The Film
The true story of the death of Pat Tillman is an absolute tragedy - following 9/11, a football great gives up millions of dollars to join his brother, becomes a U.S. Army Ranger to fight for his country and [spoiler alert!] dies in an enemy ambush. It is worthy of a tear-jerker war drama, but it really happened -- except for the ambush. The truth is that Tillman was part of a government cover-up, and was killed by friendly fire, in a senseless situation. This documentary attempts to uncover the truth, but leaves many questions unanswered, in part because it is told essentially from a single viewpoint.
This isn't to belittle the work, and particularly not the sacrifice that Tillman gave to his country, but in the end it still feels like we're only hearing part of The Tillman Story.
For another take on The Tillman Story read Dave Kempler's review.
The Picture
So much of the film is culled from news footage, home movies and interviews conducted at various points that the film has an inconsistent look -- or at least is consistent with documentaries. While some of the interviews look quite sharp, so much of the film is grainy, filled with noise and just otherwise soft it is hard to appreciate the 1080p 1.78:1 presentation on Blu-ray Disc. This one is probably just about as good on DVD.
The Sound
As with the picture there isn't much of note from the 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This is essentially a film with interviews, and news clips, so as expected discrete surround sound is not all that crucial to the film. That said, the dialog, including the various secondary sources, is quite good and consistent. Sometimes sound in documentaries can vary from sources and interviews, and here the levels remain constant.
The Extras
Documentaries really don't require featurettes such as a "making of," and the story of Pat Tillman is after the all the point of the film, so anything "extra" would detract from the documentary. This disc does include a commentary however, and it really doesn't offer much, except allow director Amir Bar-Lev to tell why this sequence appeared as it does. It is a little self-indulgent, and here less could have been more.
Final Thoughts
Given the fact that HD brings little to this presentation, this is one release where the DVD is probably a good option as it a few dollars cheaper. Finally, an Amazon.com search reveals that there are already several releases about Pat Tillman, including a 60 Minutes - What Really Happened to Pat Tillman?, a Charlie Rose DVD and Biography: Pat Tillman. This reinforces that this documentary only tells part of the story, and sadly we may never know the full truth.
Product Details
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