Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) review

In the mid-40's, Michigan-based inventor Preston Tucker (Jeff Bridges) designs a new type of automobile with some sleek features and convinces "financier" Abe Karatz (Martin Landau) to help him get funding, but faces problems with his own Board of Directors (who want to adopt changes he doesn't approve of), the Big Three automakers (who feel threatened by him) and then lands in trouble with the dreaded U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he's placed on trial (on accusations of fraud) and risks spending the rest of his life in prison.  Both Coppola and producer George Lucas are fans of Tucker's extremely limited edition creations which is nice, except this biopic, which is shot like a TV program from the same era, is not only bland but blatant hero worship: Bridges' goody-goody (who has quite a temper when things aren't going his way) comes across as a fast-talking, hard-marketing hustler instead of a legitimate entrepreneur (as with Tesla Motors, his engineers deserve the bulk of the credit).  The movie's trying to make the argument that it doesn't matter if he was somewhat disingenuous (and played fast and loose with his money) because he's a visionary (not unlike Coppola and Lucas) and that's all that matters - Tucker's even conveniently granted a monologue in the courtroom to properly defend himself, and his salesman swagger wins over the jury.