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As I wrote on May 2nd, Amir Bar Lev's The Tillman Story is "far and away one of the finest films I've seen this year, and a likely contender for the 2010 Best Feature Documentary Oscar. It has the stuff that engages and holds and sinks in deep." Which means, as Movieline's Stu Van Airsdale predicted earlier today, that the fiends at Big Hollywood will probably try and trash it in some way.

Sure enough, BH's John Nolte responded as follows: "Big Hollywood hasn't seen The Tillman Story. It wasn't even high on our radar. But when two of Tinseltown's top leftist water-carriers" -- the L.A. Times' Stephen Zeitchik also wrote about it on 6.20 -- "carry this much water to assure us there's nothing political to see here and then assume the highly defensive crouch of challenging us to 'smear' it...well, something's up. And we very much appreciate them letting us know."

Returning to my 5.2 review: "I felt just as stirred up last night -- seething, close to tearful -- as I was after my initial Sundance viewing three months ago. Because this is not a film about the Middle East conflict but about a stand-up American family and how they responded (and continue to respond) to an orchestrated governmental obscenity that tried to diminish the memory of a fallen son.

"I'm speaking, of course, of former Arizona Cardinals safety and U.S. Army Ranger Pat Tillman, and particularly his April 2004 friendly-fire death in Afghanistan -- a result of his being shot three times in the head by a fellow U.S. soldier. It happened because of the usual idiotic confusion, and some young intemperate guys who wanted to be in a fire fight and acted foolishly in the heat of the moment. Tillman was enraged that his own fellows were shooting at him, of course, and his last words were an attempt to get them to wake up -- 'I'm Pat fucking Tillman!'

"The obscenity was the attempt in '04 by the U.S. military and Bush administration to make political hay out of Tillman's death by manufacturing a bullshit scenario that claimed he was killed by Taliban troops and that he died in an effort save his fellow troops.

"Of course, 97% of American moviegoers are going to ignore The Tillman Story when it opens because (a) they're resolutely opposed to seeing any film that has anything to do with the conflicts in Iraq or Afghanistan and (b) they don't much like documentaries anyway, and (c) they just want to chill out and be entertained. The fact that The Tillman Story leaves you feeling angry and alive and engaged with the actual world will most likely have no effect on this determination."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on June 22, 2010 at 2:20 PM

comment #1

Mayor Quimby says ...

I thought it was common knowledge that Tillman's death was the result of friendly-fire.

Posted by Mayor Quimby at June 22, 2010 2:56 PM

comment #2

Luke Y. Thompson says ...

Mayor...it is. The details of the incident and its cover-up, though, are less well-known.

Posted by Luke Y. Thompson at June 22, 2010 3:05 PM

comment #3

Jeffrey Wells says ...

The doc doesn't treat the friendly fire death as a Big Reveal. It's about how the Bushies tried to fictionally spin Tillman's death as glorious and valiant in the old John Wayne tradition -- they lied about what they knew or suspected to be the truth -- in order to get a nice propaganda boost for the war effort.

Posted by Jeffrey Wells at June 22, 2010 3:08 PM

comment #4

shanes5 says ...

Mayor...it is now, but that's not the story the the military or the administration were selling when it first happened...and that's what the film is about--how the truth wouldn't have come out had his mother not smelled a rat and began investigating on her own...

Posted by shanes5 at June 22, 2010 4:21 PM

comment #5

Glenn Kenny says ...

I love the affected imperiousness of Nolte's claim that "the film wasn't even high on our radar." I actually believe the piece of human trash, too; the Tillman story is one of those things that make folks of Nolte's ilk plug their fingers into their ears and chant "La la la la I can't hear you the war in Afghanistan is teh awesome Obama's a wimp" etcetera and so on.

Boy, that McChrystal Lite fellow (the motor of the Tillman cover-up) sure is covering himself in glory again, too. You can see the wingnuts lining up their "insubordination IS a serious offense but in this case we should give it a pass because the war is teh awesome Obama's a wimp" ducks even as we speak. Pigs.

Posted by Glenn Kenny at June 22, 2010 4:38 PM

comment #6

C.C. Baxter says ...

My Kid Could Paint That was one of the finest films of 2007, so I'm very much looking forward to this.

@Glenn, LOL at "La la la la I can't hear you the war in Afghanistan is teh awesome Obama's a wimp." Hilarious. That is pretty much the entirety of every comment left by a wingnut on any news article today.

Posted by C.C. Baxter at June 22, 2010 4:48 PM

comment #7

corey3rd says ...

If it doesn't fit the narrative and can't be openly scoffed, what point does a guy like Nolte have in carrying about covering it?

Posted by corey3rd at June 22, 2010 4:53 PM

comment #8

moviechick44 says ...

Very interesting stuff and good movie overall. I saw it in Seattle a couple of weeks ago.

Posted by moviechick44 at June 22, 2010 5:54 PM

comment #9

dangovich says ...

Well done Glenn. The Tillman story is similar to the story behind the rescue of Jessica Lynch in Iraq.

