Two new documentaries

The Tillman Story.  (2010, MC-86)  The title of Amir Bar-Lev’s accomplished documentary (following My Kid Could Paint That) refers to at least three different stories:  Pat Tillman’s personal story, the story the military made up for propaganda purposes, and the story of the Tillman family’s attempt to get at the truth, and restore the integrity of their son’s life and purpose.  One strength of this film is that it doesn’t force an argument at you, but offers a many-sided portrait that holds together more and more as you think about it.  It would be easy to solicit rage around this subject, and maybe rage is an appropriate object, but even-handed contemplation offers more manifold truth.  Pat Tillman became, unwillingly, a patriotic icon when he turned his back on a multimillion-dollar NFL contract to enlist in the Army Rangers after 9/11.  When the army literally killed him in Afghanistan, they had to make up a story of an All-American hero’s death -- as always in war, “truth is the first casualty.”  His family – mother, father, two brothers, wife – insist upon the real story of his death, as forthright and thoughtful as he had been in life.  We follow as these strands spool out and interweave, free to take sides but not forced to do so.  The final story takes shape in our minds after viewing.  Call it “fratricide” or “friendly fire,” this is a tale with powerful overtones of tragic irony. 

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer.  (2010, MC-68)  Alex Gibney is among the best of polemical documentarians working today, but his latest does not come up to the standard of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room; Taxi to the Dark Side; or even Casino Jack and the United States of Money, which he must have been working on at the same time as this film, which shares themes of big money and the corruption of politics.  Not that Spitzer isn’t a character of some interest, but this film is too long and diffuse, goes off in too many directions, suggesting but not proving a number of conspiratorial connections.  No doubt Spitzer made some powerful enemies, and Hank Greenburg of AIG and others parade their satisfaction at his downfall on screen.  The politicization of the Justice Department in the Bush years is well known, but if the whole case amounted to a sting, and a hit job, well then, Spitzer himself was no innocent party.  He manfully if not candidly admits to as much in interview, while also elevating himself with talk of Greek myth – hubris, Icarus, all that.  One might also suggest that there was some ironic, if not causal, connection between Spitzer’s takedown and the financial meltdown of 2008.  But then you add an inside look at the world of high-end escort services, introducing an intriguing array of characters, including one who didn’t want to appear in person so her words are replicated by an actress, and you’ve got a serious distraction.  Overall, Gibney has developed a jazzed-up, argumentative documentary style as identifiable and influential as Ken Burns in his sedate PBS manner, but this film does not get deep enough into the character of Spitzer to invest him with the weight assigned to him.