Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

ShangLuda Admirable film.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

runamokprods Quite extraordinary documentary dealing with the emotional and intellectual issues around Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan and subsequent Army cover-up. A film of insight, humanity, and righteous anger, but it never feels manipulative of the people or facts involved. Like Tillman himself, it avoids simplistic answers and tries to look deeper. This isn't a propaganda piece, but a complex study of a family's grief, and how powerful organizations like the Army sometimes put their own image ahead of human honesty and decency. Tillman himself emerges as a highly complex man – someone who didn't go off to war looking for glory, and indeed, tried actively just to be treated like any other soldier – a desire the Army refused to honor, even in death (Tillman had specifically, in writing. requested not to have a military funeral should he die in war, but the Army tried to bulldoze the family into one for PR purposes). He believed the Afghanistan war was a righteous cause, but politically disagreed with the decision to go to war with Iraq, while fighting with honor and distinction. He was an atheist who respected and was curious about all religions, and whose public memorial was co-opted by public figures invoking the name of God, until finally his little brother – in an act of slightly drunken bravery - stood up to tell them all that wasn't who Pat was. His family emerge as heroes of another kind, working tirelessly to discover the truth of what really happened to their son and why,all the while fighting an Army and political establishment that just wanted them to stand there mute, and look sad and grateful for the cameras. Amir Bar-Lev is emerging as one of our best documentary filmmakers, and I'd urge you to also check out his earlier work "My Kid Could Paint That" and "Fighter".

TxMike Pat Tillman was an all-star college football player and an all-star pro football player. But the events of 9/11 had a deep personal impact on him, realizing that everyone needs to do their part in assuring freedom, he gave up $$Millions to enlist in the Army. He was killed, as it turned out, by "friendly fire", his own men as he climbed a ridge to see if he could spot enemies.That in itself is tragic, but what followed was an even greater tragedy. The true facts of the incident were covered up, most likely all the way to President Bush and V.P. Cheyney, and all the military commanders between Tillman and the office of POTUS.Instead of simply telling the truth, a story was fabricated that a Taliban ambush was responsible for Tillman's death. This story went to the memorial ceremony for Tillman. He was hailed as a hero for protecting his men. Only with a very persistent investigation by Tillman's mother, plus a scathing letter from Tillman's father to the government, got close to the truth.Why did the military and the Bush administration lie? Because the various Bush-promoted conflicts were unpopular, and they didn't need for it to get even more unpopular, so a story was fabricated ostensibly for political gain.With real footage of Tillman, and real footage of news reports and congressional hearings, it is an eye-opener as a glimpse into how the system can so easily cover up the truth.

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

imizrahi2002 and even though people might be moved and/or outraged, it's not like that ever stopped what moves the human animal to do this sort of stuff. people here at IMDb have already written something to the effect that there is truth and then there's the government's truth. that's been true not only of the US govt, but pretty much all govts, when looked at from a certain perspective. and, yes. the US govt is no exception...in fact, it may set new standards in the atrocity cover up dept. but i'll leave that as a response to other documentaries... if you'd like a better idea of what the US govt has done since its inception, i'd advise reading howard zinn's 'a people's history of the united states'. it's a real eye opener. i don't usually like history(maybe b/c, even as a child, i intuited the lies being told), but this book was one of the best(of any genre)i've ever read. and, yes, it's 'biased'. what piece of information ever passed on isn't? but you can decide for yourself how much of it feels truthful. esp in light of America's actions these days. what one needs to understand, basically, is that alpha animals are willing to do whatever it takes to stay alphas. anything it takes includes a lot of things we, generally, consider immoral. but it's 'business as usual'. and the need to control that business/investment. it's done, as i said, worldwide. large companies not only have a large influence on policy making, they, pretty much, dictate policy making. AND, their leaders, as recently seen with wall street and investment bankers, are beyond/above the law. like it or not they ARE the law. i would imagine an effective protest might be to withhold taxes, if large groups of people did so... good luck to those of you with consciences who want to make humane changes. i say this without a bit of sarcasm or failure prejudice implied.