Josh Brolin blasts 'Tillman's' R rating

The decision to slap an R rating on documentary "The Tillman Story" had its narrator, Josh Brolin, steaming at its Los Angeles premiere on Thursday evening.

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"It seems like the profanity in this movie lends to the profundity of the movie in celebrating who these people were," Brolin told THR.

Brolin added that what upsets him was the unfairness of the Motion Picture Association of America system, whose ruling was sustained on appeal earlier in the day. He said he can take his two children “to see exploding head and blood and guts” at other films and “they tell me that's O.K.”

However, the use of the word “fuck” in the documentary, which tells the story of Tillman, an All-American football player who gave it all up to join the Army only to be killed by his fellow soldiers, is not acceptable for young adults.

“It doesn't seem very balanced to me,” continued Brolin, the son of actor James Brolin, who was also on hand at the premiere.

The documentary depicts the Tillman family as caring people, but also a family that used and tolerated a lot of what Tillman's courageous mother called “swear words.” His brother used the F word in front of family friends and dignitaries at his funeral.
 

And Tillman himself, as he was being fired on by his own fellow soldiers, used it in his final breath, saying “I'm Pat Fucking Tillman,” which is repeated several times in the documentary.

Director Amir Bar Lev said the R rating only adds to the tragedy of what happened, and reflects the deep divisions in our society.

“From the very beginning, people have wanted Pat to be somebody he is not and the R rating is another attempt for us as a society to turn away form the reality of who this hero is,” said Bar Lev.

Producer John Battsek and Bar Lev have said repeatedly they did not make an anti-military movie. But by laying out the story of the lies, the cover-up and the cover-up of the cover-up by the Army and U.S government at the highest levels, as well as by showing the futility of much of the war in the Middle East, they have made a powerful anti-war movie.

One that no doubt Pat “Fucking” Tillman would have endorsed.