Coppola, Francis Ford 1939-

COPPOLA, FRANCIS FORD 1939-

Director, screenwriter

Apprentice

When he saw Sergei Eisenstein's Ten Days That Shook the World, sixteen-year-old Francis Ford Coppola decided to become a filmmaker. His success in college as the director of campus shows led to his enrollment in UCLA's film school. Needing money for his education, Coppola took jobs shooting low-budget nudie films and quickie features for B-movie king Roger Corman. The most notable of these were the gory Dementia 13 and The Terror, with Jack Nicholson. While working as a writer for the successful film group Seven Arts, Coppola wrote his first full-length screenplay, You're a Big Boy Now. Coppola, always aggressive and forever a risk taker, managed to persuade some major talent (including Geraldine Page and Julie Harris) to accept supporting roles in the film, which gained some attention on its release in 1966. When Finian's Rainbow (1967), his first directorial effort for a major studio, became a disaster, Coppola vowed to turn his back on the Hollywood system and make his own films his own way.

Idealist

The Rain People, finally released in 1969, was a Utopian experiment in filmmaking. Coppola, his cast (including Robert Duvall and James Caan), and his crew (including new protégé George Lucas) modeled the film after its subject: an improvised cross-country trip. The results were mixed, but Coppola was determined to continue the experiment by opening American Zoetrope, an independent film studio near San Francisco that would devote itself to artistic and visionary work. He persuaded Seven Arts to put up the money for Lucas's debut feature THX 1138 (1971), but when angry executives saw the cold, uncommercial results they pulled the plug on American Zoetrope's funding. Coppola, now five hundred thousand dollars in debt, watched his filmmaking dreams collapse. Ironically, a highly commercial Hollywood success reversed his fortune. Patton, which Coppola had scripted in 1965, was finally released early in 1970 and became a huge hit. Coppola eventually won an Oscar for his screenplay and was made an offer he could not refuse: the chance to direct a low-budget gangster movie for Paramount.

The Godfather

Coppola had not wanted to make The Godfather, but once committed he exercised his clout to get the cast he wanted. He insisted on Al Pacino as Michael Corleone (despite Pacino's dismal screen tests) as well as Robert Duvall, James Caan, and Marlon Brando, whose casting Paramount bitterly opposed. Collaborating with Mario Puzo, author of the original novel, Coppola drew on his own New York Italian upbringing to expand and deepen the story's religious themes and family details. Though the crew lacked faith in his ability (sometimes to the verge of mutiny), Coppola's sense of detail and character came through strongly, impressing the top brass at Paramount. They beefed up the film's budget significantly, and word of mouth began to spread. The publicity surrounding The Godfather incurred the wrath of the Italian American Civil Rights League and some members of the real-life Mafia, but the film itself proved to be a cinematic event, setting box-office records and winning Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Brando refused his award), and best screenplay for Coppola (he lost best director to Bob Fosse). Having made the biggest moneymaker in history, Coppola had won the freedom to make any film he wished.

Peak

Coppola's next project, The Conversation, was the only film he made for the Director's Company, an independent venture formed with Peter Bogdanovich and William Friedkin (later disbanded). The Conversation used innovative sound recording and editing techniques to present the subjective reality of a wiretapper who eventually becomes the victim of his own increasing paranoia. Artistic and intelligent but also highly disturbing, the film was not a commercial success but did gain extra publicity when the Watergate scandal hit the papers just days after completion of shooting. It went on to win best picture at the Cannes Film Festival as well as Oscar nominations for Coppola as both producer and screen-writer. He also found time to write the script for The Great Gatsby (1974) and to produce George Lucas's run-away 1973 hit American Graffiti (another nomination). He finished 1974 with The Godfather Part II a dark and complex sequel that contrasted the rise to power of the young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) with the complete moral downfall of his son (Pacino) decades later. The Godfather Part II won six Oscars, including Best Picture (the first sequel ever to do so) and best director and best screenplay for Coppola.

Apocalypse

An associate of Coppola theorized that the often moody and manic director could function only under conditions of chaos and disaster. This proved to be true in the creation of his next film, Apocalypse Now. In the four years that it took him to complete the film, Coppola would suffer a complete nervous breakdown, partly brought on by long months shooting in the jungles of the Philippines. His star, Martin Sheen, suffered both a mental collapse and a heart attack during filming, but that was not the only nightmare for either of them. Bad weather, including a typhoon, destroyed sets and equipment; special-effects sequences (especially explosions and fires) backfired, and the Filipino military impeded more than assisted production. Surrounded by a swirl of negative publicity, Coppola spent a year shooting 250 hours of film and exceeded his initial budget by millions. He then spent almost two years editing what had become his creative millstone. "My nerves are shot, my heart is broken, my imagination is dead," he was to say of this period. Despite some acclaim (and a record-setting advertising budget), Apocalypse Now barely recouped its cost and was judged by many critics an ambitious failure. Many close to Coppola claimed he emerged from the experience a completely changed man and artist.

Experiments

Coppola's post-Apocalypse career was erratic. One From the Heart (1982), a highly stylized musical, bankrupted his resurrected American Zoetrope Studio. Reviews were mixed on two youth-oriented films, The Outsiders and Rumble Fish (both 1983). Though the former made money and the latter garnered some critical raves, most felt that Coppola was floundering as a director. Nor did his next film, The Cotton Club (1984), do much to salvage his reputation: an unqualified flop, the movie went over budget by millions and bankrupted its producer, Robert Evans. Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) was a commercial success but hardly bore Coppola's mark as director. Gardens of Stone (1987) and Tucker. The Man and His Dream (1988) were expensive bombs. The Godfather Part III (1990), despite several Oscar nominations, was considered by many to be too little too late. His flashy adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), how-ever, was an unqualified success, suggesting that there might be new blood in Coppola's waning career.

Source:

Michael Goodwin and Naomi Wise, On the Edge: The Life and Times of Francis Coppola (New York: Morrow, 1989).