Tucker: L'homme et son rêve

Original title: Tucker: The Man and His Dream

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

23K

YOUR RATING

Jeff Bridges in Tucker: L'homme et son rêve (1988)

Play trailer1:56

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Docudrama Period Drama Biography Comedy Drama

The story of Preston Tucker, the maverick car designer and his ill-fated challenge to the auto industry with his revolutionary car concept.The story of Preston Tucker, the maverick car designer and his ill-fated challenge to the auto industry with his revolutionary car concept.The story of Preston Tucker, the maverick car designer and his ill-fated challenge to the auto industry with his revolutionary car concept.

Director
- Francis Ford Coppola
Writers
- Arnold Schulman
- David Seidler
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

23K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Francis Ford Coppola
Writers
- Arnold Schulman
- David Seidler
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 3 Oscars
- 8 wins & 9 nominations total

Videos1

Trailer 1:56

Tucker: The Man and His Dream

Photos58

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User reviews98

6.923.2K

Featured reviews

8billcr12

underrated coppola

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.

Idocamstuf

A nearly perfect movie

The first time I saw this movie was in an Intro To Occupations class, I really enjoyed it that time, and when it came on TV, I taped it because I liked it so much. Jeff Bridges deserved an oscar nomination for his outstanding performance as the determined Preston Tucker who has a dream to built a car, we get to see his progress, and dissapointments in the process. A nice supporting cast also livens the movie up even more. This is an extrememly memorable film with excellent performances and direction. This is a film that more people should see. ***1/2 out of ****.

7gitrich

An interesting look into some American automotive history.

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.

8ccthemovieman-1

Excellent But Frustrating Story

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

penseur

Nice movie, a pity about the facts

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.

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Trivia
Of the 51 Tuckers ever made, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola each own two.

Goofs
The transport plane that the car is loaded into on the ground is a C-123 Provider, which made its first flight in October, 1949. The particular variant depicted (with jet pods) did not appear until the 1960s. The air-to-air footage shows a different airplane, a DHC-4 Caribou, which first flew in 1958.

Quotes
Preston Tucker: [making his closing arguments to the jury] ... When I was a boy, I used to, uh... I used to read all about Edison, and the Wright brothers... Mr. Ford, they were, they were my heroes... 'rags to riches' that's not just the name of a book; that's, what this country was all about!... We invented the free enterprise system, where anybody, no matter who he was, where he came from, what class he belonged to... If he came up with a better idea, about ANYTHING, there's no limit to how far he could go... I grew up a generation too late I guess because now the way the system works... The loner; the dreamer; the CRACKPOT, who, comes up with some CRAZY IDEA that everybody LAUGHS at, that LATER, turns out to REVOLUTIONIZE THE WORLD... HE'S SQUASHED, FROM ABOVE, BEFORE HE EVEN GETS HIS HEAD OUT OF THE WATER, BECAUSE THE BUREAUCRATS, THEY'D RATHER KILL A NEW IDEA THAN LET IT ROCK THE BOAT!... IF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WERE ALIVE TODAY, HE'D BE THROWN IN JAIL FOR SAILING A KITE WITHOUT A LICENSE!
[jury laughs]
Preston Tucker: ... It's true!... We're all puffed up with ourselves now because we invented *the bomb*... Dropped the... Beat the daylights out of the Japanese; the Nazis... But if 'big business' closes the door on THE LITTLE GUY WITH A NEW IDEA, WE'RE NOT ONLY CLOSING THE DOOR ON PROGRESS, BUT WE'RE SABOTAGING EVERYTHING THAT WE FOUGHT FOR!... EVERYTHING THAT THE COUNTRY STANDS FOR! And one day, we're gonna find ourselves at the bottom of the heap, instead of king of the hill, having no idea how we got there; buying our radios and our cars from our former enemies!... I don't believe that's gonna happen; I *can't* believe it, cuz... if I ever, stop believing in plain old common horse-sense of the American people... there's no way I could get out of bed in the morning... Thank you.