Maybe the best documentary I've seen in years. "Tread" is the story of a handy guy named Marvin Heemeyer who got screwed over by a small town good old boy network that made it impossible to keep his muffler shop business, so he locked himself in a garage for a few months while he rebuilt a bulldozer into something like that TV movie Killdozer, a rolling tank that he used to take down the town hall and the buildings of several adversaries, without ever actually injuring anyone. He just rolled out one day and destroyed the property of everyone who destroyed his dream.
The film uses footage of the rampage, recreation footage, and the actual tapes Marvin made as he worked on the Killdozer, talking about why and how he felt it was up to him to dish out justice. I remember the news stories when it happened, so it was just fascinating to meet all the people Marvin talked about and see the inside story of what really happened --- easily the best thing I've seen on Netflix since the new seasons of Mystery Science Theater 3000!
Marvin clearly suffered from serious mental illness. One thing I liked about the documentary is that it gave equal time to everyone in town, which made it even more clear that things weren't as Marvin imagined. The neighboring business Marvin fought so hard against turned out to be good for the town. That's what's so fascinating, the inside look at how one guy got the picture so twisted in his head, and was just brilliant enough - and crazy enough - to try and go out with some kind of apocalyptic even-scale reckoning.
Like one interviewee says, a good friend of Marvin's - he probably just spent too much time alone in his hot tub. One guy with a twisted reality can impose that false reality on a big chunk of the real world, at least when he has the power to do so -- certainly seems applicable to the times we live in now!
The film uses footage of the rampage, recreation footage, and the actual tapes Marvin made as he worked on the Killdozer, talking about why and how he felt it was up to him to dish out justice. I remember the news stories when it happened, so it was just fascinating to meet all the people Marvin talked about and see the inside story of what really happened --- easily the best thing I've seen on Netflix since the new seasons of Mystery Science Theater 3000!
Marvin clearly suffered from serious mental illness. One thing I liked about the documentary is that it gave equal time to everyone in town, which made it even more clear that things weren't as Marvin imagined. The neighboring business Marvin fought so hard against turned out to be good for the town. That's what's so fascinating, the inside look at how one guy got the picture so twisted in his head, and was just brilliant enough - and crazy enough - to try and go out with some kind of apocalyptic even-scale reckoning.
Like one interviewee says, a good friend of Marvin's - he probably just spent too much time alone in his hot tub. One guy with a twisted reality can impose that false reality on a big chunk of the real world, at least when he has the power to do so -- certainly seems applicable to the times we live in now!