The Tillman Story

(USA, 2009, 94 mins)

Executive Producers: Molly Thompson, Robert Debitetto, Robert Sharenow, Andrew Ruhemann, Michael Davies
Producer: John Battsek
Screenwriters: Amir Bar-Lev, Joe Bini, Mark Monroe
Cinematographers: Sean Kirby, Igor Martinovic
Editors: Joshua Altman, Joe Bini, Gabriel Rhodes
Music: Philip Sheppard
Narrator: Josh Brolin

In life, the government tried to turn NFL star Pat Tillman into a one-dimensional patriotic symbol.In death, the Pentagon concocted a headline-ready myth about his heroic demise by Taliban fire. It was all spin, a cynical fabrication. In the powerful, probing The Tillman Story, filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev looks behind the propaganda to reveal the complex, private man who kept to himself his motives for enlisting at the height of his football career. Digging deeper, Bar-Lev also reveals the true story behind Tillman’s death on the battlefield and the military’s dogged cover-up of what really happened.

In addition to the men who fought alongside Tillman and were subsequently told to hold their tongues after his death, Bar-Lev introduces us to Tillman’s tenacious, loving, and righteously angry family, who refused to accept the official lies they were fed at every turn, as witnessed in the startling footage of Tillman’s younger brother’s unvarnished speech at the funeral. Both an expose of the military’s deceptions and a portrait of the tireless efforts of his family to speak truth to power, The Tillman Story will move, outrage, and enlighten you.

David Ansen

Expected to attend: Amir Bar-Lev.

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