I want an electric car. No really. I want an electric car. Right now. But I can’t have one. At least I can’t buy one. The car companies won’t sell one to me. Why not? Well, that’s the question posed by the surprisingly middle of the road Who Killed the Electric Car?
Middle of the road? Really? I thought this was one of those new fangled liberal documentaries, railing on the Republicans. Think again my friend. This isn’t a film about saving the environment or what will happen if we don’t dump the combustion engine for electric vehicles (EV), this is a film educating the public on the next evolution in transportation and probing why forces have worked against its acceptance. It’s a love letter to the electric car – a love letter that makes it hard not to fall in love yourself.
But it sure seems to start off on one hell of a liberal footing. In fact, the first five minutes actually had me and a friend laughing pretty hard. One of the first shots of the film is of Ed Begley Jr. weeping at the funeral of an electric car. Immediately followed up by narration by Martin Sheen. It mentions pollution, global warming, and our dependence on foreign oil. I immediately began to think - Oh god, what have I gotten myself into? But that’s what’s so damned smart about it – that’s where they get you. I don’t care where you stand politically – this isn’t a film hell-bent on changing your views of the world or on political parties. It sets you up thinking you’ve just walked into a liberal push to change the world, then hits you square in the jaw as it becomes a very balanced look at the EV and the forces that did it in. For now.
What do you mean, for now? The EV is dead. Oh, far from it. As the documentary unfolds, you quickly learn that this isn’t the story of a bunch of greenies trying to save humanity. This is the story of a bunch of consumers, offered a product that changed their lives, a product they quite simply fell in love with – and then had it taken away by the company that had offered it to them. Why are there almost no fully electric vehicles on the road? Because they failed? Quite the contrary. The companies took them all back. This documentary sets out to find out why.
And it does so in a riveting fashion, through a series of interviews with people across the board – from the celebrities and average-joes who drove them, to the people tasked to sell them, to the corporate execs charged with generating a demand for them – we follow the story of the car companies release of these EVs on up to their subsequent “recall” and destruction of them. And it begins to piss you off. Because when they come back around to the Funeral for the electric car, you understand exactly why Ed Begley Jr. is crying.
And the documentary is incredibly honest about the product. It talks more about the limitations than it does the benefits. And yet, it’s hard to dissuade you – because the limitations are nothing compared to the benefits. One dealership mechanic’s comments on servicing the EVs will drop your jaw. It’s a fascinating, riveting and ultimately frustrating look at the future of transportation – a future we actually could have now, if there wasn’t so much money to be made in keeping the Combustion engine alive.
While Who Killed the Electric Car? isn’t the best documentary I’ve ever seen, insomuch as it’s not any kind of a tension builder, it certainly has excited me more than any Documentary has in years. I’ve spent all day researching the new breed of cars coming out from upstart motor companies (like the incredibly badass Tesla Roadster that streets next summer), and IMing buddies to talk about it. It’s a piece that will really get you talking and investigating the new technology. And it’s a movie that gets you angry about a great technology that can change our lives, but is being kept from us because it’s too good at what it does.
So will it offend Right Wingers? Probably just a little. The Bush Administration is mentioned for a short while, particularly the Administrations push to help kill the California legislation as well as their push for Hydrogen based cars. If you’re the type of person that can’t stand even the least bit of criticism of the current administration, then yes, there will be a few offensive minutes in this film. But overall, it’s very even handed in its approach, body checks several people throughout the political spectrum, and discusses every aspect of the EVs that no one else has bothered to tell us.
Really, it’s a film that makes me want to write a piece thousands of words long on my feelings about it and the info it revealed and led me to – but there’s no way I could tell it better than they do. It’s a film that changed the way I look at cars. I want an electric car. I want it now. Had you told me last week that I would have felt this way, I would have gotten one hell of a laugh out of it. I’m not laughing. In fact, I’m kind of pissed.
This is the very best kind of documentary there is. It’s one that will change the way you look at things. I highly recommend this film to anyone who is Eco-minded, wishes there was some magical way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, loves documentaries exposing the corruption in big business or just plain loves technology. Who Killed the Electric Car?. has the chance to make a real impact on the way we live. It’s gonna show people what we’re missing out on and they’re gonna want one. Once people want them, companies will make them. And then it’s all over for the combustion engine. It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen, it is happening and no doubt this film will have a footnote in history as being the film that touched off our discussing it as a nation.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em. I know I will.
