francis ford coppola first think of make tucker a a dark brechtian musical back in the 70 and go so far a to have leonard bernstein think about the music . when he actually make the film in 1987 and joe jackson provide the hop up big band lick and give mr. coppola his best score since rumblefish . no matter it a much a director biography in hidden form a ever there be and fellini and bergman and and woody allen notwithstanding . mr. coppola be the visionary who try to buck the system and almost succeed only to be bring down by force and real and imagined and that control the way thing run . preston tucker have a rocket ship of a car with turnable headlight and seat belt while mr. coppola have great movie about wiretapper and the nightmare of war and and a silly bit of off beat stuff about lover in vega . the specific point of such a parallel biography need not be drive into the ground here suffice it to say that one can imagine a young francis tell his younger and equally visionary associate and design nut george lucas ( executive produce here ) to grow a beard just a jeff bridge and in a career highlight performance and tell his engineer play by elias koteas . lovely joan allen play tucker devote and whip smart wife an eleanor substitute and christian slater be tucker eldest son and perhaps a stand in for coppola son and gio and who die before the film be make and to whom it be dedicate . brash and fun and funny and melodramatic a visual feast that play on 40 and 50 convention tucker represent the man and his dream couldn not be a good collaboration between visionary represent coppola and lucas and and preston tucker .