How does this plot sound: An eccentric tinkerer who fled life on the farm invents his version of an automobile — and then finds a way to make it affordable for just about everyone, transforming life in his nation and then the world. He has just one child, a son, who is brilliant, but gentle, refined and cultured. He wants desperately to please his father, but the father makes his life a living hell, and prefers the company of an uncouth former boxer and security goon.
After the son dies young of stomach cancer and stress, the old man and his sidekick nearly run the company into the ground, until the government frees his 26-year-old grandson from service to make a bid for control. He wins, with the help of his own tough guy, the support of his grandmother, the old man’s wife, and saves the family firm and builds it into a world power.
There are lots more fascinating subplots involving intrigue, politics and women – but that’s the true story of Henry and Edsel Ford – and of Edsel’s son, Henry II, aka Hank the Deuce.
Had those events happened in New York or Los Angeles, this probably would have been a major picture long ago… but instead, this was in flyover Detroit … and largely ignored.
And that’s not the only great Detroit movie waiting to be made, by the way: There’s also the saga of a guy named Billy Durant, who founded a company called General Motors, was eventually pushed out; founded another one he called Chevrolet, and then used it to once again take control of GM — only to be ousted again, and end his career flipping hamburgers in a bowling alley. Why Hollywood isn’t interested in that …. I’ll never know.
