4/52 Docs - Tread

I don't even know how to start this, because although I have seen this documentary I still can't really believe what I saw. Once I arrived at the end of it, I really appreciated the way the director, Paul Solet, laid the story out because I thought one thing in the beginning and thought something else at the end.

Initially it seems like a David vs Goliath story. New guy in small town Colorado ruffles some feathers in what some in the documentary call "The Old Boys Club". There is the purchase of some land, fights with the town council over water and sewage and, eventually, over the placement of a new concrete factory. One issue just snowballed into another with Marvin Heemeyer consistently feeling as if he was on the losing end of the fight. This narrative builds and builds in Heemeyer to levels that no one could of, and didn't, predict.

A nicely balanced cast of characters appear to tell their version of this story. Some who clearly found Heemeyer to be a dear friend and other's who found themselves on the opposite side of Heemeyer's battles. Although, even those who found themselves on the opposition side of things spoke of him with no real malice or hate. I can only imagine that time and reflection, likely, went a long way to help with that.

Another large part of the storytelling is Heemeyer's own cassette recording of the wrongs that have been done to him after he moved to this town and how God showed him he had no other choice, but to turn his bulldozer into a fortified tank and drive it through the homes and businesses of his perceived enemies. Yes. You read that correctly. 

Early on in the viewing I felt, "Oh wow, this old boys club is really giving it to him!", but as you listen to Heemeyer's rambling rant of the injustices done to him, the level of paranoia and delusion is really off the charts. Even still it is shocking to see the footage of this machine he created leveling buildings all over town as the police follow along, slowly, unable to do anything to stop it. 

I watched this on Netflix.