TREAD
TREAD
Director:
Paul Solet
World Premiere:
SXSW 2019
About:
The bizarre tale of a vengeful man with a bulldozer run amok.
On June 4, 2004, after years of persecution and slights by well-connected rivals and the local government of small town Granby CO, Marvin Heemeyer, a welder and owner of a muffler shop, took his revenge on the community – or so the audience of Paul Solet’s at times absorbing film are initially led to believe. Heemeyer’s familiar, underdog origin story seems to, in part, justify his brazen plan – the demolition of several buildings with a bulldozer that the intrepid citizen customized into an impenetrable tank, represented here through overly slick recreations, audio recordings of Heemeyer’s grievances, and interviews with sympathetic friends. Eventually, however, the director reveals his would-be anti-hero to be instead more of a delusional, sociopathic super-villain, his unreliable version of the events contradicted by the facts. Solet relies far too much on re-enactments to tell the story, veering into awkward docudrama territory, but the sheer strangeness of the incident still makes the film a worthwhile watch.
what (not) to doc 