the term documentary has been hijacked. what national geographic does is documentary, sitting back letting the camera roll, taking as little active part in the goings on being filmed as possible. this modern Micheal Moore influenced brand of documentary film-making complete with political view and all should be called what it is: propaganda. Of course this would require us to back off the notion that all propaganda is bad and we'd lose an easy little way in which to make easy assumptions. But if one can get over one's fear of propaganda we might be able to view any propaganda and measure it of it's own worth.
Here we have a wonderful little bit of it. A piece about the electric car and it's demise. The propaganda is effective, though at times truly lame, such as the "funeral and eulogy" part of the movie early on. Stuff like that should not have gotten past the concept phase before someone realized that actually filming it would look lame, and give away the movie's political bent. Other than that as a piece of propaganda, it worked. Leaving the theater i was all charged up to do nothing about anything. Chalk it up to one more disappointment courtesy of the short sighted federal government, which granted little political muscle or capital to what from a geopolitical angle would constitute a bold movie. General motors can't escape blame for this either having possibly not anticipated how much production costs would have dropped when adjusted for mass production. Also their handling of the situation is about as bumbling as one can imagine.
A few points of contention however. 1) blaming consumers for not buying a vehicle based on it's social good smacks of elitism. 2) no mention of the fact that recharging the battery took 13 hours! who has time for that? 3) for all of it's drawbacks how can a person who can afford only one vehicle (usually used) be expected to pay full price for a vehicle with numerous operating limitations. i may not live in California an be able to bounce around in a fancy new vehicle, but i certainly don't have the time to wait for charging between work shifts, and even when i limit my driving down to bare essentials i still have days when i put more than 200 miles on my car. as a secondary car the EV1 would be great. as a primary car it has flaws. not everyone can afford a second car for tootling. this by it's very nature limits the market. since the movie only barely covers this territory it loses a chance to explore it's topic free of political slant. this is a shame because i'm convinced after seeing this movie that an electric car could in time be the best solution to the current problem of oil dependence. and you can't hate a movie that features part of Naked Gun 2 1/2.
the movie is good, but not great.
7 out of 10
Here we have a wonderful little bit of it. A piece about the electric car and it's demise. The propaganda is effective, though at times truly lame, such as the "funeral and eulogy" part of the movie early on. Stuff like that should not have gotten past the concept phase before someone realized that actually filming it would look lame, and give away the movie's political bent. Other than that as a piece of propaganda, it worked. Leaving the theater i was all charged up to do nothing about anything. Chalk it up to one more disappointment courtesy of the short sighted federal government, which granted little political muscle or capital to what from a geopolitical angle would constitute a bold movie. General motors can't escape blame for this either having possibly not anticipated how much production costs would have dropped when adjusted for mass production. Also their handling of the situation is about as bumbling as one can imagine.
A few points of contention however. 1) blaming consumers for not buying a vehicle based on it's social good smacks of elitism. 2) no mention of the fact that recharging the battery took 13 hours! who has time for that? 3) for all of it's drawbacks how can a person who can afford only one vehicle (usually used) be expected to pay full price for a vehicle with numerous operating limitations. i may not live in California an be able to bounce around in a fancy new vehicle, but i certainly don't have the time to wait for charging between work shifts, and even when i limit my driving down to bare essentials i still have days when i put more than 200 miles on my car. as a secondary car the EV1 would be great. as a primary car it has flaws. not everyone can afford a second car for tootling. this by it's very nature limits the market. since the movie only barely covers this territory it loses a chance to explore it's topic free of political slant. this is a shame because i'm convinced after seeing this movie that an electric car could in time be the best solution to the current problem of oil dependence. and you can't hate a movie that features part of Naked Gun 2 1/2.
the movie is good, but not great.
7 out of 10