HOME |  CULT MOVIES | COMPETITIONS | ADVERTISE |  CONTACT US |  ABOUT US
 
 
 
Newest Reviews
American Fiction
Poor Things
Thunderclap
Zeiram
Legend of the Bat
Party Line
Night Fright
Pacha, Le
Kimi
Assemble Insert
Venus Tear Diamond, The
Promare
Beauty's Evil Roses, The
Free Guy
Huck and Tom's Mississippi Adventure
Rejuvenator, The
Who Fears the Devil?
Guignolo, Le
Batman, The
Land of Many Perfumes
Cat vs. Rat
Tom & Jerry: The Movie
Naked Violence
Joyeuses Pacques
Strangeness, The
How I Became a Superhero
Golden Nun
Incident at Phantom Hill
Winterhawk
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Maigret Sets a Trap
B.N.A.
Hell's Wind Staff, The
Topo Gigio and the Missile War
Battant, Le
Penguin Highway
Cazadore de Demonios
Snatchers
Imperial Swordsman
Foxtrap
   
 
Newest Articles
3 From Arrow Player: Sweet Sugar, Girls Nite Out and Manhattan Baby
Little Cat Feat: Stephen King's Cat's Eye on 4K UHD
La Violence: Dobermann at 25
Serious Comedy: The Wrong Arm of the Law on Blu-ray
DC Showcase: Constantine - The House of Mystery and More on Blu-ray
Monster Fun: Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror on Blu-ray
State of the 70s: Play for Today Volume 3 on Blu-ray
The Movie Damned: Cursed Films II on Shudder
The Dead of Night: In Cold Blood on Blu-ray
Suave and Sophisticated: The Persuaders! Take 50 on Blu-ray
Your Rules are Really Beginning to Annoy Me: Escape from L.A. on 4K UHD
A Woman's Viewfinder: The Camera is Ours on DVD
Chaplin's Silent Pursuit: Modern Times on Blu-ray
The Ecstasy of Cosmic Boredom: Dark Star on Arrow
A Frosty Reception: South and The Great White Silence on Blu-ray
You'll Never Guess Which is Sammo: Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon on Blu-ray
Two Christopher Miles Shorts: The Six-Sided Triangle/Rhythm 'n' Greens on Blu-ray
Not So Permissive: The Lovers! on Blu-ray
Uncomfortable Truths: Three Shorts by Andrea Arnold on MUBI
The Call of Nostalgia: Ghostbusters Afterlife on Blu-ray
Moon Night - Space 1999: Super Space Theater on Blu-ray
Super Sammo: Warriors Two and The Prodigal Son on Blu-ray
Sex vs Violence: In the Realm of the Senses on Blu-ray
What's So Funny About Brit Horror? Vampira and Bloodbath at the House of Death on Arrow
Keeping the Beatles Alive: Get Back
   
 
  Tucker: The Man and His Dream The American Success Company
Year: 1988
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Stars: Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen, Martin Landau, Frederic Forrest, Mako, Elias Koteas, Christian Slater, Nina Siemaszko, Anders Johnson, Corin Nemec, Marshall Bell, Jay O. Sanders, Peter Donat, Dean Goodman, Don Novello, Lloyd Bridges, Dean Stockwell
Genre: BiopicBuy from Amazon
Rating:  7 (from 3 votes)
Review: Preston Tucker (Jeff Bridges) was a man with a dream, which was that after the Second World War had ended he wanted to break away from the so-called "Big Three" main car manufacturers and set up shop on his own, with an innovative new design. He had already made a name for himself as an inventor, desgining a super-fast armoured car for use in battle, but as a pointer of things to come it had been turned down by the military, ironically for being too fast. He was an eternal optimist, however, and felt sure that he could smash the monopoly of big business with a car that was safer and more efficient than anything ever to roll off the production line...

When Tucker: The Man and His Dream was released, many observed the connections between the real life inventor and the producer-director of this film, Francis Ford Coppola, as if he had seen so much in the character of his subject that he wished to support his own self-image of a powerful dreamer who had tried to buck the system and been crushed by it. After all, Coppola's American Zoetrope studios, which he had set up as a rival to the bigger Hollywood players, had suffered its fair share of disasters, and had never taken its place alongside the majors as Coppola had envisaged happening.

But the truth was that the filmmaker had wanted to make the Tucker story from at least the start of the seventies, well before Zoetrope's troubles, and the result in 1988 was less a tribute to himself and more a tribute to the oldtime inspirational movies that the likes of Frank Capra had made back around the era that Preston Tucker was operating - Bridges even got a Mr Smith Goes to Washington-style speech at the end just when things are looking their most desperate for him. As the film starts, you're well aware that the protagonist's schemes are not going to succeed, which in effect lulls you into a false sense of security, knowing you're going to watch this man with the sunny disposition have the good cheer knocked out of him.

And yet, as the title sequence sets it out, you could have been watching a movie designed by Tucker himself, or at least his public relations department, as in a lightly self-aware fashion the story unfolds as a tribute to the American Dream, just like in traditional Hollywood conventions. Bridges never allows us to see Tucker in weakness, as even when he loses his temper he still appears in control, and it's a performance that would not have shamed James Stewart in his heyday, except that Coppola veers too close to corny in his efforts to recreate the past. One thing that does come across as being of its decade - the eighties - is that reaction to the idea of big corporations running everything and not caring about the little guy, which is anathema to the likes of Tucker who sees himself as one of those little guys.

You can understand why his team and his family would be so loyal to the innovator, so after a while a sense of injustice starts brewing as the large companies in Detroit make moves to nip the plans in the bud. No sooner has Tucker got his dreams off the ground, and it takes a lot of work as he has to build his prototype from junkyard car parts, than his competitors are spying on him, planting critical, biased reports in the press, and even worse, placing doublecrossing members into Tucker's board of directors thanks to their government influence. They tell him his design will never be a success, and all because he wanted to stop so many deaths in car crashes and make road travel easier financially for the common man: now his engine in the back is out of the question, seatbelts supposedly make the public believe the vehicle isn't safe, and he can't even get the colour he wants. By the time Tucker's trial for fraud is underway, what started as a handsomely depicted throwback has grown unexpectedly gripping, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Well, sort of. Music by Joe Jackson.
Reviewer: Graeme Clark

 

This review has been viewed 4702 time(s).

As a member you could Rate this film

 
Review Comments (0)


Untitled 1

Login
  Username:
 
  Password:
 
   
 
Forgotten your details? Enter email address in Username box and click Reminder. Your details will be emailed to you.
   

Latest Poll
Which star probably has psychic powers?
Laurence Fishburne
Nicolas Cage
Anya Taylor-Joy
Patrick Stewart
Sissy Spacek
Michelle Yeoh
Aubrey Plaza
Tom Cruise
Beatrice Dalle
Michael Ironside
   
 
   

Recent Visitors
  Stuart Watmough
Paul Shrimpton
Darren Jones
Mary Sibley
Enoch Sneed
Mark Le Surf-hall
  Louise Hackett
Andrew Pragasam
   

 

Last Updated: