DVD: Revenge of the Electric Car
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk puts his personal fortune on the line. Bob Lutz, GM's Vice Chair, stakes the entire brand on the very technology it once tried to kill. Nissan's CEO, Carlos Ghosn, bets the farm on a car almost no one believes can happen. And my neighbor, Greg 'Gadget' Abbott, like thousands of other car converters around the world, sets out to prove you can do it yourself. The challenges they face are as tough as capitalism can be cagey.
But the prize if they succeed is really for all of us: the reinvention of the car without gasoline, and potentially without fossil fuel at all."
PRESS REVIEW OF THE FILM . . .
"Fascinating ... a hugely entertaining portrait. (Revenge) makes for a refreshing and ultimately very effective change of pace compared with the strident, propaganda approach so often employed by similar documentaries. Even the most skeptical global warming deniers are apt to find themselves rooting for this disparate group of risk-takers who may well be spearheading the long delayed transition from oil reliance to new technology"
– FRANK SCHECK, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
“Riveting ... highly entertaining. With unprecedented insider access, Paine presents a film that is less an environmental jeremiad that a portrait of the automotive industry as it seeks to catch up with the 21st century. (Revenge) boasts the richest cast of quirky, compelling characters at Tribeca.”
– JOHN LOPEZ, VANITY FAIR
"One of the best films at Tribeca ... this follow-up to 2006's Who Killed the Electric Car? is distinguished by its unguarded access to GM's Bob Lutz, Nissan's Carlos Ghosn, and Tesla's Elon Musk — three colorful super-villains who might just save the planet"
– JULIAN SANCTON, ESQUIRE
"Revenge' functions as both a victory celebration and a mending of fences"
– MICHAEL RAMSEY, WALL STREET JOURNAL
“Narrated by Tim Robbins with a spiffy soundtrack and swift editing tricks to keep the narrative flow alive, (Revenge) is a continually watchable breakdown of the electric car’s imminent return to the road, which it successfully presents as an exciting prospect ... The mission of the sequel emerges from the first entry and just keeps running – with no less efficiency than the late EV1”
– ERIC KOHN, INDIEWIRE
"Exciting ... worthy of a wide audience. "Revenge" chronicles a torturous but most welcome change in the thinking of American carmakers, finally forced to seek innovation as they face stunning existential choices. We are all living with the consequences of our addiction to gas guzzlers ... And with gas prices soaring again, the film's message is a particularly timely one."
– SHARON WAXMAN, THE WRAP
“Paine has gained extraordinary access to the automotive industry’s movers and shakers, sitting in on Nissan’s secret strategy sessions and Tesla’s initial public offering. As in ‘Who Killed ?’, lenser Thaddeus Waddleigh’s eye for texture and composition, Chris Peterson’s jazzy
editing style and dramatic music/image sync make for a seductive package”
– RONNIE SCHEIB, VARIETY
"Shaped almost like the Space Race ... with Tesla, GM and Nissan competing to see who can put out the first affordable electric car"
– MARLOW STERN, THE DAILY BEAST
"A fascinating and revealing portrait of an industry at a crossroads of failure and progress ... an exceptional re-direction of the director's tone and interests ... I’m impressed with and excited at how much Chris Paine has improved as a filmmaker and delighted that he takes us to a whole new place with his follow-up film "
– CHRISTOPHER CAMPBELL, SPOUT.COM
“An impressive feat ... Paine should receive a pat on the back for juggling the distinct narratives of four men. It’s as much a story of business cunning and technological innovation as it’s the story of plastic on four wheels.”
– PAUL HIEBERT, THE DAILY
"Irresistible ... a fleet and captivating documentary. Paine gets remarkable access to his subjects. Revenge of the Electric Car
is less polemic than an exploration of triumph over adversity-- yes, even when three of the four main subjects are billionaires. That's how convincing a movie this is."
– KATEY RICH, CINEMA BLEND
"Generates real suspense and real stakes ... Paine's new film is less about full-throated advocacy and more about good, solid documentary storytelling. The three men that become the focus of his film -- GM's Bob Lutz, Tesla's Elon Musk and Nissan's smart and confident CEO, Carlos Ghosn -- are unique and fascinating individuals."
– JASON BAILEY, DVDTALK
“Revenge” is sweet, eco-friendly payback. Director Chris Paine skillfully follows all the players (and) presents a fair and balanced portrayal of each man. While ‘Who Killed the Electric Car ?’ felt like the final nail in the zero-emissions coffin, ‘Revenge’ offers some hope of a greener future”
– STEVEN BRYAN, YAHOO MOVIES
“A fascinating and in-depth visual car lecture for both the environmental skeptics and lovers ... P.S. The opening credit sequence is really cool – so make sure you’re not late !”
