I can't believe no one's reviewed the Electric Car movie

since it opened last Friday but evidently not. Go see it, ASAP! It's entertaining, timely, well researched and tells an important story about the power of the auto companies, other entrenched interests, and associated politicians to take down enterprises that threaten them. From the NYT review:

A murder mystery, a call to arms and an effective inducement to rage, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" is the latest and one of the more successful additions to the growing ranks of issue-oriented documentaries. Like Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" and the better nonfiction inquiries into the war in Iraq, this information-packed history about the effort to introduce -- and keep -- electric vehicles on the road wasn't made to soothe your brow. For the film's director, Chris Paine, the evidence is too appalling and our air too dirty for palliatives. . . .

Continued below the fold.

As Mr. Paine forcefully makes clear, the story of the electric car is greater than one zippy ride and the people who loved it. From the polar ice caps to Los Angeles, where many cars truly are to die for, it is a story as big as life, and just as urgent.

The film opens in more cities this weekend.  Just like with Al Gore's film, it's important to go on opening weekend to help give the film "legs."  The theater release schedule is here.

The film takes a murder-mystery approach to investigating the development - in response to the 1990 Zero Emissions Mandate in California - of an appealing all-electric vehicle, its enthusiastic acceptance by a small but vociferous user base, and demise. Suspects considered are the auto companies, consumers, the oil industry, California regulators, the Bush administration, battery technology, and hydrogen fuel cells.  In addition to telling this story, the film takes up the impact of the gasoline engine on air pollution and global warming.  It also looks at the development of the hybrid by Toyota and Honda - surprisingly (to me), as a result of research sponsored by the Cllinton administration and killed by the Bush administration - and the future of the plug-in hybrid. The film's one shortcoming is that it mentions only in passing that all-electric vehicles are appearing on the commercial market.  Ranging from the $80,000 Tesla Roadster to the $9,000 Xebra, a "city car" developed by Zap, several varieties are featured in USA Today's Electric cars lighting up again.

The film, which was highlighted at the Sundance and other film festivals, also features numerous interviews including Ralph Nader, Tom Hanks, actress-turned-EV-activist Alexandra Paul, ex-CIA head James Woolsey, electric vehicle technology experts, and auto company apologists.  

What triggered this diary was an email from Chris Paine, who wrote and directed the film, which someone forwarded to me.  He says,

Thanks for helping us roll out Who Killed the Electric Car?!  We've got traction.  So far we've opened in about 50 theaters and we have another 50 to go.

Tomorrow we tape "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart in New York City.  Nerves and self-esteem issues aside, it will be great exposure.

We've gotten dozens of great reviews from publications ranging from "The Economist" ("Go and see Who Killed the Electric Car")  to "Ain't it Cool News".  Ebert and Roeper gave us their two thumbs up and we are scoring "89%" from Rotten Tomatoes which keeps track of all reviews good and bad. You can read many of them here.

GM purchased full page ads in the trades as well as all Google searches related to "Who Killed the Electric Car" and its film's participants. The claims they make fall short and dodge our big question about why Detroit is so hooked on gas powered vehicles.  Alexandra, Paul, Wally, Bob, Peter, Ed and many of us have met some amazing audiences in cities from Portland to Atlanta to Miami to Boston to Seattle to LA.    

Thank you for your emails to your friends and going to theaters when the film arrives in your town.  The film usually plays for a couple of weeks per theater but in many cases, it has been extended thanks to your support. Individuals calling local theaters has also booked a few more cities and festivals for us. In short, everything you are doing is making a difference in helping this story reach more people.  

The future is electric ...

CHRIS PAINE

•  Reviewed?

  The movie has been mentioned several times before now.

  by filchyboy on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 09:40:44 AM PDT

  •  Yup ...

    It was reviewed multiple times, such as here a month ago.

    And, many of us who saw in in pre-release screenings have been making comments.

    And, did it only get "released" 3 August?

    By the way, it is a MUST SEE.  It is extremely good ...

    by besieged by bush on Sat Aug 05, 2006 at 09:10:05 PM PDT

•  I haven't reviewed it...

  ...because I didn't know the film existed until last night on the Daily Show.  Though I admit that may have more to do with my own ignorance than the movies public saturation.

  by DH from MD on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 09:43:59 AM PDT

  •  Saw it in a pre-release screening

    The director was there, and I'm pretty sure he said the DVD would be out in early fall.

    by NHabroad on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 10:33:44 AM PDT

•  I read about this on Seed.

  Sounds very good. The creepiest part is how the Smithsonian remove the car, at GM's request. As if to say the government was helping the automaker convince the public that the product never existed. Eerie.

  by Interrobanger on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 09:49:10 AM PDT

•  Going to see it this weekend.

  I have read reviews of it, but there isn't much talk about it on the news.  Too much war and Mel Gibson, I suppose.

  Thanks for making a diary about this.  I love that this site is devoting some of its real estate to environmental issues.  

  by Radiowalla on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 09:49:42 AM PDT

•  It's not exactly mainstream

  But I did like how Stewart had the guy on last night.  Props to him for going out of his way to further the cause.

  by Pat Robertson on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 09:54:05 AM PDT

•  There have been quite a few reviews

  and diaries on the movie.  I did a couple of searches where I found at least 7 and I didn't even find the ones I commented in.   It's been a fairly popular topic here.  I wait to see it, because it hasn't been scheduled here in the city where the EV-1 was built.  

