“This Story Continues”: Amir Bar-Lev, Director of ‘The Tillman Story’

BAR-LEV: There’s a sense that this is a story that is over. That this is something we look back on about the Bush administration. In fact, this is a story that continues to this day. Nobody’s ever been called to account for their actions…This was a deliberate attempt to cover up the facts.

Paying attention to the neverending story at
http://www.michaelmoore.com

Video Transcript

pat tillman staff on a battlefield afghanistan became an emblem for thiscountry's response both personal and military to spend a lot of taxjohn was a pro football star who walked away from a multimillion dollar contractto join the army rangersbecamearguably america's most famous soldierpeople two thousand four corporal tillman died during the second towardafghanistankilled by friendly fire though the military covered up that backopting insteadto fabricate a story about her role at death while fighting the enemythe broad outlines a pat on the story may be familiar but a new documentarythe tillman sword fights fascinating new detailsabout his lifeand death joining us now is amir bar lefty director that on the story openingthis week in new york and los angeles and your thanks so much for coming totalk to us thanks for having mei think it's a wonderfirst of all what do people know about the store and i think the broad outlinesof it are kinda familiar he's got a lot for us but had been kind of receded ofwhat were you surprised by working on that's what you think people don't knowabout stari was surprised at how far off the market was perception the story is tobegin with i meani think there's a sense that this is a story that is over that this issomething that you know that we look back on about the bush administration infactthis is a story that continues to this daynobody's ever really been called to account for their actions and evenyesterday where there was a new chapter in the story where very uh... themilitary issued a press statementwith further life they said uh... we are deeply apologetic switzerland familyfrom mistakes made and this word mistake is is itself part of this conspiracythere was never missed a mistake would be a fight you know knocked over mywater here this is deliberately attempt to cover up the facts for which nobodyhas ever taken credit yeah i think that that that one of the things that thatthat becomes clear in the film is thatthe preposterous story that was told about is that really andwas so far from what i could happen to be kicked because of the investigatorhad to be fabricated how high up does that goit looks like they want all the way to the white house and uh... you know theboat but what happened was they had made at bonaire they underestimated pastmother jenny tillmanand they handed over thirty five hundred documents pertaining to his deathand from this little cottage up in our the santa cruz mansi painstakingly overa year's time unredacted these documents and what's in there i think is goingshopping for when i see it i mean id there's no question as to whether or notthis was a mistake there's there's documents in there that say things likethat's home in game plan at the highest levels as females from the white housetalking about how they were going to manage the story to deceive the americanpublicthe children's story was one of stories from that time there was dubbed privatelynch and herbrescue that wasfor creating these kind of crazy cartoonish way isi wonder what what kind of perspective you gained about that time in americanhistory when there was this really intense sort of jingoistic for but gripthe country and it's real kind ofcollective desire for mister oakes that that's on the cancer wrapped up in whatwhat did you learn about that periodwell you know i i don't know that carries over i mean you know i i meanyou know that i i think it it says a lot about our culture and i think it's tooeasy to point the fifth finger only at the bush administrationyou mentioned jessica lange should dot tillman was involved in that operationin haitifrom from the wings he had said you know this is this is a movie they'rebasically constructing a movie and the the sad tragedy and that all isyou know we didn't get with isn't shocking footage from the jessica lynchoperation in our film that people haven't seenwe didn't get handed that footage in some garage by some deep throat in apaper bag we got it from the mainstream pressthe reason folks haven't seen it is because the mainstream press chose toomit that chose to leave it on their living room floor so they can constructste this this idea of the female rambo from you know from the mountains of westvirginiait in the east dismissed those works because this is a you know we want tosee our movies played out in the newsandyou know i think it's a story about the government it's also stood by the pressis also a hollywood storyyou basically saying that in the film he is and there is sort of it's a storyabout a story it's a story about the myth of pat on the start of the story ofpat tillmanwhat you are not the actual flesh-and-blood human beings on thehusbandthat was that's allwell you know we worked on the phone for three years and was it was uh...tremendous opportunity spent time with this very very unique family their raftsipl there pronto half palms then we just got a rarity president and uh... youknowi think people are also going to surprise to see that this is somewhatuplifting story even despite its tragic but packing uppat was a guy with strong opinions who is absolutely willing to change thoseopinions that's what's not known about and he's been turned into this squaredrive guy with the one track mindwhen in fact you know he was a committed gaya loyal guy a patriotic guybut he was a guy who is willing to see things from different points of viewwilling to question his own believes he was a guy whowho changed his beliefs once he saw what was going on actress first appointmentand he was involved that jessica entrap erationhere's a guy who in earlier time some people would've called a flip-flop ura nearby alleges the director of the cattlemen story had said wonderful filmit's opening if i'm not mistaken new york los angeles this weekend myronthat's rightbreak thanks for having a great sex life is really a lecturer dept

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