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Boy, what a frustrating film to watch....even though it is very good and has been a part of my collection for a number of years now. Still, it's hard to see the good guy, the little guy, beaten up by the big guys. Here's one story where Goliath beats David.

Anyway, this was an interesting supposedly- true-life story of how Preston Tucker got a raw deal form the Big Three car-makers of the day, and by the government after he built a much better automobile in 1948. The film details how the big boys made sure Tucker's company never sold any of those cars.

As mentioned, it's maddening to watch at times, to hear lies and false charges brought against a man who had the right ideas about car safety and engineering and was way ahead of his time.

The 1940s atmosphere in this film is very good and the old music is fun to hear, too. The cinematography is great, too, with some tinted vintage-type color at times. It looks wonderful on DVD.

The car is super to look at and admire. Jeff Bridges does a solid job of portraying Tucker, an upbeat, positive-thinking inventor. It also was refreshing to see a nice, supportive family, too. I enjoyed all the main actors in this film: Bridges, Joan Alen, Martin Landau, Frederic Forest, Elias Koteas and Christian Slater

Impressive styling of the 1940s era and fine direction from Francis Coppola, whose middle name is Ford (ha!), makes TUCKER a historical tribute to the revolutionary, all-too-superior "car of tomorrow" that never was destined to bury the Big Three. It's not an entire biography of his life, but an account of triumphs and trials in his short-lived business. Jeff Bridges' character he portrays is a cheerful, mind-mannered guy who dreamed of making these autos since his childhood. There's plenty to like in this nostalgic trip, as this was made in a genuine vintage style. The opening best compares to a true classic sales promo, an indication of brilliant film work. Joe Jackson's cool 40s tunes he composed are extremely well made, although they get in the way sometimes. Drive on over to the video mart and check this selection out! Perhaps if we all had a Tucker....

Jeff Bridges stars as Preston Tucker, a pioneer of automobile manufacturing in the 1940s. The Tucker Torpedo was well ahead of its time, with disc brakes, seat belts and fuel injection, all new innovations.

The big three auto makers plotted against Tucker, not thrilled with the new competition. A real life courtroom drama ensues with a David vs. Goliath like battle with crooked politicians, bad journalism and a man with a big dream. Coppola put his heart and soul into the making of Tucker, much like the subject did into his car. This film is a fine example of bringing to life a man with a dream who never gave up; very inspirational.

It's been a while since I saw this movie, and I was already acquainted with they story when I realized they'd made a movie about it. The movie lives up to the reality.

No question, Preston Tucker was brilliant. When Uncle Sam requested designs for combat vehicles, he submitted, and demonstrated, a design which significantly blew away all competitors. He was turned down because his design significantly outperformed what Uncle Sam asked for. Small-minded individuals, mired in the relatively wimpy requirements, wouldn't take the more advanced design. It boggled his mind that they would turn down "steak with all the trimmings" in exchange for a "plain hamburger." I've been in the Military, so it doesn't surprise me.

When he wanted to make a point about safety, emphasizing the need for safety glass and seatbelts (which were NOT standard equipment at the time), he invited the appropriate people to lunch, served medium-rare roast beef, then showed pictures of people who'd died in car accidents. Lots of blood, lots of "raw meat." My driver's education teacher, trying to convince us to be safer drivers, did the same (minus the fancy lunch). Anyway, the similarities between what they saw on the screen, and what they'd just eaten, caused many of them to be "re-acquainted" with their lunch. I sincerely doubt they ever forgot the presentation, and his point was very well made.

I like this guy. He's whip-smart, practical, maybe a little too optimistic.

I identify with him.

And they broke him.

Welcome to reality. Bites, doesn't it?

In the end, he knows he's beaten, but he still gets the last word in. I hope I manage to do so well.

Tucker: The Man and His Dream is a good spirited story of perseverance, loyalty, honor, and integrity from legendary director Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola's name is synonymous with landmark cinema that changed the face of the film industry forever with classics like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. This movie is obviously not of that caliber, but it is an enjoyable experience nonetheless. In it, a thinner, younger, and clean shaven Jeff Bridges plays Preston Tucker, a likable businessman who had big ideas for the auto industry that would ultimately lead to bigger consequences. It's a true story about how one man tried to change the auto industry after World War II by creating the greatest car ever made. His financial support in the booming big government economy after WWII is an issue, but he perseveres through it all with the goal of achieving what others say is impossible. It's a happily inspiring tale, performed excellently by Mr. Bridges, one of my all time favorite actors.

