The Tillman Story is a 2010 documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 directed by Amir Bar-Lev

Amir Bar-Lev

Amir Bar-Lev is an American film director, producer and writer from Berkeley, California.Bar-Lev is noted for his work in directing documentary films. He has directed such films as Fighter, a documentary film released August 24, 2001. The film received a Special Jury Citation in the 2000 Karlovy...

. The film is about the 2004 death of U.S. Army Ranger Pat Tillman

Pat Tillman

Corporal Patrick Daniel "Pat" Tillman Jr. was an American football player who left his professional career and enlisted in the United States Army in June 2002 in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks. He joined the Army Rangers and served several tours in combat before he died in the...

 in the war in Afghanistan

War in Afghanistan (2001–present)

The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...

, the cover-up of the true circumstances of his death, and his family's struggle to unearth the truth. It was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The film is narrated by Josh Brolin

Josh Brolin

Josh James Brolin is an American actor. He has acted in theater, film and television roles since 1985, and won acting awards for his roles in the films W., No Country for Old Men, Milk and True Grit.-Early life:...

.

Reception

French journalist Marjolaine Gout gave the film 4 stars out of 5. She wrote about it as a “stunning” documentary exposing the social practice in the United States using history and media to federate a nation. She explains that the movie shows the manipulation of the mass with a constant staging of their life. She talks also about the concept of heroism present in this film. She makes a link between Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...

 and Patrick Tillman in the use of their identity as legend and symbol.

The film currently has a 93% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

based on 82 reviews.

External links

• The Tillman Story (Review) on CorrienteLatina
• IONCINEMA.com interview with Amir Bar-Lev for The Tillman Story
• 'The Tillman Story': One Family's Quest For The Truth, by Bob Mondello. NPR.org. September 7, 2010.