维拉斯克在书中引述了两人的对话：

    鲁茨：“我们要做的是在每辆汽车上多投资一千美元，提升汽车的核心品质，增加它的价值。这样我们就能卖出更好的价钱。”

    瓦格纳：“我明白。可问题在于，就算汽车质量提高了，也不能马上卖出好价钱，我们怎么才能熬过中间的这段苦日子？”

    鲁茨：“如果我们继续大打促销战，最终就无利可图了。一旦利润为零，就算翻再多倍也还是零。”

    瓦格纳：“别跟我扯财务——我比你更擅长。这个系统让我们无法脱身。我们现在唯一能做的，就是开足马力往前冲。”

    （维拉斯克在批注中解释道：“所有对话都根据至少一位参与者的回忆重新进行了整理；并向其他相关人士验证了对话的准确性。”）

    而福特公司的两位主要人物得到的待遇要温和许多，这也恰恰适合他们的能力。通过大举借贷，他们让福特躲过了破产厄运。平易近人的比尔•福特看上去并不出众，却颇受人爱戴（他只是偶然得到掌管这家汽车公司的机会），可由汤姆•汉克斯饰演，而汤姆•克鲁斯这位总是面带笑容、本领高超，让超人也黯然失色的银幕硬汉则饰演艾伦•穆拉利。

    福特在安阿伯市福特公司办公室里秘密会见了穆拉利，希望将这位波音公司（Boeing）高管招入麾下。正是这次密会为两人的友情奠定了基础。

    福特：“我非常担心公司未来的命运。如果能有一位有过类似经历的人来领导公司，情况也许会好得多。”

    穆拉利：“你知道，我是一名工程师。我负责解决问题，进行创造。如果你想扭转目前的局势，得有个计划。”

    （福特提出研发燃油经济型混合动力汽车，并且要足够环保）。

    穆拉利：“真是英雄所见略同！我一定要把它变为现实。”

    （仅仅经过几周的犹豫，穆拉利就下定了决心。最后，他拨通了福特的电话）：

    穆拉利：“你的条件让我无法抗拒。我希望能与你一起拯救这家伟大的公司。”

    福特：“太好了！你什么时候过来？”

    这部戏中有一位主要配角——全美汽车工人联合会（United Auto Workers）主席罗恩•盖特芬格尔。每次汽车公司提出方案，降低汽车业沉重的用人成本时，他都会从中作梗。该角色可由威廉•达福饰演。

    但在一场关于薪酬福利让步的谈判中，盖特芬格尔与菲亚特（Fiat）公司CEO塞尔吉奥•马尔基翁棋逢对手，针锋相对。盖特芬格尔最常用的策略是，突然站起身，然后一言不发地离开会议现场。

    马尔基翁（阿尔•帕西诺饰演）：“你以为我他妈是傻子吗？我们得拿出一个更有竞争力的工资标准和工资结构来！”

    盖特芬格尔：“德国人来的时候，我相信了他们。之后，我别无选择，只能支持瑟伯勒斯。你是第三个声称自己要拯救这家公司的人。我凭什么要相信你？”

    马尔基翁：“我可不像瑟伯勒斯的那些废物，我懂怎么运营一家汽车公司。别的方面我可能不在行，但是经营汽车公司，我可是行家。”

    《汽车往事》中还有许多重要的配角，例如：福特公司的马克•菲尔兹（乔治•克鲁尼饰演），帅气的外表并未妨碍他在职场上取得令人注目的成就；史蒂夫•葛斯基（达斯汀•霍夫曼），自称“快言快语的纽约犹太人”，他是通用汽车公司敢说真话的人；另外一位打酱油的配角九十多岁的投资家柯克•科克莱恩则由布拉德•皮特饰演【因为皮特曾在电影《返老还童》（The Curious Case of Benjamin Button）中有过饰演老年人的经历。】

    演员的选派应尽快进行，因为故事中的角色随时可能发生变化。美国汽车业风云变幻，龙头老大的位置大家轮流坐庄。谁知道会发生些什么？如果乔治•C•斯科特依然在世，由他来饰演通用公司CEO丹•阿克森，或许会为我们带来一场精彩的好戏。

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    Here's an exchange that Vlasic quotes:

    Lutz: "What we've got to do is put another thousand dollars worth of goodness into the car to give it more value. You can command better prices then."

    Wagoner: "I understand. The problem is, how are we going to live through that time when the vehicles are better, but we are not commanding better prices?"

    Lutz: "If we keep this incentive war going, we're going to give whole margin away. Once your margin is zero, you can multiply it all you want, and it is still zero."

    Wagoner: "Don't get all finance-y on me -- that's my specialty, not yours. We're trapped in this system. The only thing we can do is to move full-steam ahead."

    (In an author's note, Vlasic explains: "Conversations were reconstructed based on the recollections of at least one participant; others involved were asked about their accuracy.")

    Over at Ford, the principals get much gentler treatment, as befits their ability to steer past bankruptcy by taking out a monster loan. Picture Tom Hanks as Bill Ford, the popular, easy-going everyman (who incidentally controls an auto company), and Tom Cruise as Alan Mulally, the ever-smiling, high-energy action hero who makes the superhuman look ordinary.

    The seeds for the Ford-Mulally bromance are planted at a secret meeting in Ann Arbor at Ford's house where Ford tries to recruit the Boeing executive to the automaker:

    Ford: "I'm pretty fearful of what I sense is coming at us, and it would be so much better if I had an executive who had been through what we're about to go through."

    Mulally: "Remember, I'm an engineer. I solve problems, and I create things. If you're going to turn this around, you need a plan."

    (Ford brings up fuel economy, hybrid cars, and protecting the environment).

    Mulally: "God, I have your vision too! I have to make that happen."

    (But Mulally's decision to "make that happen" comes only after several weeks of dithering. Finally, he places a call to Ford):

    Mulally: "This is just so compelling. I want to turn around this great company with you."

    Ford: "Oh my god. How soon can you get here?

    A key supporting role in this melodrama belongs to the United Auto Workers' president Ron Gettelfinger, who throws a wrench in the works every time a solution appears to ease the industry's crushing labor costs. Paging Willem Dafoe.

    But Gettelfinger meets his match when he battles Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne over concessions on wages and benefits. Gettelfinger's favorite tactic is to get up and leave the meeting without saying a word.

    Marchionne (played by Al Pacino): "Do you think I'm fucking stupid? We need to come up with a competitive wage rate and structure here!"

    Gettelfinger: "I believed the Germans when they came in. Then I had no choice but to support Cerberus. You are the third guy saying you are going to save it. Why should I believe you?

    Marchionne: "I know how to run a car company, not like that nonsense at Cerberus. I may be lousy at a lot of other things. But I know how to run a car company."

    Once upon a Car contains plenty of meaty supporting roles as well: George Clooney as Ford's Mark Fields, whose good looks don't prevent him from building an impressive career; Dustin Hoffman as Steve Girsky, the self-described "fast-talking New York Jew" who became GM's truth-teller; and a walk-on role for Brad Pitt as nonagenarian investor Kirk Kerkorian (that's Pitt as an old man in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.)

    Casting should start as soon as possible because roles could change. Leadership of the domestic industry seems to rotate every few years, and another company may find itself on top. Who knows? If only George C. Scott was still with us to take on the role of GM CEO Dan Akerson.