I watched this film recently (unfortunately, I missed the first 1/2 hour) and was wondering how the film compares to reality. What was different about the movie compared to reality?
I am free in all the ways that you are not
I think the movie tries to make the main character so fun and sympathetic that audiences overlook the fact that the SEC had legitimate reasons to investigate him. He did lie in his advertising, he did sell dealerships for a car that didn't exist (yet), he did take possession of a government owned factory in exchange for almost no money.
The part of the movie I most dislike is that in real life his board of directors was not really conspiring against him. I'm sure there were disagreements on how things were done, but it was unfair to make them the 'villains'. Also, the big three auto makers were not really out to get him, either. It was mainly the government that gave him problems, and while one can view that as 'over regulation' or government meddling, it was Tucker who got the government to give him an enormous factory for almost nothing. Naturally, there were questions when the Tucker company failed to actually produce cars at that plant.
This is a little late but I will say that it's not his fault that the government was dumb enough to give him the factory when they didn't know if he had the money to actually build the car.
shareThe movie states he had to produce 50 cars by a determined date to keep the plant and that he accomplished that. So why couldn't he keep the plant? Either the movie is wrong and he **DIDN'T** meet the 50 requirement OR the federal government actually **WAS** influenced by an entity with a motive (as the film suggests) the big 3 automakers who didn't want to spend millions trying to catch up with Tucker's innovations. The reality is, if Tucker met the contract provisions, yet had the plant taken from him then there was CONSPIRACY.
shareI am sure that there is some distance between film and reality but there are enough precedents in history where businessmen with good ideas have been shot down by the big boys such as in the UK, Freddie Laker and the Skytrain by dirty tricks from British Airway aided by the UK government.
Its that man again!!