Review of The Tillman Story (2010) by Robert H — 16 Jul 2011

Pat Tillman was a famous guy killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in April of 2004. To spin this embarrassment into a promotion of the invasion, Bush and everyone down the chain of command covered up and/or lied about what really happened. That's the end of the story, right? Army command is guilty of nothing more than trying to cover up an embarrassing accidental friendly fire incident.

If that's all you think this movie is trying to convey, you missed its real message. The Tillmans unpeeled four layers of the onion, but they are very aware that the onion has more layers. Every time an official story was proven false, another story was fabricated to explain only that proof. At no point did anyone in any of the "investigations," including Congress, show the slightest interest in discovering what actually happened.

Key questions you would ask in a real investigation were never asked; questions like, "When he yelled, over and over, 'I'm Pat Tillman,' why did you keep shooting at him?" or, "If this was only an attempt to cover up a friendly fire incident, why did you order his personal diary burned?".

By the end of the movie, the viewer understands why it says, "To this day, [Pat's father] has not received a satisfactory explanation as to how Pat was killed.".