Tread [DVD]

Either way, it was entertaining. And I'm pretty sure the truth lies somewhere in-between.

This is an interesting documentary about a truly bizarre incident that occurred in 2004 in a small town in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Marvin Heemayer, a middle aged businessman with a grudge against Granby and its principal citizens, went on a two hour rampage. Yet instead of going bughouse like most nuts in this country do nowadays with a high powered rifle alone, Heemayer, an admitted genius welder, took a heavy bulldozer, armored it with concrete reinforced steel plates, and then used the dozer to destroy businesses and the city hall. Although no life was lost other than Heemayer’s, he left a vast swathe of senseless destruction, permanently searing the memory of his basically pointless tantrum into Granby’s residents.The doc’s first hour sets the stage for Heemayer’s onslaught, providing background as to why a highly skilled, relatively affluent man would do such a thing. A talented craftsman with a head for business, Heemayer made enough from his muffler shop in Granby to do as he liked: travel, hang out with his girlfriend, and most of all snowmobile, a winter past time he pursued with fanatical passion. Yet despite this apparently ideal, idyllic setup, resentment steadily built up as Heemayer became frustrated in his business dealings, increasingly more convinced the town’s good old boy network was in league against him. Most of this is conveyed by a voiceover of the long jeremiad Heemayer recorded just prior to going bananas with his homemade tank. Some might find this segment overlong and tedious, but it makes it plain the slights and wrongs Heemayer railed against largely existed in his mind alone. As one friend put it, “he spent too much time in the hot tub by himself.” The poor, deluded man basically hyped himself into believing God told him to do this terrible thing.Even those who find the prologue overlong will still be amazed and appalled by the doc’s climactic footage. Resembling one of the crude behemoths that crashed through no man’s land in WWI, Heemayer’s bulldozer was basically unstoppable with small arms fire no more effective against it than BBs. He used the dozer blade to devastating effect, first destroying a concrete batch plant next to his own business, then City Hall, and finally a hardware store. It was an absolute wonder no one else was hurt, especially since the library was located in City Hall. Heemayer was incredibly ingenious, not only armoring the bulldozer, but installing loopholes to fire high powered, .50 caliber rifles, video cameras to assist him in steering, and a ventilation system to keep the viewing ports clear. What a shame all this cleverness was devoted to destruction. The frenzy only stopped when the bulldozer got stuck and ended as these things so often do with Heemayer killing himself.I recommend this film to people with a clinical interest in human dysfunction and also (no shame) to guys like myself who are fascinated by armored vehicles and the damage they can do.

I'm being biased because the mythos of the story is larger than the story itself. I have a hard time believing the testimonials of the city council members that say they didn't do nuffin, and he was a deranged lunatic. With as much corruption, behind the scenes shaking of hands, and outright lying our government has been engaged in, I'll stick with the legend of the Killdozer.

I read an article about this when it happened and wanted to see the movie.

There are figures in history who are as politically polarizing as Marvin "Killdozer" Heemeyer; half the country thinks he's a deranged lunatic while the other half thinks he's an American hero. I bought this documentary to shed some further light on this fascinating character and hoped to find more details about what led this person to drive an armored bulldozer on a destructive rampage through the town of Granby, Colorado. I was hoping to for perspectives from multiple sides that will shed further light on the unfortunate events that led to Marv making his decision.Halfway through the documentary, however, it was clear that I would be receiving no such thing. As so many other reviewers have already pointed out, the documentary aims to cast Marvin in a villainous light to the point that many arguments that tell his side of the story have been ignored entirely by the documentary. For example, when Marvin was running his Muffler shop, the city demanded he connect his shop to the sewer line for $80,000 out of pocket. The documentary states this up front, however it has left out the detail that after Marvin was unable to pay such a large amount of money, the town council added insult to injury and fined him an additional $2,500 on top of that.Another example is that Marvin offered to work with the city when their concrete batch plant blocked access to his shop (something that would run him out of business). Marvin bought equipment including a bulldozer to build a new road so that everyone could win. The town council refused him and stamped on his idea. This documentary ignores this as well and tells the audience that apparently Marvin bought a $30,000 bulldozer just for "intimidation [purposes]" (a *real* stretch).I understand that we don't want more Marvins in the world simply because we can't have angry people going about causing destruction and mayhem... this rhymes a little too closely to the motivations of various school shooters. However, I thought at the very least we can tell a fair story of what happened during this tragic incident, unfortunately all we ever get from this doc is more propaganda about how the "little guy" is the bad guy. Marvin's friends are interviewed to cast an emotional perspective of a tragic figure but they are balanced out by the "corrupt" town officials who Marvin implicates in his tapes... and at the end of the day, it's these "officials" who get final say in this documentary about Marvin's character.Besides the obvious bias, the camerawork and production was well-done and we do get lots of info about Marvin's personal life and what happened that led him to do what he did on June 4, 2004. I just wish we could have gotten that fair and unbiased documentary rather than a 90 minute movie that vilifies yet another misunderstood individual. We stop violence by understanding different perspectives, not demonizing them. As the documentary itself states, Marvin did what he did because of anger and isolation... it's a poor tribute to him and the people of Granby to further cause division between perspectives rather than unity.