The classic movie Francis Ford Coppola considers a mistake
American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola took on The Godfather when he was just 29 years old. His days sharing the ‘New Hollywood’ throne with the likes of Martin Scorsese, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg – a group commonly nicknamed the ‘movie brats’ – were still very much ahead of him as he desperately sought a breakthrough. By 1970, Coppola’s status in the movie industry had started to glimmer following a run of low-budget movies, a humble rise highlighted by Patton, a 1970 film by Franklin J. Schaffner, which Coppola co-wrote.
“I had made my success writing war movies: Patton and stuff like that,” Coppola recalled of his gradual rise to prominence in the early 1970s in a conversation with Cigar Aficionado. “But they hadn’t come out yet, so in reality, I had no success.” Coppola’s dedication to his craft meant his next venture would be as meticulously planned and delivered as possible, and, like so many of the greatest movies ever made, The Godfather began with books. “I remember going to the library, and I pulled out three books on that subject. I read them all.”
Coppola’s arduous trudge through mob-related literature was the first step in a languishing and tiresome process that brought The Godfather to our screens. While the movie is now considered Coppola’s masterpiece and often regarded as the greatest film of all time, the director’s memories are tainted by his experience working on the project.
At every turn, Paramount, the studio backing the movie, tried to take control from Coppola. Whether it was casting or setting, red tape was never far away. “The movie was a black sheep at Paramount,” Coppola told Cigar Aficionado. “They didn’t like it. They didn’t like my idea. They didn’t like me.”
Against the odds, Coppola turned over a glorious mob classic that had fans begging for a sequel. Following his experience working on the first instalment, Coppola ceased creative dialogue with Paramount and reluctantly agreed to helm a follow-up featuring members of the same cast and crew with whom he’d become close.
Regarding the likes of Al Pacino and Robert Duvall, Coppola told Cigar Aficionado: “We remained close, and we worked together. They went on to become movie stars. But they had never been the doubters. They were just these kids I brought in, and they were hoping I wasn’t gonna get fired. The group was tight and remained tight. Of course, when I made the second film, which I didn’t wanna make, the rules were different. Paramount had nothing to do with it. They didn’t even see the script or anything.”
Although 1974’s The Godfather 2, which starred Robert De Niro in one of his formative roles, is regarded as one of the greatest sequels of all time, Coppola deems it a mistake. He had only intended to make one movie, but a precarious financial position ultimately lured him into the follow-up project.
“You’ve got Coca-Cola; why not make more Coca-Cola?” Coppola recalled the studio telling him following the first movie. “Frankly, I needed the money,” Coppola told The New York Times. “And I was coming out of a financial doldrum where I had almost lost everything.”
Naturally, Coppola was anxious about compromising the status of the first movie. “When a movie is first made and is about to be released, you know that whatever the reaction is will define it for its entire life,” he said.
Although some critics argue that the third movie in the Godfather trilogy, released in 1990, tainted the legacy somewhat, Coppola maintains that there should have been just one movie. “There should have only been one,” he told TMZ in 2011.
