Who Killed the Electric Car??

Personally, I think you should all go out and rent Who Killed the Electric Car? (or put it in your Netflix queue). I was bummed when we had class and it was showing at Scripps, but it just released on DVD yesterday and I watched it this afternoon instead of writing a Spanish essay and I could not be more pleased with my decision. It is an extremely well-put together documentary that kept my attention and gave me a massive amount of information about something that I had little or no knowledge about before.
Just a bit about authorship before my verdict in the murder case and other rantings. The film brought me back to issues that we discussed about Authorship and Film. This film was written and directed by the same guy, who clearly has a passion for the topic, but he use of other materials (clips from movies, television broadcasts, etc) add a lot to the film and make it much better, so there is a blurring of authorship, like there is with many documentaries. Also, I expected the narrator to be the voice of the director/writer and was a bit surprised when the credits rolled around to see that the voice was actually that of.... Martin Sheen. Interesting. It is also quite clear that it took a lot of people to make this film work and the authorship was a collaborative effort, rather than just the director.

Anyway. The film actually made me feel mournful for this car (which I've never actually even came into contact with one). There is a scene in the film which is a funeral for the EV1 cars and it was amusing, but indeed made me a bit sad. And then the film just made me angry with big corporations, the oil industry, and the other multiple factors involved in the destruction of this car.
Based on the information provided in the film, I would put GM and the other major car companies in jail for life for the murder of the electric cars. Why? Mostly because they actually were the ones who physically destroyed every single one of the cars and would not allow any of them to be on the road. But also because they had the potential to advertise and promote the cars in a positive way and clearly did not put enough time or energy into encouraging consumers to buy these cars. The car companies, of course, did this on purpose and then claimed there was no consumer interest in the product.
Okay, I could rant and complain about this forever, but most people probably won't read it and I actually should write that Spanish paper... I would definitely suggest you all see it, though. It's interesting.