– ALEX DI GIOVANNA, MOVIEBUZZERS.COM
“An engaging look at the progress electric cars have made over the last few years and the unlikely corporate leaders that are pushing EVs into the mainstream”
– BRIAN MERCHANT, TREEHUGGER.COM
"The film roars onto the screen with a confidence that is equal parts informative recap and juicy palace intrigue ... “Revenge” is a fantastic and eye-opening primer for anyone who ever wondered why change never seems to come fast enough."
– D. INDALECIO GUZMAN, CINESPECT
"Another excellent look at the industry, a rabble-rousing but informative — and hopeful — look at how we’re finding a way
around what once seemed an intractable problem"
– RANDEE DAWN, MOVING PICTURES
"Brilliant ... Revenge is the inspiring story of titans racing to get their electric car out first. One of the most interesting and entertaining documentaries I have ever seen. We don’t rate our movies with thumbs on this site, but both my thumbs here are way way up !"
– MATT ROSENBERG, THE MOVIE BANTER
“Informative and engaging ... ‘Revenge’ is probably the most favorable depiction of corporate and entrepreneurial America seen in a documentary since who knows when? As a result, Paine will probably spread the electric car gospel to previously unreceptive audiences ... The open-minded fairness Paine brings to bear on an industry he formerly excoriated is quite remarkable.”
– JOE BENDEL, LIBERTAS FILM MAGAZINE
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE FILMMAKER, CHRIS PAINE by Katherine Brodsky, The Independent
Director Chris Paine is back with a follow-up to his highly touted documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car?, which celebrated the birth and mourned the death of the electric car. With help from a cast of unwavering advocates, Paine resurrects the vehicle in Revenge of the Electric Car.
The electric car’s time has come, proposes the doc. And sure enough, the race seems to be on to manufacture a stylish, reliable, powerful—yet affordable—electric car. Paine first became interested in electric cars in the mid 90s, after having leased one. He hadn’t even liked cars until he experienced GM’s EV1, whose tragic demise eventually became the subject of Who Killed the Electric Car?
The Independent’s Katherine Brodsky caught up with Paine, an outspoken proponent of electric cars and an environmental activist, at the Tribeca Film Festival where Revenge of the Electric Car had its world premiere. It screens this month in NYC and Raleigh, NC and, if you ask, at city near you.
Katherine Brodsky: Your love affair with the electric car began when you experienced one first-hand. What was that like?
Chris Paine: I leased the GM EV1 and it totally made me feel like the 21st century had arrived. It didn’t have pollution, it was much faster, it was much quieter, it was very sweet… like being in Autopia in Disneyland. It was a very beautiful car.
KB: It’s interesting that you are mentioning all of these great qualities about it that are “cool,” but not necessarily focused on environmentalism…
Paine: Yeah, it [used] no gasoline, it was designed by a famous engineer that I knew about, so I was really hooked. I tried to get the mainstream media to cover story and I couldn’t do it. So I decided to work the game kind of as a joke with a funeral for the car.
KB: Tell me about the joke?
Paine: We thought, where but in Los Angeles would you have celebrities having a funeral for their car? A lot of engineers who were working with cars for years were there and dozens of people that had their cars in the last weeks before they got repossessed... Celebrities who happened to have EV1s because originally GM got a lot of celebrities to drive them. They all agreed to come out and talk about why this was a bad thing. We had a wreath on the car… it actually turned out to be quite emotional. It became an event about air pollution and Los Angeles and how come the future had stopped just when it seemed that you had it in your hands. And when the media gave us ridiculous coverage, well this is where our documentary started.
KB: And now, five years later, you’re taking Revenge so to speak. It takes so much time and effort and passion to do one documentary about a subject and here you are tackling a second one around almost the same subject. What made you do that?
Paine: The first film was about how sometimes great things get killed and you can’t kill a great idea. I really do believe that these cars need to be introduced into the marketplace and begin to challenge oil, because the biggest issue of our generation is using less fossil fuel.
KB: We’re relying on oil so much.
Paine: Saudi Arabia…
KB: Yes, the Middle East… Russia.
Paine: The electric car is a symbol of innovation. So when everyone started coming back to the table, I thought I already have the access and the contacts and who knows this might be an opportunity to have a film not just about the system being shut down but about the system working. That would be a nice bookend, especially since our film plays not just in the mainstream, but in schools and a lot of places where you are influencing people about what society is capable of.
KB: Why did you choose to focus so much on the personal side of the people involved in the electric car?
Paine: There are three things that make a convincing argument: The first is logic. You or I could have all the facts in the world and we might not be able to convince ourselves of anything. The second is passion. The third is charisma or character. We use them together to make an argument and focus on what kind of characters it takes to create change. Plus, I’m a storyteller and storytelling begins with people.
KB: That’s really interesting because it is not just about the electric car; it’s about change and what it really takes to create change.
Paine: Right and [how] to start something and to be an entrepreneur. That’s why each one of the people represents a different part of the car industry in a sense. Well, let’s see if we can get four different kinds of people that represent many other people and maybe everyone can relate to someone.
KB: Yeah. To be honest, it does feel almost like a piece of propaganda in some ways because of this obviously positive, almost promotional, spin. It seems like your intention was to show people or convince people (rather than cover critically). Is that true?
Paine: It’s true. I mean we didn’t take a dollar from the car companies to make this film, we self-financed it. We were offered many things and never took anything, because we had to keep the collaboration pure. I have been driving electric cars for 12 years; I know how many obstacles they have and people are so resistant to change. Industry is so nervous about changing what they are doing. This, in my deepest view, is a very good thing for society and if people don’t pay attention to it they will just give up. So, I will advocate and I think I’m right and that’s my job as an artist to advocate for what I believe in.
KB: Why do you think people are so resistant to change?
Paine: Cars are not quite like buying the new iPhone. People don’t like changing what they are used to. With cars, [people figure], “I know about going to the gas station and paying insurance and getting my tune-up.” If it saves energy, people [may] say, “I have too many things to worry about and I’m not going to worry about that.” It is sort of like basic human laziness. We have a lot of other things worrying us, but this is a good [behavior] to change.
KB: You didn’t look a lot into infrastructure in the doc. It seems like a lot of car companies are relying on the government to step in rather than doing it themselves.
Paine: That’s a good question. We almost did an infrastructure chapter in the film. For a 90-minute movie, we could have had a 12-hour mini-series about this, because it is a vast topic… we started to play with some of the infrastructure stories. Battle of the cities, like San Francisco vs. Portland—who is going to win—New York vs. Boston? What I was hoping is that the movie will build up enough momentum and people will go to the Internet and use their own momentum.
KB: An obvious question, but: What has the response been like from the car companies? What did they think of the film?
Paine: GM was the most suspicious of us, for good reason, if you’ve seen the film. Toyota wouldn’t let us in; we tried there. Karma didn’t.
KB: Did they give you reasons?
Paine: No, they just didn’t call back. Eventually, I started emailing with Bob Lutz [vice chair of GM], which is how the email in the movie begins. I go: So you announced you were doing your electric car, you know I was once one of GM’s electric car fans, I’m still that way, I just think that you made a terrible decision on that last car, but if you are doing it again then I’d be really interested in covering your story. He went “Maybe, maybe.” So then I went to GM, put on a dog and pony show and I could see that maybe I could pull them in and maybe I could get the inside story. That was sort of the thing; our deal was no footage until 2011, when it was released.
KB: Is that because they didn’t want other companies to know what they were doing? Is that it?
Paine: Oh yeah, car companies are very secretive, they don’t want anyone to know and they also wanted to have a release of their car without a movie coming out that would be critical to them, I mean they didn’t know what we were going to do. But, Bob Lutz talks in the movie about “risk-free communication” and he got his people into taking me along for the ride. I told Bob, “Listen, I’m not here to Michael Moore you, I am here to get the electric car on the road and if you’re doing that too, we're both are probably going to like this movie,” so that’s the end of that. And then Elon Musk [CEO of Tesla Motors], I met him at Burning Man years ago. I ended up buying a Tesla and I put my deposit down, so I was inside that story. And then with Nissan’s [president] Carlos Ghosn, we wrote and we said that we were doing something secret and they flew some people out and interviewed us and gave us the okay. Then Reverend Gadget was my next-door neighbor and there are a lot of people doing conversion, not just Gadget.
KB: Where does he get the funds to do all that?
Paine: It’s his hobby. He’s a maker. And it’s amazing how he kept going, after all these horrible things.
KB: I guess that’s what it comes down to, how these people believe... how they are sure when everyone else isn’t.
Paine: Exactly. They wanted the film to be a yes. The first film was supposed to be a yes, but because of what happened it seemed like a big no. It was a yes on technology and it was a no on the system working. I like to think of it as a double yes, I am not an apologist for these companies. The reason car companies are making this is: there is a lot of regulatory pressure on them, oil prices are [high], they want to green wash their brand, I mean all these things are going on...
KB: At the panel following the film, Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn said that it would take about 10 years to have about 10 percent of the market, which to me seems so small. Do you think it’s going to go that slow?
Paine: [Ten percent] is about 100 million cars, that’s a lot of cars. I think 10 years is probably a reasonable thing.
KB: Do you think one day we will all be driving electric cars?
Paine: Yeah, they won’t just be electric cars, there will be a mix of different cars. But there will be more and more.
• The filmmakers have incliuded on the DVDall sorts of special features, including a 35-minute panel discussion after the premiere screening at the Tribeca Film Festival this year- with Chris Paine, Dan Neil, Carlos Ghosn, Elon Musk, and moderated by David Duchovny. We especially love the moment when Wall Street Journal columnist Dan Neil says, "you're not going to see electric tractor trailers out there any time soon..." and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk replies, "yes you will," then the crowd cheered. There are plenty of great discussion topics during this panel presentation. The DVD also has extra footage, celebrity interviews, and more!