Another Good Idea Bites the Dust

If you liked An Inconvenient Truth or The Corporation or the Enron movie or the Wal-mart movie, then you should check out Who Killed the Electric Car? as soon as possible.

This documentary tells the story of the creation and then the destruction of electric vehicles, which were made in response to California's strict zero-emissions regulations that were trying to slow down the horrible impact of air pollution. Once California adopted these regulations, several major car companies began building and marketing electric cars that operated on chargeable long-running batteries. The film uses the common technique of a variety of talking heads to tell the story, including everyone from car owners to the engineers who designed them to the a member of Jimmy Carter's cabinet.

These cars - ranging from little compacts to SUVs to trucks - became pretty popular pretty quickly and they earned near-fanatic loyalty from their owners. These include a number of celebrities who were more than willing to campaign for the car's support in front of the camera, both in fighting to save the cars over the last 5 years and in telling the story of their demise in this very documentary. Once people drove these cars, they loved them - they were clean and environmentally friendly, and they also had a smooth ride and could go pretty darn fast. Pretty much everything you'd want in a car.

However, even while the cute little cars were becoming more popular and streaming through the traffic on California's highways, EVIL forces were at work plotting against them. Who could these evil forces be? Oh, you got it, auto companies, oil companies, and big-money-taking politicians (aka the current Administration). The documentary details how all of these forces, combined with consumers' "late adopter" attitude towards new products, led to the end of the electric vehicle program.

And not just an end to the program - but the needless destruction of the cars themselves. No, they weren't recycled for parts or saved for further research. These cute little cars - somewhat anthropromorphized as they were - were literally SHREDDED into zillions of little pieces of metal and rubber. What a waste.

But it was more than just a corporate initiative that didn't succeed - this is a classic example of how corporate greed and predatory business practices can kill innovation. God forbid a new car comes along that doesn't run on gas - apparently the electric car makers and drivers were ignoring the memo that oil companies rule the world.

This movie falls in line with the others that I mentioned above, furthering the theme that companies ruthlessly pursue their own self-interests regardless of any cost to the consumer, the species, or the planet, and they control everything, including our government. The audience at E Street on Sunday afternoon was very engaged in this movie, and there was a lot of snickering and sarcastic laughter whenever we heard empty corporate-speak on the screen. A mild-mannered looking guy sitting behind us even blurted out "Fu*k you!" when George Bush first appeared on screen. :-)

My only critique of the movie is something they couldn't possibly have predicted. Remember how I said there were a bunch of celebrities shown throughout the film? Well, the doc would've been much stronger for us viewers if they hadn't interviewed one of the former drivers of an electric car. His, ahem, *passion* for the electric vehicle notwithstanding, it was really hard for us as audience members to give any credence to anything said by Mel Gibson onscreen. Particularly considering the crazy-man beard he was sporting. Good riddance.

But other than Mad Mel, this movie is a winner. You won't necessarily feel uplifted as you leave -- walking out, I turned to Onyah and said "How do we get around the fact that everything a company or our government tells us is a lie?" -- but you might just feel angry enough to do something about it.