Flamboyant inventor Preston Tucker's ill-fated battle to produce a faster and safer automobile for postwar... (Learn more)
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen, Martin Landau (View All)
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Starring: Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen, Martin Landau
History tells us that would-be automobile mogul Preston Tucker was a silver-tongued con man, who misappropriated his investors' money and played fast and loose with ethics and legalities in the pursuit of his dream. Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola isn't buying this: to hear Coppola tell it, Tucker was "Mr. Smith Goes to Detroit," a sincere visionary who tried and failed to buck the Big Three auto manufacturers. Moreover, he was a staunch defender of family values, as witness his inseparable relationship with his loyal wife (Joan Allen) and adoring children. It was for his family's sake, rather than any dreams of financial gain, that Tucker created the oddball three-headlight vehicle which he envisioned as the "car of the future". Naturally, the corporate fat cats of 1947 can't abide competition from a rugged individualist; thus, with several politicos in their pockets, they crush the Tucker and the man who built it. We'd have been more inclined to believe the story had Coppola adopted a straightforward Capraesque approach and not utilized all sorts of complicated camera trickery. Somehow, by presenting Tucker in so showoffy a directorial manner, the character comes off more as a sleight-of-hand artist than a bastion of sincerity. Even so, Jeff Bridges does a nice job as Tucker, as does Martin Landau as Tucker's incongruous business partner. Jeff's dad, Lloyd Bridges, appears in an uncredited role as a "bought" senator. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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US Release Date
8/12/88
MPAA Rating
Rated PG
Running Time
111 mins.
Locations
- Oakland, California, USA
- Richmond, California, USA
- San Francisco, California, USA
- Sonoma, California, USA
Language
- English
Box Office Total
$19,188,168
Awards
- Winner of the Best Supporting Actor award at the 1988 New York Film Critics Circle [Festival Awards.
- Nominated for a 10 Best Films award at the 1988 National Board of Review [Festival/Awa Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Costume Design award at the 1988 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor award at the 1988 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Art Direction award at the 1988 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion award at the 1988 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
Distributor
- Paramount
- Paramount Home Entertainment
- Paramount Pictures
