An Inconvenient Truth and Who Killed the Electric Car? take different approaches to documenting environmental woes -- and placing blame.
By Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
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So, I finally saw An Inconvenient Truth. I also recently watched Who Killed the Electric Car? -- I guess I’ve been on an enviro-doc kick lately. (Oh, didn’t catch that? Get with the lingo, gramps!) Plus, in early January we had shorts weather, so it just seemed appropriate.
Who Killed the Electric Car? was everything An Inconvenient Truth wasn’t. Who Killed? indicted big business, California leaders and the federal government – and it named names. It would happily make any GM executive squirm. (However, my favorite segments were definitely interviews with the electric car loving Mel Gibson! Oy! He loves electric cars! Who knew? I didn’t see that in the minutes of the last Jews Run the World Conference. Tova Gladbergsteingreen – I didn’t make you secretary to sit on your hands!)
An Inconvenient Truth took on a more amorphous who’s-to-blame attitude – I suspect to make the movie palatable to “mainstream America” and, as the DVD cover proclaimed, quoting some critic, a movie any Democrat or Republican could love. (Take note of the incredibly popular Fahrenheit 9/11 – you can indict, enflame and still succeed.)
Any movie that ends with the individualized “Golly, Al, what can I do?” is a film any polluting CEO can love. The big picture, policy issues are raised – but only skimmed. The movie actually closes with a call for individuals to recycle and such. It’s that individualized approach to policy issues that this country seems to love so much. (Who needs a safety net when we have charity?) This thinking lets the corporations off the hook, and it obscures the multi-million dollar campaign (supported by the Executive branch) to keep the US so tragically behind the rest of the world on every environmental issue.
Plus, I could have done without the campaign ad-esque Gore-as-protagnonist storyline. Did you know it was a real blow when he lost the presidency to Bush? Gore’s soft, Southern voice played over Florida footage (sanitized of the racism that permeated) and Bush’s inauguration – showing Gore putting on a brave face, being anything but a sore loser. (Wow, that must have been really tough on you.) While losing the presidency may have been a blow for you personally, it’s had much more tragic consequences for the rest of us.
Gore’s actual slide show was incredibly informative and frightening – definitely required viewing. Unfortunately the film tried too hard to depoliticize itself on an issue that, like every other scientific area, is deeply political in our capitalist, big business run society.
TOTAL SCORE: 2.5 PEACH PITS (OUT OF 5)
The Peach Pit is a weekly column on trashy TV and DVDs – except when Elizabeth compromises and watches her boyfriend’s choices.
Good to know. I don't think I can take watching Al Gore as Johnny Leader. Maybe I'll watch "Electric Car" instead with my girlfriend, Emma Wassensteinsky.
Posted by: Brian | 01/25/2007 at 01:08 AM