Coppola shows in this movie that he can still be a fine director without the backing of a gangster or Vietnam war epic. He has a straightforward directing style for this straightforward film, but it doesn't fault a movie that mainly focuses on character and plot, rather than visual aesthetic. However, the film did get nominated at the Academy Awards for best Art Direction and Costume Design, and deservedly so. Tucker: The Man and His Dream is a period piece, and everything about the film stays true to its time frame. It is always interesting to see such a specific time period like the 1940's projected through an 80's lens, and Tucker: The Man and His Dream does a captivating job at this. The costumes are interesting and relevant, along with the set design and of course the cars. And it is all backed by a fantastic early 1900's jazz soundtrack.

The story itself stays mildly interesting the whole way through. It lags in some spots where not as much is happening, but it sets up for a great climax with a beautifully inspirational speech delivered by Bridges. The flow and pacing of the film has its noticeable issues and parts felt slightly choppy. The beginning of the film starts out with an infomercial/historical newsreel quirk that is very creative, but practically abandoned by the end of the film. Despite some minor flaws nothing significantly deteriorates the overall quality of the film.

Tucker: The Man and His Dream is a solid film that anyone can at least find mildly interesting, since it is based on a true story after all. Putting this film into today's perspective, it is still relevant and interesting what with all the auto industry crises going on today and how I'm sure we all wish we somebody as steadfast and innovative as Preston Tucker could pick the industry back up on its feet. I commend a film if it makes me think in terms of current events, so kudos to this film. I will say that as a Coppola film, it's nothing too special. I would obviously recommend the first two Godfathers and Apocalypse Now long before Tucker: The Man and His Dream. But as just another film, this movie is plenty enjoyable and interesting to watch.

Overlooked yet highly entertaining drama from director Francis Ford Coppola and producer George Lucas, an amusing and nostalgic look at real-life idea man Preston Tucker who, in 1945, developed the Car of Tomorrow and hoped to put Detroit's auto business out of commission. A smart, knowing take on the past, a nice comeback from Coppola but one that did little business. The film has gleaming photography, a jaunty pace and a great cast. Jeff Bridges, not the most subtle actor, gives one of his finest performances in the lead. Supporting cast is made up of pros (Martin Landau, Frederic Forrest, Dean Stockwell) and fresh new talent (circa 1988) such as Joan Allen and the incredible Elias Koteas. *** from ****

Preston Tucker was a man with a dream. He actually advertised his new car and even took advanced orders for it. But the truth is that there was never a chance that Tucker would ever be able to deliver on his promises. Jeff Bridges plays the would be automotive tycoon with an Oscar going to his co-star Martin Landau for his portrayal of "Abe" Tucker's business manager. You will enjoy seeing most all of the remaining Tuckers in this film. This is a good film and I recommend it.

My favorite scene in "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" comes in the last ten minutes: the the closing arguments from Preston Tucker about the tenets of free enterprise and the little guy vs. big business. It's an impassioned speech and really where Jeff Bridges gets to shine in the lead role.

Tucker's little guy taking on the Big 3 automakers is the heart of the story, and there's universal appeal in this. The film has a rose-colored glasses look on the past with its advertising style of telling this story (kudos to the art department on this), and its genial performances do suck you in. My problem was in the overall execution. This thing runs with a shuddering transmission; go-stop, go-stop. The characters' cheer whenever things go right is palpable, but there's tragedy lurking at every corner. It just doesn't stop. And the big reveal scene is dragged out to torturous ends - which is fine if that's what really happened, but it runs counter to the rest of the movie's slick polish.

And things felt overwrought by the time we get to the courtroom drama, which is why that speech was such a breath of fresh air. I was hoping for that feeling from the rest of the movie.

6/10

Thus is a superb movie. Firstly, the story line is just great. The true story of a man who fights against all the odds to realize his dream. Secondly, it's hard to imagine a better cast. They do an extraordinary job in bringing to life all the wonderful characters involved. Jeff Bridges is perfect as Tucker, and Landau is brilliant as the money man. But what really makes this work, is the way Tucker's undying spirit is brought out. He seems to lose the battle of making cars, but wins the ultimate battle of fulfilling himself and keeping his integrity. {"They're only machines, the idea's the important thing."] Over the years, I have collected many hundreds of movies, but this one has to be in the top ten. By the way, I just loved the music sound track. Very 40's.

More than simply the triumph of human spirit, Francis Ford Coppola's "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" specifically shows how Preston Tucker (Jeff Bridges) sought to challenge the dominance of the big automakers and they set out to destroy him. I had never heard of Preston Tucker before watching this movie, so it was fascinating to learn about his deeds. Bridges is great as the entrepreneur, with Joan Allen as his wife Vera.

I see that Coppola had weighed making this movie right after "The Godfather Part 2". While I do believe that he made the correct choice in making "Apocalypse Now" - which I consider his greatest movie - this certainly would have constituted a fine follow-up to the films about the Corleone family. Definitely worth seeing.

