85 years of Francis Ford Coppola: A maverick career of cinematic greatness, risk, reward, and failure
It’s been a long time since Francis Ford Coppola made a good movie, but when he’s responsible for a handful of the greatest ever made, his reputation has hardly been dented by the odd catastrophic failure every now and again.
With five Academy Awards to his name, history will always remember him as one of the all-time greats of directing, which is only a small part of his legacy. It’s a hell of a legacy either way, of that there’s no doubt, but another one of the key reasons why Coppola became such an indelible part of cinematic history is because – much to his own detriment on more than one occasion – he was ready, willing, and able to put everything on the line in the name of achieving his vision.
It may have been his fifth feature, so he was hardly a rookie at the time, but The Godfather was an astounding way to put himself on the map. The highest-grossing film ever made at the time, it was instantly greeted as a classic, but the production was a troubled one in what would become a recurring theme of his career. Coppola was initially reticent to direct, but after his previous effort, The Rain People, had bombed and the fact his production company owed Paramount $400,000 for going over budget on George Lucas’ THX 1138, he was convinced to take the reins.
Things worked out very well for all parties, but The Godfather still fell behind during production and took longer to bring over the finish line than the studio would have liked. The Conversation was his second classic in a row and went off without a hitch before he completed the hattrick when The Godfather Part II lived up to – and for many exceeded – its formidable predecessor, even if it ended up costing more than double the original $6million budget.
Rounding out an incredible quartet of consecutive timeless greats, Apocalypse Now ticked two familiar Coppola boxes by being both one of American cinema’s greatest-ever achievements and an utter nightmare from a production standpoint, with the infamous shoot bordering on cursed territory. The results spoke for themselves, but the filmmaker’s maverick tendencies and habit of letting costs and schedules spiral out of control would eventually come back to haunt him.
After four astonishing films in a row, Coppola suffered a dizzying fall with One from the Heart. He funnelled millions of his own dollars into a musical romance that barely cleared $600,000 at the box office, with his passion project almost ruining him completely. By the time the dust had settled, his Zoetrope production company filed for bankruptcy, with co-producer Fred Roos owed $71m.
The Outsiders saw Coppola remove 43 minutes from his original cut to placate a studio unconvinced by the film, which saw Paramount pass on Rumble Fish as a result, with Coppola’s experimental ode to the French New Wave and German Expressionism adding another high-profile flop to his filmography. The Cotton Club went massively over budget, Peggy Sue Got Married was admittedly a return to form, but Gardens of Stone and Tucker: The Man and His Dream were another two money-losing missteps, a barren spell which ended with Coppola freely admitting he agreed to make The Godfather Part III because he was broke.
He only signed on to direct Bram Stoker’s Dracula because he’d recently declared bankruptcy for a third time and had debts that needed clearing, and yet it still ended up winning three Oscars and making a killing in cinemas. Coppola has only directed five features in the 30+ years since, and none of them have been able to hold a candle to his golden years. However, despite being well into his 80s, he hasn’t lost his desire to push the boat out, although it remains entirely up for debate whether Megalopolis will begin a new chapter of his directorial career or end it completely.
The ambitious ensemble sci-fi carries a reported budget of $120 million, with Coppola footing the entire bill himself. He’s no longer living through hard financial times thanks to his booming winery, but he nonetheless admitted to GQ that he’d sold off a “significant piece” of his wine empire in order to fund the film. If he manages to pull it off, then he’ll be hailed for betting it all on himself and being proven right, should Megalopolis stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his greatest work.
On the other hand, if it joins the alarmingly large number of credits in his back catalogue where he’s spent exorbitant amounts of his own personal wealth and ended up in seriously dire straits, then he’ll look incapable of learning a lesson he’s been taught several times over. Either way, it’s going to be fascinating to find out, and it’s not as if Coppola will be short on confidence looking at everything he’s achieved.
