MovieChat Forums > Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) Discussion > It's now been 17 years...

It's now been 17 years...

posted 19 years ago by ilmmickey
2 replies | jump to latest

"Produced for the Public Relations Department of The Tucker Corporation."

Now that today is Friday August 12, 2005, it's been 17 years since, on Friday August 12, 1988, "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" had come out for Paramount Pictures. Even though you people may think that this Jeff Bridges starrer was an old movie set back in the late '40s, this 1988 Paramount Picture, of which I love every single minute because it's totally upbeat, was produced by George Lucas and directed by Francis [Ford] Coppola. Here's the tagline for this film when you pull up its poster on moviegoods.com:

"When they tried to buy him, he refused;
when they tried to bully him, he resisted;
when they tried to break him, he became an American legend;
the true story of Preston Tucker."

Here's also the ending disclaimer before the end credits crawl:

"Although only fifty Tuckers were ever produced, forty-six of them are still road-worthy and in use today. Tucker's innovation of aerodynamic styling, padded dash, pop out windows, seat belts, fuel injection, and disc brakes were slowly adopted by Detroit and are found in the cars you are driving now. Preston Tucker died of an illness six years after the trial, but his ideas will live forever."

Then it says: "The End," and "For Gio, who loved cars." Therefore, the person we mean by Gio is Gian-Carlo Coppola, who died in a 1986 boating accident.

Speaking of "Tucker: The Man and His Dream," this 1988 Paramount Picture is one of the best efforts, as I have always praised, by both George Lucas and Francis Coppola, and yesterday saw the 51st birthday for Joe Jackson, the music composer on this film; he was also repsonsible for "Stepping Out" in 1982. Some of you people may have suspected that "Tucker" was also one of the earlier films from Christian Slater, who's turning 36 next week. I'm also satisfied that the Database has also got the ID number submitted to the main details by the MPAA's then-head alumnus Jack Valenti, which was 29156 when you watch the end titles. Like I said way above, this is one of the most upbeat motion pictures I ever watched by any film studio, and that's why I love every minute real well of this 1988 Paramount Picture, release 17 years ago today. Thanks for your time.

[–] SevenKal-ElGuiry 19 years ago

i saw this in high school, it was very good, its funny NOW the big 3 are using the head light that turn when you go around a corner. those bastards. SHAME ON YOU FORD GM AND THE OTHER GUY

[–] Keylimepie 19 years ago

When I was a kid, sometime around 1949 or 1950, my dad took me to an auto show in Los Angeles where we saw a Tucker. It was so far-out to my eyes I thought it was a car from space or something. It looked like the dream cars in Popular Mechanics. I was only 7 or 8, but I could feel the admiration my dad had for all the advanced aspects of the car like the rear engine and disc brakes. I have had that car in my memory now for all these years, over half a century. Tucker was a brilliant man who got caught in the machinery, that's all. They destroyed him as many visionary people have been discarded or destroyed through the centuries. Men like Tucker are rarely recognized in their time, or they are seen as a threat to the mainstream and punished for it.