Also starring Martin Landau, Frederic Forrest, Mako, Christian Slater, Jay O. Sanders, Lloyd Bridges and Michael McShane (in his final role).

A beautiful film which captures the spirit of a man's struggle to make his dream come true. Jeff Bridges is invincible in the role of Preston Tucker and effortlessly pulls the viewer inside the mind and spirit of this maverick entrepreneur who brought to the automotive industry seat belts, fuel injection, pop-out windows and most of all a legend called the Tucker Torpedo.

Acting just oozes out of this fine actor and id consider it as his best performance ever. Excellent direction,screenplay and soundtrack. great duologue's too. especially "can any one in this room look me in the eye and say we cant do it" and on hearings a non-affirmative he replies "except you".

The courtroom speech is something which recharges your spirit and fills your body with passion. Very true as he puts it " fifty or fifty million...thats only machinery..its the idea that counts..the dream.."

Preston Tucker (Jeff Bridges) is an engineer designer in Detroit. During WWII, he designed a fast armored car which was rejected but he does earn a small fortune producing his aircraft gun turrets. With his wife Vera (Joan Allen), son Preston Jr (Christian Slater), and others, he decides to build his revolutionary car of the future but he faces savage backlash from the big three Detroit carmakers and government officials as well as a backstabbing board.

Director Francis Ford Coppola is all about ingenuity and the underdog. Despite its ending, the movie is upbeat and old fashion in its feel good sensibility. It's a lesser known entrepreneur but it is very much a heroic American story. This movie could have been done by Frank Capra. This is for car fans and anyone rooting for the dreamer.

Much like many of the characters in this movie, I never really caught the vision of Tucker: The Man and His Dream. I know Francis Ford Coppola is a big fan of Preston Tucker and his car, which is why he made this passion project, but this film didn't really make me care about his story. I just felt apathetic while watching it, despite all the wide-eyed enthusiasm Jeff Bridges brings to the table. And the rest of the cast just seemed to be along for the ride as the plot zoomed from scene to scene. I wonder if the reason this film got such critical acclaim is primarily because Coppola was involved.

Those into 1940s period atmosphere and those interested in classic cars should like this. There's plenty of nice clothes, colors, swing music and of course cars. Jeff Bridge's portrayal of Tucker is charming even if it doesn't quite ring true. And maybe Vera Tucker was as sexy as Joan Allen. The problem is that the real story is a bit different from this typically Hollywood camped up version. Tucker was ambitious and daring but took on more than he could succeed with for technical and practical reasons in the time period that he set himself. The SEC took him and five associates to court because his cars didn't have all the technical features that he had promised investors in his prospectus they would. That stymied his ability to raise the money he needed to produce the 300,000 cars he had orders for. It was not a case of the "big three" motor companies acting to crush him - in fact Ford gave him steering wheels for the Lincoln Zephyr as a gesture of help. The legacy is those attractive 51 cars that were produced which are today very highly valued.

The story was a great one about how a revolutionizing idea will live on even after the inventor is thrown aside. Yet the story mainly focus on how the big names in industries will only think of their own gains and advantages to reap from the market by keeping their own outdated innovations and not letting the people to get the best that ideas can offer. The acting is a decent overall. Jeff Bridges gets into character nicely in he managed to maintain Tucker's almost persistent smile yet he can give out the heated anger scenes the live they need. It's nice too see Elias Koteas and Christian Slater adding the right tone here. Joan Allen has also did a good job in completing the spouses and family scenes well.

This is one of the best films that take place during that key period just after the conclusion of World War 2. It was a period of unbridled optimism about the future of the United States and a time where almost anything seemed possible.

The film tells the true story about Preston Tucker(played by Jeff Bridges) and his attempt to create the perfect car for the future, the "Tucker". This car would have everything in it from a rear engine to fuel injection. However, as he gets started building the cars, he realizes that his goal may have been an unrealistic dream as the big three automakers use their power and political influence to try and block him from creating something that would compete with them. The Tucker character is one you cant help but cheer for as he never gives up on his dream.

The 1940's feeling of the film is perfectly captured by a zippy score by Joe Jackson and Joan Allen perfectly plays Tucker's supportive wife who stands by him every step of the way.

This is a terrific film about a man who never gives up.

All Preston Tucker wanted to do was build an amazing car: one with a rear engine, fuel injection, headlights that follow the steering wheel, a windshield that pops out, and a seat belt. That may all sound pretty simple now, but at one point in time that was revolutionary.

Unfortunately, you can't just build a car. I mean you could but if you're building a better car for the people you need financial backing and plenty of it. Once you start getting bankrolled with millions of dollars, well now you're on the radar.