  I'm curious to see how accurate it is with what I know about the manufacture of the car.  I don't know much about the marketing of it, since GM didn't see fit to market it outside 2 states. I don't think that was a particularly smart strategy.  I didn't care much for the lease strategy, either.  

  It's clear that GM had some other strategy in mind than just selling cars.  I will say this,though, they didn't hold any expense back on the factory floor.  Whatever the engineers and assembly teams wanted, they got.  That's not a common thing in the auto industry.

  by dougymi on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 09:58:58 AM PDT

  •  Thanks, I searched but didn't find it

    by liz on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 10:08:03 AM PDT

•  everyone should see it

  I saw this film a couple of weeks ago and have been telling everyone I know to go and see it. What the auto industry, the oil companies, the Bush administration, and all the other usual suspects did to stop the rise of the electric car is both a travesty and a tragedy.

  Who Killed the Electric Car tells the story in an entertaining and compelling way, and although it will make you angry, the film also shows that the technology exists, now, to produce a viable electric car, so it ends on an optimistic note.

  As someone with a lifelong aversion to cars, I never thought I could be moved to tears by the sight of a car being crushed, but the footage of all those perfectly good--and, as Jon Stewart noted last night, really cool-looking--cars being pulverized was so appalling it made me cry.

  Please, see this movie and bring your friends!

  by Constant Weeder on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 10:06:40 AM PDT

•  It's not playing here ...

  I've seen it discussed here a number of times, but I can't give a review of something I haven't seen. It's only out in limited release.

  by meowmissy on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 10:16:34 AM PDT

•  Well, the EV-1 may be gone, but Tesla's here:

  I just ran in to this last night, I think on DU:

  http://www.teslamotors.com/...

  An electric car that gets 135 mpg/1 cent per mile fuel efficiency, and still does 0 to 60 in 4 seconds. They're coming out with a hot, attention-getting sports car, for openers, but hopefully (after they've made back some of their initial investment), they'll build some really cool, practical get-around-town cars, too.

  by MoJoWorkN on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 10:24:43 AM PDT

  •  I've been posting this everywhere

    this is the car that our Democratic Presidential candidates should be driving everywhere.  I think a good Progressive slogan would be to drive up to an event in this hotrod, hop out and say
    "If elected President, we'll have electric sportscars, sedans, and minivans in every driveway by 2020.  We'll end dependence on foreign oil and the prostitution of our government to the big oil companies."

    by chuckles1 on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 10:38:00 AM PDT

  •  So pretty

    I want one.  But alas, even if I spent NO money, I would still have to wait over 3 years to get one.  Sigh.

    by paiges on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 10:50:57 AM PDT

•  Looking forward to seeing it but...

  ... electric cars, even if we went massively in that direction, aren't the answer.

  They're just another way of prolonging that agony that Americans imagine to be heaven... suburbia.

  In the end (other than nuclear), the oil will be gone and all energy will be solar (photoelectric, biomass, whatever).

  You can't gather enough electrical energy from enough land to run current levels of car ownership with electric cars for America (to say nothing of China and India) without severel impacting

  1. biodiversity (key to human survival)

  2. agricultural land and food costs

  I'd love to have an electric car if I had to have a car and if I could think only about my life, in these decades ... but from a few miles up looking down on planet earth, just a little outside of time, in historical perspective, electric cars  are just as delusional as any other kind of personal transportation module... incompatable with a just life for all people on planet earth.

  I may be dreaming, but electric car advocates are delusional.... still bargaining with death... hoping that the end of the oil age doesn't really apply to them if only they can think of a neat technological fix.

  by Miles on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 10:37:17 AM PDT

  •  Get everyone into an electric car...

    and then make the next move.

    by chuckles1 on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 10:39:29 AM PDT

•  I saw Paine on the Daily Show last night

  I wasn't very impressed. Not only did he advocated all of the strengths of the electric cars without bringing up any of their weaknesses, but he also neglected the burgeoning market of independent retailers of electric vehicles.

  IMO, what killed the electric car was its limited range and lack of good options for quick recharging. Most people only use a car daily within the range of current electric vehicles, but relatively few people are going to buy a car that they can't make that 500 mile summer road trip with.

  by Lee Malatesta on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 10:40:58 AM PDT

  •  Perhaps

    Perhaps you would benefit from seeing the movie before declaring what you think killed the electric car?  It may actually effect your opinion.

    by filchyboy on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 10:44:38 AM PDT

    •  Paine's job is to get me to want to watch

      If Paine cherry-picks and glosses over the problems with electric vehicles in appearances designed to get people to see his movie, I have good reason to suspect that he does the same in his movie. As a fan of alternative power since I was a grade school student in the seventies, I'm pretty up to date on trends in electric vehicles.

      by Lee Malatesta on Fri Aug 04, 2006 at 07:43:56 AM PDT