"The Tillman Story": The reviews
For whatever reason, The Tillman Story, Amir Bar-Lev’s documentary on the friendly-fire death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan and the by all accounts tragically, perhaps criminally, mishandled aftermath, hasn’t opened in Arizona yet.
It’s screened for critics once, and at least once for the ASU football team, but as yet I haven’t heard of any local special screenings before its scheduled opening Sept. 3.
It’s showing in New York, however. The reviews have been exceedingly positive—though note the one exception below, from the New York Post.
You can see the trailer here. The full Metacritic page is here.
Here are some of the first reviews:
Mr. Bar-Lev’s clearsighted, emotionally steady documentary examines the family members’ deepening inquiry into the circumstances of Tillman’s death and chronicles their mounting rage at the military’s misappropriation of his story. The film visits the canyon where he died and the soldiers who were with him and heard his final words, in which he tried to alert the unidentified troops only 40 yards away that he was on their side.
The family’s outrage over the exploitation of their son boiled over in a letter that Tillman’s father, Pat Sr., wrote accusing the military of fraud. The letter led to an internal investigation and a Congressional hearing at which military leaders were grilled on what they knew about what the family asserted was a cover-up; their memories were vague.
“The Tillman Story” is a story that won’t go away, won’t leave you alone, won’t let you feel at ease. Intensely dramatic, filled with elevated heroism, crass self-interest and blatant stupidity, it’s a paradigmatic narrative of our tendentious, turbulent times.
It’s a fascinating film, full of drama, intrigue, tragedy and righteous indignation, but maybe its greatest accomplishment is to make you feel the death of one young man — a truly independent thinker who hewed his own way through the world, in the finest American tradition — as a great loss.
‘The Tillman Story" purports to be an exposé of the cover-up of the death by friendly fire of the Army Ranger and one time NFL star Pat Tillman. But, provocative and colorful as the film is, it does the very thing it denounces — massaging the facts to seize Tillman for a political agenda.
[…]
The film dances around this point, but Tillman’s mother, who is still unsatisfied after being given 3,000 pages of documents from the Army investigation, is a George W. Bush hater. Like many before her (such as Cindy Sheehan, who said her soldier son “was murdered … to benefit Israel”), she found sorrow curdling into something more dynamic and satisfying: political rage. A military organizational chart that is topped by a photo of the then-commander in chief (cue scary music) is as close as the movie gets to painting a picture of an evil cabal headed by Bush. But fratricide, when you clear away the fog of war, is simply a gruesome accident.
7:56 AM
PHXations—Friday, August 20, 2010
The Hoover Dam bypass is almost done. The most noted part of the new route, which means that the trip from Phoenix to Las Vegas will not include the crawl over the two-lane Hoover Dam, is a gynormous, 900-foot-high bridge.
Reports the Republic:
The Federal Highway Administration has not picked an exact opening date for the $114 million span, officially named the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. At a sneak preview Thursday to showcase the completion of the bridge deck, officials announced an opening gala on Oct. 16. A federal spokeswoman said the bridge will open in early November.
Workers are finishing the last details on the bridge as well as the highway connections and access paths for walkers, gawkers and bicyclists. The work includes installing a pedestrian railing, building a parking lot for visitors, and adding lighting, striping and crash barriers to the approach roads.
The story says that the Arizona approach to Hoover Dam will be closed, so you’ll have to get to Nevada if you want to see the dam proper.
The dam’s official name is the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.
Tillman, of course, is the Arizona football star was was killed in friendly fire in Afghanistan. O'Callaghan is a former governor of Nevada.
Nick Martin is the Valley’s best blogger, Phoenix magazine says.
The mag’s Best of the Valley issue salutes Martin’s blog, Heat City, calling it “a true marvel of D-I-Y journalism”:
Competing against entire newsrooms at The Arizona Republic and other newspapers, Martin took first place in breaking news at the most recent Arizona Press Club Awards for getting the scoop on a series of arrests related to the 2004 bombing of the Scottsdale diversity office
IN other media awards, the Republic’s E.J. Montini is given best columnist and Buildproof.com, which helps folks remodel their kitchens, is deemed best local web site.
The Arizona Department of Commerce says that unemployment in the state held steady at its already high rate of 9.6 percent.
From the PBJ:
The Phoenix metro area’s unemployment rate moved from 8.7 percent in June to 8.8 percent in July
From July 2009 to July 2010 Arizona lost 6,800 jobs, or 0.3 percent of its total workforce.
6:40 AM
The Pat Tillman movie
Variety says the Weinstein brothers have bought the distribution rights at Sundance to The Tillman Story, a documentary on the life, death and aftermath of the former Cardinals quarterback safety:
Distrib’s [sic] snagged North American, U.K., Australia and New Zealand rights on docu “The Tillman Story,” the military death exposé about NFL player Pat Tillman, helmed by Amir Bar-Lev and written by Mark Monroe (“The Cove”). “Tillman” is produced by John Battsek of Passion Pictures.
The Weinstein Company, run by the brothers Bob and Harvey, is the organization the pair formed after leaving Miramax behind at Disney. The story says it will hit theaters later this year.
Says IndieWire:
“What they said happened, didn’t happen,” Pat Tillman’s mother, Mary, says early on in “The Tillman Story,” “They made up a story, so you have to set the record straight.”
Mystery surrounded the passing of Tillman after he was killed in Afghanistan in 2004, sparking a Congressional investigation into the cause of the pro football player’s death. He was awarded the U.S. military’s Silver Star for dying in the line of enemy fire, but facts later revealed that he was killed by friendly fire. The film takes a broader look at Tillman’s life and the often conflicting accounts of his death, including a tug-of-war between the U.S. military and his own family as the facts surrounding the incident are revealed.
11:10 PM