has barely been
acknowledged, let alone punished.

If you're not familiar with Tillman's history, then The
Tillman Story will stoke your anger -- not only at the
senseless waste of his life but the government's
concerted effort to turn it into a propaganda win,
something they also did with the capture of Jessica
Lynch, another soldier whose combat actions, as ginned
up by the Bush-era Pentagon, did not square with
reality.

On the other hand, if you've followed Tillman's case at
all, The Tillman Story will be a bit of a letdown: a
rehash of familiarly outrageous facts, with little
that's new to add to the tale. But we're in the
minority, I'm afraid.

Which is what makes The Tillman Story so valuable and
necessary. At a moment in time when most people barely
pay attention to the news -- and get what little news
they receive in prepackaged soundbites from TV (or,
worse, from Fox News) -- this will all be a revelation
to the mass audience.

Those, of course, are exactly the people who won't go
see a film like this, either out of lack of interest or
because they've been warned away by right-wing blogs
trying to portray the film as some sort of hit job.

Yeah, the truth -- its liberal bias apparently is
showing again.

_____________________________________________

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