Title: Revenge of the Electric Car
Director: Chris Paine
Documentary sequels are few and far between, but maybe they should be more frequent, because as events in society change, so too do the currency and context of social-statement works like “The Corporation,” “Inside Job” and “Who Killed the Electric Car?” The latter, from 2006, told in compelling fashion the story of the crib-murder of a vehicle that would have done wonders for the environment, massively curbed the United States’ dependence on foreign oil, and additionally put the nation on a clearly defined, decades-long path toward export dominance in both automobiles and the emerging market of cell battery technology. One massive worldwide economic disaster and the near-total collapse of the American auto trade later, director Chris Paine’s follow-up is a different animal — shorter on jaw-dropping disbelief and antagonism, longer on industry access — but it’s still fairly entertaining, and an instructive, hopeful-minded look at the future of gas-free (or near-gas-free) automotive innovation.
Narrated by Tim Robbins, the film is built around independent entrepreneurial fabricator Greg Abbott, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, General Motors’ Bob Lutz, and trendy start-up Tesla’s Elon Musk, who’s billed by Jon Favreau as the closest thing we have to a real-life Tony Stark. Each of these subjects has their own particular feeling or appreciation of the history of the electric vehicle (Lutz, for instance, is a one-time climate change denier) but all envision big things for its future, and of course hope to be part of that change. To that end, tremendous financial capital — as well as ego — is invested by all of the aforementioned figures, not all of whom figure to be able to succeed in a changing landscape.
Part of the eye-opening lesson of “Who Killed the Electric Car?” was that it didn’t engage in totally empty scapegoating; it showed that moneyed interests from several industries were aligned against the electric vehicle. Of course, that doesn’t excuse some of the more egregious corporate behavior of the time (General Electric rounding up leased EVs like Gestapo brown-shirts, for instance, instead of letting customers exercise a trigger option to purchase them), but a big part of the heartening optimism, and even occasional levity, of “Revenge of the Electric Car” is that it seems to unfold in an environment where stonewalling and fact-debunking aren’t the default fall-back positions of captains of industry. Paine gets candid material from all of his subjects, and his movie benefits tremendously from this.
If there’s a strike, it’s that “Revenge” enters the marketplace almost too soon. (Or maybe it’s just the second film of a possibly trilogy.) Since the future is yet to be written with respect to the consumer embrace of these different vehicles, Paine’s movie would have been more interesting if it had cast a bit longer of a backwards glance, and looked at some of the reasons that certain manufacturers are now scrambling quickly to embrace technologies and trends that less than a decade ago they were not only pooh-poohing but actively looking to destroy and bury. There’s not a natural end point here to many of the narrative strands, in other words. The story is still unfolding. That said, Paine’s sequel is a mostly engaging snapshot of capitalism’s short-term memory. Whether that’s comedy, tragedy or somewhere in between depends on the mood and perspective of the viewer.
NOTE: For more information, visit the film’s eponymous web site, or its Facebook page. Also, as part of its non-traditional release strategy, potential audiences can visit www.RevengeoftheElectricCar.com/see-the-film.html to request the film in their market.
Technical: B-
Story: B
Overall: B
Written by: Brent Simon
