This movie I kick myself for having missed when it came out 20 years ago, and it was only last week on HBO that I actually got the Tucker experience with both barrels. The two main ideas for me of this all-American Horatio Alger "rags-to-riches" story are: <br /><br />1) Innovation in conflict with the stale old dead way of doing things (out of collective ignorance and blind obedience to authority)call it the Pleasantville barrierand <br /><br />2) Man against the state, particularly the US state and its insidious methods of coercion working in harmony with cartel business interestscall it the Kleptocon barrier. <br /><br />Without question, the ebullient, imaginative, brilliant, individualistic, hard working Preston Thomas Tucker is more deserving of the quintessential "American Hero" designation than anyone Ayn Rand ever imaginedfrom the iconoclastic/artistic (humorless) Howard Roark to the ethereal/scientific (humorless) John Galt. Or anyone else ever imagined for that matter. Preston Tucker had it all: a joie de vivre that made everyone around him want to sing for joy, a similarly eccentric loving family with hearts as big as Texas, the imagination of a precocious child, and the hard driving intelligence of a man who wills himself to be the best.<br /><br />...<br /><br />For my complete review of this movie and for other movie and book reviews, please visit my site TheCoffeeCoaster.com.<br /><br />Brian Wright Copyright 2009