Posted by dangovich at June 22, 2010 6:50 PM

comment #10

Mark says ...

"...to an orchestrated governmental obscenity that tried to diminish the memory of a fallen son."

Please. When the government tries to diminish the memory of someone, they just upload child pornagraphy to his computer. In this case, they aggrandized the efforts of Tilman to make his sacrifices appear less futile. Name an enterprise that does not attempt to spin events to make themselves more attractive to future employees. It was an understandable lie, that the family sniffed out and understandably chose not to be complicit in it. It's all understandable and all tragic.

Posted by Mark at June 22, 2010 7:11 PM

comment #11

Mark says ...

I should clarify that I understand the Purple Heart and all that upper-level propaganda. I don't understand the nimrods that set fire to Pat's personal shit. They deserved to be punished and I believe that they were.

Posted by Mark at June 22, 2010 7:18 PM

comment #12

reverent and free says ...

Genn, I laughed too at the "it wasn't high on our radar" comment. Nolte has sooo much more important things to do running a blog for and by naval gazers.

Posted by reverent and free at June 22, 2010 7:19 PM

comment #13

econeywaaa says ...

All of my comments on Nolte's ridiculous site have to approved by a moderator now. Let's see if they publish this one;
"I look forward to seeing this film. One thing the right and all of the military apologists can't deny is that McChrystal and his subordinates engaged in a cover up to try and keep the public from knowing the truth about Tillman's death. The bottom line is these scumbags lied to the American people and tried to paint Tillman's death as a rallying cry for a war that has now turned into our generation's Vietnam. So please., continue to wrap yourselves in the flag and deny the facts in front of you."

Posted by econeywaaa at June 22, 2010 7:49 PM

comment #14

Travis Crabtree says ...

It was a bullshit fuck up of the highest order and those responsible will have to take it to their graves.

However, how high up did it go?

(here's where I get the requisite shit for "sticking up for Bush")

Point is, did it go up that high? I was under the impression that people in the Army were responsible for the fabrication.

I know if you hate W. with ever fiber of your being it's tempting to picture George, (with Rove and Cheney), rubbing his hands together in the oval office and saying "hey guys, I've got it! Let's lie and say he died a hero!"

If it can be proven that happened, then shame on the lot.

I just thought it was an Army thing.

(and don't bore me with the "under his watch" line, DeeZee)

Anyway, a great tragedy all around.

And if the guys at Big Hollywood, (a site that I, an admitted McCain voter, seem to go to and read less than anyone else here apparently), decide to trash it because they don't like what it says and nothing more, then shame on them, too.

Posted by Travis Crabtree at June 22, 2010 8:00 PM

comment #15

reverent and free says ...

econeywaaa, I find a lot of right-wing sites I try to comment on to correct mistakes make it impossible to submit a comment on without going through an "approval" process that they never follow through on.

Posted by reverent and free at June 22, 2010 9:18 PM

comment #16

EdHavens says ...

Again, I ask... who the hell is John Nolte, and why in the hell should anyone care what he thinks?

Posted by EdHavens at June 23, 2010 12:27 AM

comment #17

The Hoyk says ...

Travis, that Bush/Rove/Chaney scenario is actually how I pictured it, though in my version, Guy Pearce heard them over the supposedly one-way microphone and told them they would need to declare more than one hero.

Posted by The Hoyk at June 23, 2010 4:08 AM

comment #18

econeywaaa says ...

Rev,

They have some sort of ratings system for comments, get enough bad ratings from the cretins and your comments go from being put up right away to a 48 hour editorial approval process. Many times some of my more incendiary comments have not been published.

Ed,

Check Nolte's IMDB credit, he had one directorial effort, the ironically titled "Beautiful Loser" with John Schneider and William Katt. Apparently, he's a drinking buddy of Andrew Breitbart and they all used to sit around a bar and bitch about how the liberals in Hollywood keep them down because they're conservative.

Posted by econeywaaa at June 23, 2010 7:52 AM

comment #19

EdHavens says ...

So Nolte is basicallly a nobody who doesn't deserve all this attention. Got it. Thanks.

Posted by EdHavens at June 23, 2010 8:27 AM

comment #20

John Nolte says ...

Rumor has it Wells lifted his ban against me. I just want to confirm that before going any further. Don't want to go anywhere I'm not welcome!

Posted by John Nolte at June 23, 2010 8:39 AM

comment #21

Vadim Rizov says ...

Gosh John. Where wouldn't your low-grade brand of ersatz-stinging sarcasm be welcome?

Posted by Vadim Rizov at June 23, 2010 9:27 AM

comment #22

DiscoNap says ...

Welcome back, Nolte.

Posted by DiscoNap at June 23, 2010 10:04 AM

comment #23

Terry McCarty says ...

econeywaaa wrote:
Apparently, he's a drinking buddy of Andrew Breitbart and they all used to sit around a bar and bitch about how the liberals in Hollywood keep them down because they're conservative.

And then once a month, they visit Lional Chetwynd.

Posted by Terry McCarty at June 23, 2010 1:11 PM

comment #24