LAFF Review: Who Killed the Electric Car? Review

Posted by Peter Martin at 11:42am.

Posted in Film & DVD Reviews , Documentary, USA & Canada.

(Michael Guillen conducted a great, lengthy interview with the filmmakers when the picture screened at the San Francisco Film Festival in April. Sony Pictures Clasics will open it in New York and Los Angeles this Wednesday, June 28. Check the official web site for more information.)

For decades, electric cars were the stuff of dreams, a sexy Jetsons fantasy. Who wouldn’t want to zip around in a shiny vehicle that made no sound save for the squealing rubber of its tires—and was good for the environment, to boot?

As persuasively documented by filmmaker Chris Paine, the answer is more complicated than it sounds.

The development of the vehicles was prodded along by California mandate more than a decade ago. After the electric cars—notably GM’s EV-1—went into production and Hollywood celebrities both major and minor (Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, Ed Begley Jr., Peter Horton, Alexandra Paul) began driving and promoting them, the prospects appeared limitless.

Well, not quite limitless. The vehicles had a limited driving range and it took hours to recharge their batteries. Still, it would seem obvious the electric cars could fill a marketable niche for thousands of drivers, and that in time the price would come down and other challenges could be overcome.

Not so fast, buddy.

For one thing, the oil companies would make no money from electric cars. For another, automobile manufacturers didn’t like being told what to do. For another, consumers were put off by the limitations. For another, the government had vested interests to protect. For another…

Director Paine structures the documentary (narrated by Martin Sheen) like a murder mystery. Even if the subject matter sounds off-putting at first, the sheer verve of the storytelling is absorbing, and it’s easy to get caught up with the passion of the interviewees for their beloved electric cars.

As a native Californian, the film struck an odd nerve. In my youth, I was one of those dreaming of an electric car gliding through the streets of L.A. like an airborne predator. As an adult, I paid occasional notice to developments with the vehicles. After they were introduced, I questioned the practicality of the limited driving range (even at its lowest, still greater than most people actually drive each day) and shook my head at the high price of the monthly lease (the only way the cars were ever made available).

Despite my personal reservations, I felt sure these issues could be worked out in time. So to learn, after the fact, the fate of the fabled electric cars is infuriating. A fantastic idea was aborted in its infancy by corporate interests and consumer indifference.

The bright spot, as the film points out, is that there is a future for the electric car—but the path lays with true independent manufacturers and car customizers, not with Detroit or Washington, D.C.

Festival Atmosphere: An early afternoon screening brought in throngs of people, with director Paine and other film subjects on hand. The crowd was activist during the screening, with plenty of cheering and hissing for real-life heroes and villains.

The festival staff arranged an entire Green Day inspired by the film, and adjacent to the theater an excellent collection of environmentally-friendly booths were set up, along with displays of the few remaining electric cars and some converted internal combustion vehicles.