Tucker was a big dreamer. He wasn't an engineer, an inventor, or even a savvy businessman; he was a man with big ideas, a clear vision, and an ability to make others believe in his vision. He could've used his skills to be a great conman, but he wasn't. He was a man with an honest desire to build something great even if he didn't know the best way to achieve it.

In many ways this movie is sad. Tucker was a man trying to attain the American dream, the dream that capitalism allows Americans to have and he was being crushed by big businesses and politicians. I guess that part of the American dream was omitted.

One thing they were never able to take from Tucker was his effusive optimism. Rare were the moments in the movie where he was anything but upbeat and optimistic. Even when he was being squeezed and things weren't going his way he found a way to be cheerful.

We don't drive Tucker cars today but it's not for a lack of trying. This movie could inspire as well as tamper aspirations. Maybe this country has grown in the last 70+ years or maybe not. We only need another Tucker to come along for us to find out.

Francis Ford Coppola first thought of making Tucker as a dark Brechtian musical back in the 70s and went so far as to have Leonard Bernstein think about the music. When he actually made the film in 1987, Joe Jackson provided the hopped-up big band licks and gave Mr. Coppola his best score since Rumblefish. No matter -- it's as much a director's biography in hidden form as ever there was, Fellini, Bergman, and Woody Allen notwithstanding. Mr. Coppola is the visionary who tried to buck the system and almost succeeded only to be brought down by forces, real and imagined, that control the way things run. Preston Tucker had a rocket ship of a car with turnable headlights and seat belts; Mr. Coppola had great movies about wiretappers, the nightmare of war, and a silly bit of off-beat stuff about lovers in Vegas. The specific points of such a parallel biography need not be driven into the ground here -- suffice it to say that one can imagine a young Francis telling his younger, equally visionary associate and design nut George Lucas (executive producing here) to grow a beard -- just as Jeff Bridges, in a career-highlight performance, tells his engineer played by Elias Koteas. Lovely Joan Allen plays Tucker's devoted, whip-smart wife -- an Eleanor substitute -- and Christian Slater is Tucker's eldest son, perhaps a stand-in for Coppola's son, Gio, who died before the film was made and to whom it is dedicated. Brash, fun, funny, melodramatic -- a visual feast that plays on 40s and 50s conventions -- Tucker: the Man and His Dream couldn't be a better collaboration between visionaries: Coppola, Lucas, and Preston Tucker.

The story of Preston Tucker, failed car manufacturer, as told in Francis Coppola's biopic, has a feel of a fable such as David Mamet's 'The Water Engine', an archetypal story of the little man with a dream, crushed by the system. It's therefore surprising to learn that, in essence, the story is true, and Jeff Bridges' portrayal of Tucker as a character of almost wild enthusiasm is also close to the mark. But even if it's it true, it still doesn't convince. Bridges plays Tucker as a man of nothing but enthusiasm, and it's hard to believe that anyone could have taken such a person seriously; or indeed, that such a person could ever have run a large business successfully, however great his judgement and ambition. He's also just too bouncy for us to really feel his pain as life turns against him, and there's an annoying depiction of his perfect family to boot in the classic Hollywoood manner. Above all else the film is a reassertion of the values of the American dream, and while it's amusing to see how Tucker assembled his first car in the manner of a competitor on 'Scrapheap Challenge', the point is that in 99 out of 100 cases, a dreamer wouldn't make it nearly as far as Tucker; in the real world, dreaming alone is rarely enough. Without this context, the film loses it's point and bite: but it's nice to see 50 reconstructions of Tucker's futuristic creation, circling the block at the end at the film.

Preston Tucker is a man of vision and innovation. Soon after the end of WW2 and with several innovative but unsuccessful vehicles behind him, he strikes upon the perfect car to challenge the Big Three - Ford, GM and Chrysler. His vision is beset by problems though: finance, material, production space, conservative board members, politics. It turns out that US automotive powerhouses aren't too keen on competition and have powerful connections.

Based on a very interesting true story, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Jeff Bridges as Tucker, the film seems to have everything going for it. Yet from the start it doesn't quite live up to its potential. The most striking thing is the tone: incredibly light for a film dealing with injustice and the crushing of innovation and entrepreneurship. So light you'd think this is a children's comedy.

This vibe carries over to some of the characters and performances: some of the secondary characters are quite cartoonishly drawn. The characters and performances in general are quite one-dimensional and play to the simplistic good guy vs bad guy feel to the movie.

Things do get better towards the end and the final few scenes are quite powerful, at last emphasising the sense of injustice and a massive opportunity lost. If only that tone could have been present from the beginning of the movie.

Ugh. Unless you're particularly interested in this era of history (and even then) this film is painfully boring. The acting was woeful, the characters shallow, and the golden lighting blinding my eyes in every goddamn scene would have you believe that the entire decade of the 1940s occurred during the sunrise/sunset hours.