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 Who Killed The Electric Car? (DVD)
Description: Genre: Documentary / Theatrical Release: 2006 / Director: Chris Paine / DVD released 19 March, 2007 at Sony Pictures ... more  Who Killed The Electric Car? (DVD) ... Home Entertainment / Features of the DVD: PAL, Widescreen / It begins with a solemn funeral…for a car. By the end of Chris Paine's lively and informative documentary, the idea doesn't seem quite so strange. As narrator Martin Sheen notes, "They were quiet and fast, produced no exhaust and ran without gasoline." Paine proceeds to show how this unique vehicle came into being and why General Motors ended up reclaiming its once-prized creation less than a decade later. He begins 100 years ago with the original electric car. By the 1920s, the internal-combustion engine had rendered it obsolete. By the 1980s, however, car companies started exploring alternative energy sources, like solar power. This, in turn, led to the late, great battery-powered EV1. Throughout, Paine deftly translates hard science and complex politics, such as California's Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandate, into lay person's terms (director Alex Gibney, Oscar-nominated for Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, served as consulting producer). And everyone gets the chance to have their say: engineers, politicians, protesters, and petroleum spokespeople--even celebrity drivers, like Peter Horton, Alexandra Paul, and a wild man beard-sporting Mel Gibson. But the most persuasive participant is former Saturn employee Chelsea Sexton. Promoting the benefits of the EV1 was more than a job to her, and she continues to lobby for more environmentally friendly options. Who Killed the Electric Car? is, otherwise, a tremendously sobering experience. --Kathleen C. FennessyNewest Review: ... would be reliant on customer demand. No problem there you would think, but if the companies then make no effort to ... more ... ‘attractively’ promote the cars and deny that anyone actually wants it then they had a get out clause.
In fact they made it near impossible for anyone to actually lease the cars, yes lease they wouldn’t actually sell them to anyone! As Mel Gibson explains to actually get one he had to fill out piles of forms just to prove he was worthy of getting one. If they made it that difficult for someone that famous how hard must it have been for you average joe to be allowed one?
Why would they not want to sell these very stylish ...more |
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Who Killed The Electric Car? (DVD): A shock to the system! (986 words)
by Ailran - written on 06.02.07 (Very useful, 126 readings)
Rating:
I really hate big corporations and the way they seem to be able to run roughshod over laws and use ones not intended for them to get their own way (example an American company suing a Mexican City Council in the Canadian courts because the council were going to shut them down for causing too much pollution and winning $16 million dollars because Canadian law made it easier for them to do so!) Even more annoying is when a big company (or companies in this case) set out to help save the environment, cut pollution and save the public money all in one go… but then underhandedly and covertly do their utter best to make sure that they fail, and then use this to get the law ...
