‘Tillman Story’ offers some insight

Pat Tillman was many things to many people: a son, brother, husband, friend and, as a player for Arizona State University and the Arizona Cardinals, a football star who drew cheers for his exciting, physical style.

But once he gave up his NFL career to join the Army Rangers in 2002 and then was fatally shot in Afghanistan in 2004, he became something else entirely, something larger than life through his death: a symbol of American patriotism, a poster boy, a crucial part of the government's message. And that turned him into something he wasn't.

"The Tillman Story" attempts to get to the bottom of what happened the day he was killed by following the exhaustive investigative efforts of Tillman's family -- namely, his mother, Dannie -- and, in the process, allows us to get to know who the man himself really was.

Director Amir Bar-Lev, whose previous documentaries include the smart, suspenseful "My Kid Could Paint That," approaches "The Tillman Story" as a bit of a mystery, as well. Tension builds as details emerge and the disparity between lie and truth becomes more glaringly obvious. Sometimes it's little things, like the moment Tillman and his brother, Kevin, decided to enlist -- not immediately after Sept. 11, 2001, as had been depicted, but rather six months later.

Sometimes the discrepancies are galling, as in the documented evidence that Tillman didn't want the very military funeral he was given; his widow, Marie, describes being forced to comply with the wishes of military brass.

And sometimes there's just flat-out deception, as in the military's attempts to cover up the fact that Tillman died as a result of friendly fire, something that was known a week after his death but didn't come out until some five weeks had passed.

Not all of this is new. Books have been written on the subject since Tillman's death, including one by his mother. But Bar-Lev thoroughly and methodically lays it all out and lets the information speak for itself.

He takes interviews with the men who were there that day and reams of documents and presents them in a clear-eyed, streamlined way. Most importantly, he lets the emotion shine through on its own without overdramatization. Obviously, there is enough inherent heartache and frustration here.

But getting to know the Tillman family -- and through them, Pat -- provides inspiration. At the funeral, with all its proper military pomp and circumstance, youngest brother Richard hopped on stage in a T-shirt and jeans, holding a beer and dropping F-bombs; "He's not with God, he's (expletive) dead," he matter-of-factly asserted.

Through the memories and anecdotes they share, we learn of a young man who loved to laugh, take risks and goof off with his younger brothers . But he was also a reader and a thinker and not at all what you might expect when you consider the stereotypes associated with football players or soldiers.

We may never know exactly who shot Pat Tillman on that ridge in Afghanistan or why, but we have a better idea of who he was.