RUBY RIDGE: ANATOMY OF A TRAGEDY (2000, Documentary)

On August 21, 1992, six heavily armed U.S. marshals made their way up to the isolated mountaintop home of Randy Weaver, his wife, & his children on Ruby Ridge in Idaho. The standoff that mesmerized the nation would leave Weaver injured, & his wife, son, & dog dead. Explanation is given why Weaver, who was charged (coerced/entrapped) w/ manufacturing, possessing, & selling illegal firearms in 1990. “With their paranoid fears now seemingly proving true,” the narrator says, “the Weavers decide that rather than facing their destiny in court, their only option is to stay on the mountain.” The documentary sidesteps the most incendiary themes associated w/ the 1992 stakeout & killings of Americans. These themes are left out in favor of a well rendered though not universally accepted chronology of events. If you’re wondering whether "Right-Wing survivalists" are paranoid or if the government is out to get us, both are true.