valleyjohn Before seeing this documentary i had never heard of Pat Tillman. Tillman was the all American hero . A pro American football player who gave up his million dollar contract to fight for his country. The problem was that things are never always that simple in The United States.One day while out on patrol , Tillman and his group came under fire and he was shot in the head and killed. The family was that they had a fire fight with Afghan soldiers and that was how Pat had lost his life but it didn't take long to find out the the military were lying. Tillman had been killed by friendly fire.Lets face it it's no surprise that the military and the US government covered this up. They are both institutions that are rotten to the core. What is so amazing is how nonchalant these people are about this cover up and that the cover up went all the way to the top .The film has interviews with the family and his friends and it shows the amazing length this brave family went to get justice. It shows real footage of the memorial service for Tillman and the wonderfully honest speech his younger brother gave. If i had one criticism it would be that the documentary is not confrontational enough but i suppose when your dealing with corrupt weasels like Donald Rumsfeld you have to be a bit cautious.

amosduncan_2000 Two posters here take issue with the film. One makes valid points about it's possibly worshipful treatment of Pat (did he have people who DIDN'T like him?) and one from a typical right wing nut job who questions weather Tillman's death was being used to promote the war. This is obviously true, and is shown in the film! Either way, this is a powerful and essential documentary, not to be missed. It's very hard to quibble with it's central conclusions, unless you live in a right wing fantasy like the second poster I mentioned. This film should be seen by every American. At some point the disaster of the post 9-11 years, what the Country did to itself, must be faced. And this is a good place to start.

paulhmull I have to admit that I thought Pat was going to be that jock that I've grown up to despise. The meat head, all muscle and loud but of course thats not what he was and when you are introduced to his family in this film you see he is from the best stock.Someone earlier in one of the reviews said the family where what real American families where all about and this resonated with me. I grew up in Dublin and was brought up to believe the Americans were the good guys and you know what I thought they where too. Unfortunately over the last number of years, preceding the war in Iraq and most probably starting with Vietnam I've started to have my doubts about the direction this once cherished country of mine was taking, I started to see through its lies and listen to the tiny minority of people who where being drowned out by the media and the politicians and the Army. The Tillmans are just another causality in this long list of brave people standing up for what they believe is right and what happened with their son as being wrong.This is another story that all Americans and people from other countries should be made watch. This is the truth trickling out from behind the bull that we are fed through our TVs by a complicit media. There is something seriously rotten at the core of Western Govts and the more people that are aware of this the quicker we can deal it.

Hellmant 'THE TILLMAN STORY': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five) Documentary film based on the events of pro-football player turned Army Ranger Pat Tillman who was killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire and the U.S. government's plot to cover it up and use it as a propaganda recruitment tactic. The film was directed by Amir Bar-Lev (who also directed the acclaimed documentary 'MY KID COULD PAINT THAT') and written by Mark Monroe (who also wrote the popular documentary 'THE COVE'). It's narrated by actor Josh Brolin. The film is yet another amazingly well made and memorable documentary from 2010 (one of the best years ever for the genre).The narrative of the film is mostly told from the perspective of the Tillman family, focusing on Pat's mother and father who put up an amazingly inspiring fight to uncover the truth of the details surrounding their son's death. It opens with the news coverage surrounding Pat's unexpected rejection of a $3.6 million Cardinals' football contract in order to enlist in the U.S. Army alongside his brother Kevin (who also gave up a career of professional baseball) in 2002. It quickly progresses to the initial reports of Pat's death in battle as the result of enemy fire in April of 2004. Weeks later the Tillman family and the public are told that Pat was in fact killed due to friendly fire by his own unit in a mistaken identity accident. Pat's mother and father continue to push for a full investigation and the release of all information regarding the shooting and as of this date have still been denied. We learn as the Tillmans dig deeper though that Pat was shot three times in the head at close range (which would most likely indicated it was intentional) and his body armor, uniform and journal were burned immediately following the shooting. Given the fact that the journal contained many of Pat's discontent views with the war in Iraq and observations of illegal activities there it lead many to speculate that the shooting was a planned assassination as well.It has obviously never been proved if Pat Tillman's death was an accident or planned murder but as this movie shows it's still a gross injustice to the American people and an insult to all American soldiers that the U.S. government (going all the way to the top as the movie proves) covered the details of his death up and deliberately lied to us all about them. As many have pointed out our government tried to use Tillman as a 'poster child' for recruitment and spin his death into a heroic and inspirational tale when Pat Tillman made it well known that he did not want to be seen that way and did not support the war in Iraq. There's a lot of film time spent on Pat and his family's religious views or lack there of them and how people treated them because of this. We learn that Pat was very well read though and had researched many different religions and was interested in the subject.The movie is extremely involving, interesting and emotional. It's well researched and extremely well executed. There were a few camera shot setups that I thought demeaned the otherwise outstanding quality of the film but they were minor and unimportant (which is even more so why the film could have done without them). I didn't know a lot about the details of the subject matter prior to seeing the film but have since became very interested and read up on them. That's the sign of a truly great documentary, one that wants you to learn more (although I do that before writing my reviews anyway but in this case I went a little beyond the norm and was eager to do so). The film is depressing, that's a given due to the subject matter, but it's also inspiring witnessing the heart and conviction of the Tillman families pursuit for justice. It's also of course inspiring learning more about Pat Tillman himself and what a truly inspirational soldier and American hero he really was. It's also an important film that all should see.Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIAZ2104LOU