Tucker: The Man and His Dream
August. 12,1988 PGYpsilanti, Michigan, 1945. Engineer Preston Tucker dreams of designing the car of future, but his innovative envision will be repeatedly sabotaged by his own unrealistic expectations and the Detroit automobile industry tycoons.
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Reviews
Redundant and unnecessary.
It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.
Brilliant and touching
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Tucker: The Man And His Dream is a good solid film, but, as Coppola himself seems to realize (in his commentary), it's nothing special. Its stylized realism is appealing, but ultimately an empty appeal to nothing of substance. That's too bad, because throughout the film I was thinking that there is gold to be mined in the old adage that not all who think that others are out to get them are crazy. Trust me, I know. But this theme is not really even touched on in the film, and only glancingly so in the commentary by Coppola, when the filmmaker muses that newer Internet technology likely makes it easier to succeed against the powers that be (no quite so, Francis!). Nonetheless, the cumulative positives slightly outweigh the negatives, and even if they did not, the film's historical focus deserves viewing. Just, keep expectations in line (unlike Tucker) and you will likely find something of benefit, whether or not Coppola intended it or not.
Don't expect to learn much from Francis Ford Coppola about maverick car designer Preston Tucker or his dream of challenging the Detroit automaking establishment in the late 1940s. Coppola's long-delayed pet project is a transparent revision of the director's own equally futile, early '80s pipe dream of creating a rival Hollywood movie studio, with the blame for its eventual failure placed squarely on a conspiracy of corporate envy and bureaucratic greed. The film has all the depth and complexity (not to mention the same antic pace) of an old Warner Brothers cartoon, and like a cartoon can be a lot of fun, showing all the giddy optimism of post-World War II America, overplayed here to the point of near-hysteria. It's thin stuff, but on the superficial level of craftsmanship alone the film is a visual showcase, running out of gas (so to speak) only during the inevitable courtroom summary, set in Chicago but shot (to the amusement of Northern Californians) in downtown San Francisco. At the climax of his trial Coppola's screen analogue is allowed the chance to restate the theme of the film, which was never more meaningful than 'you can't fight City Hall'.
On the DVD of Tucker: The Man and His Dream, George Lucas comments that Francis Ford Coppola, the director of the film, shares qualities with Preston Tucker - both men have big dreams and always admire and gravitate towards innovation, and their ideas are always springing out in some eccentric but exciting ways. This is true, more or less, depending on when looking at either man's life (right now, for example, Coppola is fine just making wine with the occasional 'student' film like Tetro). But I would like to take the comparison a step further in the Tucker company and Coppola's film company, American Zoetrope.Looking at what happened to the two companies, at least in the scope of the story told in the movie (I can't say how true it is to real events, just how it's depicted here), there's glaring similarities, and things I am sure Coppola connected with. Both men had passion to take a dream of something- for Tucker it was a car line, for Coppola it was independent cinema and a means to break out of studio controls- and they went forward to achieve it, like outsiders but with skills and a drive to succeed. And, ultimately, both men didn't quite live up to the dream. It's somewhat ironic then that the only other guy to really get something out of American Zoetrope in its early years (not counting its peaks and valleys in the 80s), was George Lucas, who turns the tables on the usual dynamic of Coppola producing Lucas' early films to producing Coppola's own film this time around. It's a glossy and nostalgic look at dreams how they can go. At the least, Tucker and Coppola tried.And in the film on Tucker, Coppola and his crew, primarily in credit due to DP Vittorio Storaro, make what could be said like a filmic version of a "Tucker" Car. It's bright and fast and a little off-kilter and unusual. But we like riding in it, and it has an appeal that gives something just a little different, and it's also pretty to look at, too. This may be outside of Dick Tracy Storaro's most "colorful" color film, so to speak, with the bright primary colors and advertisement of 1940's Americana springing out in the screen. Now, this said, this is not exactly a 'rebel' picture like Coppola's early work. Instead it's in debt to the period in film as well, and the primary influence would probably be Capra. This I mean as a compliment - Tucker as a film is entertaining because of how endearing Tucker is, how Jeff Bridges plays him in this context (a guy with a pioneer-spirit, with a smile even when things look bleakest), and how the villains, corporate board members, a Senator, the "Big Three" come off.Coppola even has time to give us two really great scenes. Like they're so good that they could be put right up against some of the essential scenes in the director's films (almost up there, though not quite, with the Wagner bombing in Apocalypse Now and Vito Corleone's death scene). One is the unveiling of the prototype of the Tucker car. It's an intense scene, one that is full of a "oh no!" factor, even as in the back of our minds we know things will be alright. Mishaps keep happening as a crowd of hundreds waits impatiently for the car to come out, as the crew keeps retooling it so it can actually move (with a spy in the midst snapping embarrassing photos) and not totally break down or go up in flames. It's an amazing, uplifting scene. The other great one, not quite in tone like any other scene in the film is when Tucker meets Howard Hughes. It's a strange scene, as Hughes is in the dark aircraft carrier at night with his "Spruce Goose" and, as played by a withdrawn Dean Stockwell, is a bit frightening as an innovator who, perhaps, got too much of what he wanted. It's a brief scene, but an important one, to showcase the variance of the two men, Tucker and Hughes.
"Tucker: The Man and His Dream" is a bitter sweet docudrama that makes you appreciate the wonderful look at an enthusiastic and innovative man, his supportive family & friends, and his embodiment of the dream of American free enterprise. Unfortunately the dream is crushed by a huge machine designed to destroy competition. In some ways the story is something like "Rocky I" building up hopes and even demonstrating worthiness & success, but ultimately overcome by the entrenched establishment.Innovators like the Jeep designers, Tucker, Jim Hall and his Chaparral Racing cars, Carol Shelby and his Shelby & Ford Cobras inspired me toward mechanical engineering and automotive technology. Along the way you find that the path toward true innovation not as encouraged as one would expect, or we would probably be driving cars on some form of extremely plentiful natural gas today.The hard lesson demonstrated by this movie is that many of the American dreams are "fairy tales", that there is no true free enterprise, or not for long. Tucker tried valiantly to compete with huge companies who hate competition, who spend billions fighting it with legislation, government agencies and the media.The Jeep designers had to share production of their design with other manufacturers to get the government contract. Fortunately, Jim Hall's innovations were in race cars where innovation was not as restricted, but he did not really reap the financial rewards he deserved for his innovations that were eventually copied. Mr. Shelby redesigned existing cars, but is less well known for his own cars.It is bitter reality to find that people with great enthusiasm. innovation, and the ability to complete and test their superior designs are often stopped by a multitude of obstacles instead of encouraged. For Tucker to get his fifty cars built is a tremendous accomplishment under the circumstances, but the fight by him and his family was sure leave them discouraged from any similar effort.I would like to know more about his death six years after the trial. It seems suspicious to me with all the great ideas his sharp mind came up with.