Somewhere
between the vivid imagination of George Miller with the rumination on burgeoning
madness pioneered by Werner Herzog is the new theatrically and on-demand
released documentary film Tread. Embodying
the true essence of the catchphrase ‘truth is stranger than fiction’ with one
of the most bizarre true stories ever caught on camera, Tread tells the
larger than life true story of Martin Heemeyer, a Granby, Colorado resident who
waged a one-man war on his town the likes of which have never been seen before
or since.
Considered
by many to be a likable and level-headed businessman who operated his own
welding shop, things however took a turn for Heemeyer when a 2001 zoning
ordinance coupled with a myriad of his own paranoid misgivings about the
townsfolk ‘out to get’ him depleted Heemeyer of his finances. Not one to go away quietly, in 2004 Heemeyer
holed himself up in his shop with a large tractor only to reemerge days later sealed
inside a super-tractor of his invention with intentions to bring the town to its
knees in a showdown between himself, local police and the national guard who
all fail to bring a stop to the man’s rampage.
One
of those stories so far fetched that it’s hard to believe it actually happened, Tread
presents a docudrama of sorts comprised of interviews both new and archival
with a handful of taped audio recordings left behind by Heemeyer chronicling his
descent into insanity. Listening to the
rambling, unreliable narrator telling his side of the story provides enough
mania to make Timothy Treadwell blush and paints a picture of a man slowly
withdrawing from the real world. Partly
how the documentary succeeds in portraying Heemeyer for the madman he was is by
allowing Heemeyer to tell his side of the story first before the subsequent
interviews of those on his ‘hitlist’ all but debunk the man’s claims of
victimization.
Shot
in 2.35:1 widescreen, Tread features many dramatizations of that fateful
day with well-staged reenactments of key moments in the saga leading up to the
rampage. Visually it works fine and is
handsomely photographed but nothing compares to footage of the real event in
question coupled with photographs chronicling the unfolding disaster. What’s particularly frightening about this
tale of one man who is mad as Hell and not going to take it anymore is the ease
with which Heemeyer was able to completely level his town with no one, not even
the National Guard, able to take him down.
A
swan dive into madness, Tread is the kind of story that has to be seen
to be believed. While playing out like a
very real Mad Max movie with the super-tractor built for destruction,
the authentic footage of the real event constantly reminds this bizarre story
science-fiction authors would be proud of did in fact happen. Much like those involved in the story who
provide enough of their side of the argument to dispel any notions Heemeyer was
a sane individual, Tread leaves the viewer as confused as the subjects
still wondering just what the Hell happened that day and how one man’s paranoia
combined with his talent for welding produced a mechanical monster that nearly
brought an entire town to it’s knees. Like
the old saying goes, you cannot make this stuff up!
--Andrew Kotwicki
