As Lucasfilm celebrate the 50th anniversary of American Graffiti, they also are marking the 35th anniversary of another Lucasfilm production, Tucker: A Man and his Dream. Starring Jeff Bridges, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, executive produced by George Lucas and featuring visual effects by ILM, the film looked at the visionary entrepreneur Preston Tucker who developed the Tucker Torpedo, a luxury car outfitted with disc brakes, a fuel-injected rear engine and enhanced safety features that was ultimately crushed by the American automobile industry.
Shot on location in the San Francisco Bay Area, Tucker’s cast included Jeff Bridges in the leading role, as well Martin Landau, Joan Allen, Mako, and Christian Slater. The equally-skilled production team included cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, production designer Dean Tavoularis, and costume designer Milena Canonero. Less than 50 Tucker automobiles had been made four decades earlier, but the Lucasfilm team managed to recruit nearly half of them for use during the shoot.
Inspired in part by industrial films of the 1940s (forerunners of today’s documentaries), Tucker is exuberantly told, evoking its namesake’s own dogged energy and perseverance. It’s both subversive and aspirational, and as we’ve previously explored, Tucker’s self-defense in the dramatic courtroom scene acts as a sort of thesis statement for a company like Lucasfilm. “Tucker is about how you bring dreams into reality,” George Lucas would say, “which is something that filmmakers do all the time.”
