Francis Ford Coppola on “pretentious” filmmaking: “It’s shit! It’s scum!”
As one of the salient forces of the ‘New Hollywood’ movement in the 1960s and ’70s, Francis Ford Coppola played a pivotal role alongside renowned filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg in a collective mission to revive the American film industry. Following an early triumph at the Academy Awards, where he earned the prestigious ‘Best Original Screenplay’ accolade for his contributions to Franklin J. Schaffner’s Patton, Coppola embarked on an unprecedented decade of brilliance that would help shape the history of Hollywood.
Throughout the 1970s, Coppola’s oeuvre became synonymous with timeless masterpieces, with notable works such as the first two instalments of the groundbreaking Godfather trilogy, the critically acclaimed 1974 film The Conversation, and his gripping and poignant 1979 Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now.
Collaborating with legendary actors, including Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, Gene Hackman, and Robert Duvall, Coppola not only created all-time classics but also pushed the boundaries of filmmaking itself, revitalising the industry in the process.
As Coppola grappled with Hollywood’s uncomfortable conformities, he realised he would have to work hard to stay true to his artistic vision. This meant questioning commercial or critical reception and taking the word of money-grabbing executives with a pinch of salt.
While making Apocalypse Now in the late 1970s, Coppola was interviewed for a clip that eventually appeared in the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse. In the clip, Coppola discusses the unnecessary hurdle the word “pretentiousness” presents to aspiring filmmakers.
“Nothing is so terrible as a pretentious movie,” Coppola explained. “I mean a movie that aspires for something really terrific and doesn’t pull it off. It’s shit. It’s scum. And everyone will walk on it as such. And that’s why poor filmmakers, in a way… That’s their greatest horror, is to be pretentious.”
“So here you are,” he continued. “On one hand, you’re trying to aspire to really do something, and on the other hand, you’re not allowed to be pretentious. And finally, you say, ‘Fuck it! I don’t care if I’m pretentious or not pretentious, or if I’ve done it or I haven’t done it. All I know is that I am going to see this movie and that, for me, it has to have some answers. And by answers, I don’t mean just a punchline, answers on about 47 different levels.'”
As his train of thought meandered, Coppola became increasingly panoptic and philosophical. “It’s very hard to talk about these things without being very corny,” he said. “You use a word like ‘Self-prorogation’ or ‘Epiphany’; they think you’re either a religious weirdo or an asshole college professor. But those are the words for the process, for this transmutation, this renaissance, this rebirth, which is the basis of all life.”
“The one rule that all men, from the time they first were walking around looking up at the sun scratching around for food or an animal to kill, the first concept that I feel got into their head was the idea of life and death. That the sun went down and the sun went up. That the crop – when they learned to make a crop – it died. In the winter, everything died. The first man must’ve thought, ‘Oh my god! It’s the end of the world.’ And then all of a sudden, there was spring, and everything came alive, and it was better.”
“I mean, after all, look at Vietnam. Look at my movie; you’ll see what I’m talkin’ [about],” Coppola concluded.
Watch the trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now below.
