User Reviews

Well, contrary to the other europeans commenting here i do not intend to take the mentioned parallels to hitler out of context (when it's about gasing monkeys) Or resolve to hairsplitting. And to imply that this documentary communicates the oh so arrogant US is - what else - better... i have not heard anyone state such a thing. how about we look at the facts. if the story is about VW it could be somewhat legit to also talk about the country - in fact ..all countries involved. it is also legit & critical to raise the issue and dynamics of law making & bending we are exposed to. i am not anti-europe or anti anything.. but one thing for sure is true.. stuff like this surfs the newspapers like a superchilled stoner a mellow wave. not much is done, if anything. some talk. and talk. but nothing is done. nobody gets active nobody feels responsible to raise the s*** head on. but hey .. again.. isn't it everywhere like that? much more could be done? (i can only talk for myself, this general lack of transparency is paralysing me. inquiring anything is mostly seen as an insult or critique here...it is exhausting and seems endless.) i am shocked to read now that winterkorn is still basically untouched.

there is no point in one nation pointing fingers at another. we are all in this together as should be clear by now... "we are all under the "free" market and capitalism" - umbrella. and we are all breathing the same nitro-air.

i for one am happy to have seen it and have a thousand questions now.. which i think is or should be the intent of a documentary. that they probably will never be answered is another story...

I am astounded by the level of abuse from reviewers of an important and factual documentary on the lies and struggle to hide the truth regarding pollution emissions in the car industry. This is a vital and unmissable documentary. Make up your own mind.

Revealing documentary on the corruption that car companies go to, in order to fudge and bypass fuel emission limit regulations

I enjoyed the movie. At the end the movie attempted to claim Trump was for poor air quality because he withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord. The falsehood in this claim is that the Paris Climate Accord is about better air quality. It is not.

As a European, I feel the first episode is not about Volkswagen, but Europe. It sounds like the US is this amazing place that would never do anything like this. Like this is an exclusively European problem. I would love to see these tests done on American cars. Regulation in Europe is milion times better than whats going on in the US.

If I were to look away from the super stupid American perspective, yes it is interesting and it might deserve a better grade. It would have been a lot better if it didn't have a stupid perspective, but it does and can only be considered half decent.

Not a badly presented documentary, but sadly falls short of a true understanding of the car industry. Largely it makes the mistake of using the same sensationalist accusations that the mainstream media have made. Suggestions that driving a diesel VW was somehow killing people is absolutely ludicrous. The reality is that the number of hugely polluting older cars far outweighs the 'damage' done by a newer diesel VW. Not to say that VW weren't wrong for coding their engine calibrations to detect the emissions tests, but the impact has been far, far over blown.

It's clear that VW weren't the only people guilty of this, so why try and draw parallels with Hitler and the Nazi's? The reality is that VW was entirely saved by the Brits after the war, and, rather than translating Hitlers speeches and leaving 'Volkswagen' untranslated to make it sound like he was directly referring to them as a company, translate it to the actual meaning at the time of the speech which is 'Peoples Car'.

Overall, a decently presented, but heavily biased documentary which falls short of correctly understanding the technology behind the issues.

This entire documentary about Volkswagen is full of cheap shots. If you wanna criticize emissions, criticize the emissions, what has Hitler connection, or the fact that Piech had 12 kids have to do with emissions?

He takes up one point, that the VW cheated in emissions testing, and then tries to depict the company pure evil using Hitler connections and even private life of its CEOs. I have 1 question to ask to the narrator.. If the company was so bad even without the emissions scandal, then why did you buy the freaking car, and boasted with it? Are you Nazi? Are you philogynic?

I think neither. I think you're just biased, and a bad documentary maker who makes only cheap shots.

The Americans, honest and smart People, that only care about the environment, were deceived by Germans with Cars, that were built by Hitler himself.

This 'documentary' had a lot going for it, attempting to cover a huge motoring scandal - the cover-up of diesel emissions by VW and other German auto-makers.

Whilst the episode focuses on this narrative for the first 15 mins or so, it quickly descends into a contest between the US and apparently the whole of Europe. Alex Gibney paints the picture of hard-working Americans believing that diesel is 'clean', and blames Europe for his daughters asthma, the children they have now harmed and the millions of 'clean' diesel cars that America purchased.

This could've been a really good documentary if it kept the focus between German automakers and US consumers - but it didn't, it turned it into a Europe versus the US comparison.

I mean, let us not forget the millions of Americans without universal healthcare, or access to clean drinkable water or the fact that America has a wide range of motoring scandals underneath its belt - which for such a superior nation compared to the whole of Europe, Gibney fails to mention.

What about the Ford Pinto, where 900 people died because Ford wanted to save 11 bucks, or Ford transmissions that would slip from park into reverse, costing a mere 3 cents to fix but rejected by the company - resulting in 27 deaths.

My point is this - it started off as a documentary, but ended up being nothing more than a grudge to try and smear the whole of Europe due to cover ups at German automakers.

Well the fact that what VW claimed they are selling wasn't the truth. But VW diesel cars are still more environmentally friendly then any US made diesel car.

And about the guy saying the air is so bad in Berlin where he lives... For crying out loud is it worse then LA or NY? I live in Berlin so I sure can comment.

US is the greatest country in the world only in the eyes of Hollywood..

I liked the general information presented related to the Nox problem and the whole VW fiasco but the narrative of the documentary just seemed to be about this German Evil Corporation. It would have been better to add in figures and numbers from other diesel car manufacturers too. And the amount of emissions from Ford 150 and 250 trucks in the US compared to that of VW. Also, a bit off topic, but what about the tobacco industry and their killings. At least the VW cars serve a better purpose.

I'm almost at the end of the documentary and the kind of inane hyperbole it spews is making me nauseous. The film maker climbed a very high moral ground right from the beginning by showing how he and his wife were so aghast by the revelation of the VW scandal. And he keeps rubbing this in. "Will you work for a company that is making killing machines?" Are we still talking about cars here?

Totally biased!

Also, as I'm from India, I find it highly amusing that the West is getting tied up in knots over this scandal. The whole story was way overblown imo

Ford is under investigation for using defeat devices and faces huge claims, Honda, Toyota, everyone! It was just VW to be the first to get caught and they became the public scapegoat

Starting the images of Hitler instantly proves that the story is week. Hitler had nothing to do with the VW diesel scandal, he didn't need mentioning.

As for the 'taking the car back to the dealer', it's a car and it runs on fossil fuels, if you drive any car it's bad for the environment. Get off your hippy band wagon and realise that a few grams per mile isn't saving the word, not driving is.

Simply terrible, I can't even be bothered to go on.