Tucker: The Man and His Dream (PG, 1988)

TUCKER: THE MAN AND HIS DREAM chronicles the struggles of ahead-of-his-time inventor Preston Tucker (Jeff Bridges), who finds inspiration from a poll stating that 87 percent of people coming back from World War II want a new car. Behold the Tucker: A car with all kinds of bells and whistles that didn't exist at that time, including fuel injection, seatbelts, disc brakes, and roll bars. And he'll even make it look like a jet and put the engine in the rear. He could make a bundle! Tucker's dream has a chance to become a reality when he gets a friend to write an article extolling the virtues of a car he's not yet manufactured and gains the business sense of Abe Karatz (Martin Landau). But when faced with the corruption of elected officials and a board of directors bent on tabling all his innovative ideas, what will happen to his invention? The answer may surprise you.

This film could have been one long, self-righteous screed against corporations, a la An Unreasonable Man. But it's directed by legendary Francis Ford Coppola, who makes his characters loveable, charming, even impish, and makes the telling of the story as important as the point it has to make.