History Film / TuckerTheManAndHisDream

A 1988 [[BioPic Biopic]] directed by Creator/FrancisFordCoppola and starring Creator/JeffBridges as maverick 1940s automaker Preston Tucker, with a supporting cast including Creator/JoanAllen, Creator/MartinLandau, Creator/EliasKoteas, Creator/ChristianSlater, and Frederic Forrest.

* {{Leitmotif}}: Preston Tucker [[InUniverse considers]] "The Tiger Rag" to be this for him, considering that he [[RunningGag constantly sings]] "Hold That Tiger! Hold That Tiger!" [[CatchPhrase throughout the film]].

* CaliforniaDoubling: San Francisco’s City Hall fills in as the exterior of the courtroom where the climactic trial takes place. The courtyard with black and gold gates is Memorial Court on Franklin Street.

A 1988 [[BioPic Biopic]] directed by Creator/FrancisFordCoppola and starring Creator/JeffBridges as maverick 1940s automaker Preston Tucker, with a supporting cast including Creator/JoanAllen, Creator/MartinLandau, Creator/EliasKoteas, Creator/ChristianSlater and Frederic Forrest.

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A 1988 [[BioPic Biopic]] directed by Creator/FrancisFordCoppola and starring Creator/JeffBridges as maverick 1940s automaker Preston Tucker.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Tucker, his family, Alex Tremoulis and many other figures are actual people. In addition there is a cameo by Creator/HowardHughes (played by Dean Stockwell).

* GenreThrowback: To 50s advertising and industrial films, as well Creator/FrankCapra's movies. Ironically, Capra -- who Coppola and Lucas had approached to be involved in the film, since they considered it an {{Homage}} -- rejected the film because he saw Tucker as a "loser," didn't see him as "little guy against the system" and that it would invoke DarknessInducedAudienceApathy[[invoked]].

* InTheStyleOf: Creator/FranzCapra films and old-school "propaganda" films. The movie even opens with a "presented to you by the Tucker Corporation" card. Some critics didn't liked how Tucker was painted like some kind of larger-than-life MessianicArchetype, although they admitted that it would make sense with the format.

* MisplacedRetribution: The SEC was embittered over Kaiser-Frazer receiving millions in grants and squandering almost all of it, so they punished all startup businesses by putting them under intense scrutinization, even Tucker, who didn't take ''any'' government money.\\
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His biggest innovation, selling accessories for the car before it entered production (which guaranteed them a spot on the waiting list) and selling cars to dealerships before it was produced (for $7,500 to $30,000 each, in a total of 2,000 dealerships), is probably what drew the SEC's attention. It is also probably why the War Assets Administration, who leased him the Chicago Dodge Plant [[note]] Which built the massive Wright R-3350 Cyclone engine for the B-29 Superfortress[[/note]], denied his bids for two steel mills to supply the steel needed for the cars.

* ConfucianConfusion: "Big ships fine," Confucius say. "Rowboats long in tooth, make big noise, go nowhere."

* DoomedMoralVictor: Tucker won his case and vindicated himself yet his business failed and his product never became a success. Despite this, all his innovations were adopted in later decades and vitally changed the automobile business.

* GenreThrowback: To 50s advertising and industrial films, as well Creator/FrankCapra's movies. Ironically, Capra -- who Coppola and Lucas had approached to be involved in the film, since they considered it an {{Homage}} -- rejected the film because he saw Tucker as a "loser" and didn't see him as "little guy against the system".

Though well received by critics, it was a notorious box office bomb.

** The senate hearing and presentation by Tucker where he shows grisly images of car accidents and the unsafety of many automobiles was obviously a reference to the crisis in Big Auto in the late 60s and early 70s around the time of Ralph Nader's ''Unsafe at Any Speed''. Tucker proposes that [[CassandraTruth his cars have measures that will improve passenger safety]] and convenience. It would be much later when the other cars followed suit.
** Tucker's final speech at the Court has him noting that the ability of large corporations to crush independent inventors and entrepreneurs will hold back American ingenuity and knowhow and that eventually Japan and Germany will surpass them in consumer electronics and cars. By the time Coppola made this film in the 80s, this became increasingly true, and its especially prescient in the 21st Century.
* GenreThrowback: To 50s advertising and industrial films, as well Creator/FrankCapra's movies. Ironically, Capra who Coppola and Lucas had approached to be involved in the film, since they considered it a {{Homage}} rejected the film because he saw Tucker as a [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint "loser" and didn't see him as "little guy against the system"]].

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: In Anahid Nazarian's own words, "[T]the president of the Tucker Company was a good guy really, but we needed a villain, so we made him a villain."
** The Big Three are hinted as being threatened by Tucker, when in actuality they couldn't care less about a startup independant car company. They decided to reduce competition by cutting prices in 1953, which ultimately put Studebaker-Packard and Kaiser-Jeep out of business. In reality, Tucker was targeted by an overzealous SEC (see MisplacedRetribution below) rather than rival auto companies.

His biggest innovation, selling accessories for the car before it entered production (which guarenteed them a spot on the waiting list) and selling cars to dealerships before it was produced (for $7,500 to $30,000 each, in a total of 2,000 dealerships), is probably what drew the SEC's attention. It is also probably why the War Assets Administration, who leased him the Chicago Dodge Plant [[note]] Which built the massive Wright R-3350 Cyclone engine for the B-29 Superfortress[[/note]], denied his bids for two steel mills to supply the steel needed for the cars.
* ShownTheirWork: Creator/JeffBridges was allowed by the Tucker family to wear Preston Tucker's rings, and were very involved in the making.

** An article on the film's authenticity was written by the [[http://www.tuckerclub.org/html/movieinfo.html Official Tucker Club of America]].

''Tucker: The Man and His Dream'' is a 1988 [[BioPic Biopic]] directed by Creator/FrancisFordCoppola and starring Creator/JeffBridges as maverick 1940s automaker Preston Tucker.

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''Tucker: The Man and His Dream'' is a 1988 [[BioPic Biopic]] directed by Creator/FrancisFordCoppola and starring Creator/JeffBridges as 1940s automaker Preston Tucker.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory