Who Killed the Electric Car?
A review of Director Chris Paine's first feature documentary.
Director Chris Paine seeks to uncover the truth about what really happened to General Motors' EV1 electric car.
"The electric vehicle is not for everybody. It can only meet the needs of 90 percent of the population," mocked Ed Begley, Jr. as he delivered the eulogy during the well-attended funeral for General Motors' EV1. Celebrities and non-celebrities alike mourned the inexplicable loss of their electric vehicles as they joined together in a last-ditch effort to persuade the auto-manufacturing giant not to pull the plug on their dream car.
Sony Pictures Classics' Who Killed the Electric Car? (official, IMDB) is Chris Paine's first feature documentary as director. This documentary was an official selection of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival and also was nominated for the Writers Guild of America's 2007 Documentary Screenplay Award. Narrated by Martin Sheen and packed with commentary from celebrity EV1 owners and advocates like Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, Ed Begley, Jr., Phyllis Diller, Collette Divine, Peter Horton, and Alexandra Paul, Who Killed the Electric Car? investigates the short life of the modern electric car and the United States' sordid obsession with both domestic and foreign oil. It also explores the importance of renewable energy and sustainable living in the future.
During the early 1990s, California faced the troubling reality of its pollution crisis. Auto exhaust was targeted as the number one contributing factor to this pollution and led to the birth of California's Zero Emissions Mandate. The mandate required 2 percent of new vehicles sold in California to be emission-free by 1998 and 10 percent by 2003. With such a radical smog-fighting mandate on the table, the auto and oil industries had a lot to lose - and the appearance and popularity of GM's EV1 further foreshadowed the potential loss.
Six years after its bold entrance into the auto and environmental worlds, the EV1s started disappearing from the highways and city streets. Were the owners unhappy with the cars? Were they too expensive to maintain? Was there no demand for this type of vehicle? The answer to all of these questions is no. Quite simply, GM's EV1 was murdered because of its power to turn the auto and oil industries upside down.
Through interviews with and investigations of automakers, legislators, engineers, consumers, and auto enthusiasts, this documentary seeks to find who was responsible and convict the culprit(s) that killed one of the most innovative vehicles of all time.
Auto enthusiasts and environmentalists alike can join together in appreciating this documentary's intriguing and mysterious subject. Who Killed the Electric Car? likely will convince more car buyers to trade in their gasoline-guzzling cars for efficient hybrids, but the documentary successfully delivers its main message that those in power don't always have the public's best interest in mind.
Release Date: June 28, 2006
Running Time: 1 hr. 30 min.
MPAA Rating: PG for brief mild language
Directed by: Chris Paine
Produced by: Electric Entertainment, Plinyminor, Papercut Films
Produced in: United States
