Francis Ford Coppola chastises directors who don’t “keep their sights high enough”
Francis Ford Coppola came up in Hollywood as one of the so-called “Movie Brats”, a term coined by academics Michael Pye and Linda Myles to refer to the loose collection of filmmakers who changed movies forever in the late 1960s and ’70s. This was the first generation that grew up obsessed with cinema and learned their craft at film school instead of inside the Hollywood studio system. After that system died down, they changed what kind of movies were made and helped popularise the idea of the director as an auteur in American cinema.
Incredibly, a number of these revolutionary directors were close friends and actually worked on each other’s pictures. George Lucas helped his buddy Francis Ford Coppola out by shooting second-unit footage on The Godfather. When Martin Scorsese was having trouble with the editing process on Taxi Driver, his pal Steven Spielberg made some key suggestions to transform the last reel. Even Brian De Palma helped Lucas re-write the iconic opening crawl on Star Wars not long after he’d made Carrie.
Now, while these guys were clearly supportive of each other in terms of getting their movies over the line, it didn’t always mean they were entirely happy with the results. Coppola, in particular, has never been shy about dinging his friends for their choices. In 1982, Rolling Stone asked him which films he liked from directors of his generation, and he took the opportunity to chastise a few of his buddies.
“I like Billy Friedkin’s The French Connection,” revealed Coppola, “George Lucas’ THX 1138 and American Graffiti, Scorsese’s Mean Streets, and I enjoy Spielberg’s films.” So far, so good. However, the brutally honest Apocalypse Now filmmaker added: “These people are tremendously gifted and wonderful, but they don’t always keep their sights high enough, in my opinion. It seems as if they just want to keep confirming over and over again that they can make the most successful kinds of films.”
While that criticism could certainly be levied – rightly or wrongly – at someone like Spielberg, it seems slightly odd to aim it at Friedkin and Scorsese, especially in 1982. After all, Friedkin was making the likes of Sorcerer and Cruising at the time – hardly movies anyone could accuse of being hopeful blockbusters. Similarly, Scorsese had just made Raging Bull and The King of Comedy, which we’d never compare to Raiders of the Lost Ark or E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
Whatever the case, Coppola would return to this theme in 2007 – and this time, it was entirely aimed at Lucas. He lamented to The Hollywood Interview, “I wish George Lucas would take some of his fortune now and make some personal art films, because he’s a very talented filmmaker. No one even knows what George is truly capable of.”
In one way, this is a compliment – Coppola clearly expected more out of Lucas. But on the other hand, it’s got to hurt to hear things like this: “George is a fabulous avant-garde filmmaker, and… it’s just one of the greatest wastes of talent that he keeps making Star Wars over and over again. Star Wars was a stunning achievement, but now, I wish George would show us the other side of him.”
Having said that, though, Coppola did reserve some praise for Spielberg – because he wound up ensuring his career divided almost perfectly into blockbusters and more thoughtful, smaller projects. He said, “I have nothing but admiration for Steven and for all filmmakers who make personal films. That’s why we got into this in the first place. That’s why we’re here.”
