‘The Tillman Story’ recounts the robust life & flawed death of Pat Tillman

"The Tillman Story" has been endorsed by Michael Moore, but that's no reason to avoid seeing it.

Yes, Amir Bar Lev's documentary probably inflates military incompetence, opportunism and butt-covering into a sinister conspiracy, but it also stands as a valuable piece of biography that illuminates the fascinating life of Pat Tillman.

Tillman, of course, is the NFL star who dropped his enviable life of fame and lavish compensation and volunteered for the U.S. Army, serving with the Rangers in Iraq then Afghanistan, where he was killed in action by members of his own squad.

"The Tillman Story" provides the details of his death, and they are tragic and dispiriting. The details of his life, however, are compelling. The Tillman we meet is the kind of vital, evolving and ferociously independent American of which the country, in its dull partisan dotage, produces far too few.

Tillman, we learn, was raised by big-city refugees who moved to rural California so their three boys could roam free, and they did. Pat and his two brothers lived out of doors, without television, without phone privileges.

They were encouraged to be free thinkers, to follow their hearts and minds, not hewing to any particular creed or religion, but free to choose any or none.

Tillman grew into a star athlete and good student. He attended Arizona State on scholarship, and actually functioned as a scholar, graduating with honors, continuing to play football in the NFL as a standout safety. He married his high-school sweetheart, lived in a modest home, rode a mountain bike to practice, never owned a cell phone, never lost his voracious intellectual curiosity.

It's Tillman's upbringing and resulting character that lend a special heartbreak to his death. We teach our children to think for themselves, and are sometimes horrified when they do.

Those closest to Tillman are appalled by his abrupt decision to enlist, not long after 9/11, but Tillman is determined. His mother is gripped by premonitions of his death, fulfilled when Tillman is killed by friendly fire.

As shown in the documentary, his squad was split and separated in a blindingly steep valley. Tillman had gone ahead with a few Rangers and an Afghan army soldier. When Rangers to the rear come under fire, Tillman (with the Afghani and a few Rangers) races to a ridgeline to help. Minutes later, when the trailing squad advances and sees the silhouetted figures on the mountain, they fire, killing the Afghani and Tillman.

At this point in "The Tillman Story," Pat disappears behind the movie's inquiry into the military's botched, slow-footed, self-serving investigation. Initially, the military does not seem prepared to admit that Tillman was killed by friendly fire. When that is conceded, the inquiry boils down to whether the soldiers were rash or criminal. The Army decided on the former.

Bar Lev seems certain the Bush administration (probably Donald Rumsfeld) ordered a coverup to help sell the war, but he does not prove this point and undercuts his own case by disclosing that the Army provided the Tillman family with virtually every document related to the investigation, including many that embarrassed the Army.

Still, there is great shame in the Army's move to strong-arm Tillman's widow into accepting a showy, military funeral. Tillman wanted no part of that, and was smart enough to anticipate what the Army might do with his flag-draped coffin. He emphatically stipulated that a private ceremony be held in the event of his death.

Tillman's widow, having only just learned of her husband's death, had to fend off pushy Army representatives for hours to see that Pat's wishes were honored.

This is evidence of military clumsiness, but also of Tillman's lively intelligence and mile-wide independent streak, which one hopes will be remembered longer than the shabby conduct of Army brass.