Fuel Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Fuel Blu-ray Movie Review

"Change your fuel, change your world..."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown April 27, 2011

It seems everybody has a bite-size plan to save the planet. Reduce greenhouse emissions! Embrace wind power and solar energy! Change your carbon footprint! Build super-efficient homes! Drive electric cars! Maintain our forest lands! Go green! Reduce! Reuse! Recycle! But while big, broad, sweeping ideas are exactly what the world needs, very few people actually align their behavior with their passing convictions. Enter 2008 Sundance Audience Award-winning filmmaker Josh Tickell, creator of the "Green Grease Machine," captain of the indomitable "Veggie Van," and all around enthusiastic environmentalist. Whatever might be said about Tickell, he at least has the moxie to live a life in accordance with his message and principles. I can respect that. Unfortunately, his narrow focus and "make love, not oil" mantra bleeds too deeply into his first feature documentary, Fuel.

Prepping the Veggie Van for its maiden voyage...

"I stay out of the global warming dispute," Tickell explained in a Popular Mechanics interview with G.E. Anderson. "And I mean completely. I don't argue that we need to do things because the world is coming to an end, or going to shift because we have endangered ourselves. I mention global warming in the movie but don't focus on it, and the reason is because I think it's a red herring. If we focus on money, and the bottom line, and we look at what kind of cost savings and profits can be gained through energy efficiency, it makes the global warming argument look like people who just don't understand where the value is. We need to focus on value, because the major change for the green revolution has to happen at a business level."

As you can tell, Tickell isn't just a controversial figure in ultra-conservative circles. He rubs a number of his fellow environmentalists the wrong way as well. He continues: "If you don't provide businesses with value, they won't ever change. They don't care what's happening to the world. Corporations aren't run with a set of moral directives. They are run with one thing in mind, and that's profit. For me, for my work, even for the Fuel film, the question was always: How do we get away from these didactic arguments that just go around in circles and leave people with less understanding, less information, less ability to make informed decisions than they had when they began? How do we give them really clear, insightful information that they can use to actually better their lives? It's great that it betters the planet as a result. And it's great that it improves the air. Of course it's going to reduce carbon emissions. Because at the end of the day, it's an efficiency equation."

All of which would be an interesting premise, if Fuel stuck to it. (Or even orbited it for any significant length of time.) Instead, Tickell tends to tread and retread all-too-familiar ground, patting himself on the back for his own grassroots efforts, waxing poetic about his 25,000-mile Veggie Van travels, awkwardly touching on (then hastily retreating from) the events of September 11th, and tirelessly connecting the frequently connected dots between oil, war, global politics, U.S. and international practices, and the rapid decline of the environment in recent decades. He offers little information that hasn't been covered in a dozen other documentaries, and offers only the simplest of solutions, most of which are laid at the doorstep of corporations rather than the consumer.

Tickell's eyes fill with pride as if minds are being blown with every word he speaks. His toothy smile is that of a hungry wolf, eager to devour anyone into his cause. He leans into the camera with chummy intensity, draws inspiration from the waters of Morgan Spurlock, and beams like an energy-efficient light bulb anytime he wraps his fingers around the collective throats of executives and politicians. But its all pomp and circumstance. The decision makers he talks with are already on board the Green Express, the arguments he makes are straightforward and dogmatic, and the points he makes grow redundant. In fact, reading dozens of interviews with the well-spoken filmmaker is a far more fascinating experience than sitting through Fuel's 113-minutes.

Be that as it may, Tickell's efforts are noble, his motivations are sincere, the expert interviews he conducts are engaging, his fervor and passion are infectious (if only in small doses), and his documentary is competently shot and carefully assembled. Were I a junior or senior high school teacher, I would hold Fuel in higher esteem. It would prove to be an excellent tool when introducing fundamental concepts and facilitating environmental debates in a classroom. But considering other readily available documentaries are more comprehensive, more informative and more entertaining, I doubt it would be the first film I turned to (unless time constraints made the 40-minute Educational Version included with Cinema Libre's Blu-ray release a more perfect fit). Fuel gets lost in an ever-growing crowd of well-intentioned but conventional environmental documentaries, and Tickell doesn't do much to separate himself from the pack other than flash a winning smile that wears out its welcome long before Fuel reaches its conclusion.

Fuel Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A home-brewed hodgepodge of various video sources, Fuel's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer isn't disappointing so much as it looks exactly how you might expect it to look. Source-born artifacts, errant noise, clarity inconsistencies and other anomalies are par for the low-budget, grassroots documentary course, and everything from edge halos to intermittent aliasing to more distracting eyesores make an appearance. However, the technical encode is fairly sound, boasting richer colors, more lifelike skintones, deeper blacks, and more impressive detailing than the Blu-ray edition's DVD counterpart. And while that may not amount to the most attractive presentation, documentary regulars won't bat an eye.

Fuel Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

A standard Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track makes an already standard mix that much more so. Rear speaker activity is both limited and subdued, LFE output is underused and underwhelming, dynamics are slightly hemmed in, and directionality isn't going to draw any praise. Still, voices are clean and clear on the whole, particularly during interview segments, and Tickell's narration, score and song selections, and overlay sound effects get along with each other smashingly. Again though, I doubt anyone with appropriate expectations will complain.

Fuel Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray edition of Fuel features a decent supplemental package, particularly for a documentary. There aren't any deleted scenes to be had, which is a surprise, but a worthwhile audio commentary with the filmmakers makes up for it.

• Director and Creative Team Commentary: Director Josh Tickell, producer Darius Fisher, associate producer/co-editor Tina Imahara, co-editor Michael Horwitz and producer/director of marketing Rebecca Harrell discuss shooting, assembling, editing and refining the final cut of the documentary. The commentators are a bit chatty at the outset, but soon find their footing and deliver an informative dissection of the film and its subject matter.
• Educational Version (HD, 40 minutes): The filmmakers shave a whopping seventy-two minutes off Fuel to prime the documentary for the classroom (or, really, young viewers in general). It's naturally a bit choppy, but it works.
• Sustainable Biodiesel Extra with HERObx (HD, 4 minutes): Tickell examines some of the strides made by the Erie, Pennsylvania company.
• Building a Green Bottom Line (HD, 3 minutes): Paul Mitchell co-founder John Paul Dejoria discusses the environmental responsibilities of individuals and corporations.
• How to Get 150 MPG from Your Prius (HD, 5 minutes): Apparently my initial answer, "get out and push it," was wrong.
• How to Save Thousands Through Energy Efficiency (HD, 4 minutes): Tips for saving cash when going green.

Fuel Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fuel aims higher than it reaches, and stops short of really digging into the meat of the environmental ails of our world. It isn't bad at all -- it's perfectly suited to junior and senior high classroom viewing -- but I couldn't escape the overwhelming sense of having seen the documentary a dozen times before. Cinema Libre's Blu-ray release doesn't quite justify the disc's price tag either. Its video transfer, though proficient, isn't very striking; its Dolby Digital surround track, while passable, merely gets the job done; and its supplemental package, though worth investigating, doesn't dive as deep as it could. All in all, the Blu-ray edition of Fuel is a semi-decent release, and nothing more.