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What really happened to Pat Tillman? A new film premiering at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday traces the search for answers about the death of the NFL safety-turned-Army ranger.
The film, "The Tillman Story," charts the truth about the serviceman's journey and his mother's attempts to discover what really happened to her son. After the army initially said Tillman died as a result of enemy combat in Afghanistan, an investigation revealed that Tillman's death was by friendly fire.
"It's the truth about his death and the truth about his life," the film's director Amir Bar-Lev tells POLITICO. "From a political point of view, there are some very strong indications that all the way up the chain of command, the truth about how Pat Tillman died was discussed and suppressed."
But unlike other Bush-bashing films, Bar-Lev says, the film goes farther and features interviews with Tillman's mother, Mary, his widow, his youngest brother and several soldiers in his platoon.
To drive home the point, the film features footage of when Mary Tillman, the soldier's mother, testified before a congressional panel in 2007.
"We have been asked over and over again, 'Well, what can we do for your family? How can we appease you?' And it makes me sick," Mary Tillman told the panel. "It's not about our family. Our family will never be satisfied. We'll never have Pat back. But what is so outrageous is this isn't about Pat. This is about what they did to a nation."
Still, Bar-Lev adds, "We don't just point the finger at the Bush administration. That's an easy scapegoat...and it's kind of like shooting fish in a barrel. It's been done already."
Bar-Lev says the mainstream media helped push the image that Tillman didn't have a sense of purpose until he joined the army in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks.
"I would just say that the biggest myth is about Pat's character and who Pat actually was," Bar-Lev says. "That message is at the heart of the film."
He credits the Tillman family for being "more interested in the truth than a heroic glorious story."
After premiering at Sundance, the film will appear on A&E.
