What happened to Francis Ford Coppola’s career?
If you were to ask someone who the greatest living Hollywood director is, names like Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, or Francis Ford Coppola would likely come up. These titans of modern American cinema, who began making films in the 1960s and ’70s, have left an indelible mark on the industry and continue to work today. However, while Scorsese and Spielberg have delivered critically acclaimed films in the past 30 years, the same cannot be said for Coppola.
In fact, Coppola’s career as a director hasn’t been good for a long time. The 1990s marked his downward spiral into the depths of cinematic awfulness, resulting in his most recent endeavour – 2024’s divisive Megalopolis. The filmmaker had been working on the film for decades, and finally, it arrived, with Adam Driver in the leading role as Cesar. People were expecting it to be Coppola’s magnum opus, an epic dive into the meaning of humanity inspired by ancient philosophy. Instead, it was 138 minutes of messy, poorly written, shoddily crafted nonsense from a man clearly past his prime.
As a result, viewers have taken to calling the film MegaFLOPolis, although you might as well use the term MegaPLOPolis when considering that the film is the cinematic equivalent of a bad shit. It’s truly shocking that this film came from the man who made movies like The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now. How can this be? And how come Coppola has been able to consistently make movies despite the fact he has predominantly received negative reviews for the past three decades?
Coppola’s career started in the early 1960s when he made the short comedy The Pepper, which was later edited together with Jerry Schafer’s The Wide Open Spaces to make a new film, Tonight For Sure. After working as an assistant on various films, his directorial debut came in 1963 with Dementia 13, a horror movie. A few more movies followed, like Finian’s Rainbow, before Coppola co-wrote Patton, which earned him an Academy Award for ‘Best Original Screenplay’.
So, the early years of his career proved to be successful, but what he didn’t know was that the rest of the 1970s was going to elevate him from being a respected filmmaker to a Hollywood legend. He released The Godfather in 1972, which won ‘Best Picture’ at the Oscars and transformed cinema. The epic gangster movie initially looked like it was heading to disaster after Coppola was threatened with being fired by producers, but the finished result has a legacy that still ripples through cinema today.
His next three films, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now, were all lauded by critics, arguably making this four-movie run between 1972 and 1979 one of the greatest in cinema history. In fact, it proved to be enough to secure Coppola a lasting legacy in Hollywood as an untouchable icon because since then, he has directed 15 more original features, and not one has lived up to the heights of the movies he made in the ‘70s.
Coppola made some undeniably great movies in the 1980s, like The Outsiders and Rumble Fish – we’re not denying that – but there was a period when his movies started to rapidly decline in quality. He started to make some rather unforgettable movies, like 1987’s Gardens of Stone and 1988’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream, and even his segment in the anthology film New York Stories was panned. The Godfather Part III finally emerged in 1990, and while it wasn’t critically derided, it wasn’t half as good as the previous two instalments in the trilogy, disappointing many fans.
Viewers were confused by Coppola’s choice to cast his daughter, Sofia, as Mary Corleone, with her performance earning two Golden Raspberry Awards. Still, Coppola’s career wasn’t all bad yet. He released Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1992, which, like The Godfather Part III, was well-received apart from a certain performance, in this case, that of Keanu Reeves.
The gothic horror movie seemed to mark the last truly good movie made by Coppola, who would then go on to make Jack, starring Robin Williams, a truly tragic excuse for a film. Williams played a boy with a rare medical condition, causing him to age faster than everyone around him, but practically every critic gave the movie an overwhelmingly negative review. A little offensive, poorly constructed, painfully unfunny, and saccharine in its attempt to be heartwarming and moving, the movie was a sharp contrast to The Godfather.
Since then, the movies that Coppola has made have failed to receive any significant praise, and even the fairly well-received ones, like The Rainmaker and Tetro, have quickly faded into obscurity. Youth Without Youth and Twixt did not fare well, and now Megapolis remains Coppola’s controversial mess. It could’ve been great, making up for travesties like Jack, but instead, he further complicated his legacy in Hollywood.
Even worse, these past years have seen Coppola engage in some problematic behaviour, like his continued support of convicted paedophile Victor Salva, director of Jeepers Creepers. He produced the film following Salva’s release from prison, even giving him $5,000. Coppola told the LA Times, “So I helped Victor get the job. I was criticised for it, but my attitude is, he has a talent, and that talent in itself is good. We don’t have to embrace the person in believing that their art is a contribution to society.” There’s no excuse for Salva’s actions, and Coppola’s decision here was extremely disgusting and disappointing.
Additionally, Lauren Pagone, an extra who appeared in Megalopolis, filed a lawsuit against Coppola, accusing him of touching and kissing her without consent. Ahead of the movie’s release, various anonymous individuals accused him of kissing extras and acting unprofessionally on set, with videos circulating social media from the shoot. The filmmaker denied all claims, but the accusations—and videos—remain.
So, what happened to Coppola’s career? The reality is that Coppola had a good run in the 1970s and the early 1980s, but it seems as though he simply hasn’t had any ideas that have happened to be masterpieces since – and that’s fine. He made his contributions to cinema in the ‘70s and could’ve easily stopped there. Yet, there seems to be an expectation for acclaimed filmmakers to keep going, and if producers give them opportunities to make more films, they’ll take them. Yet, Coppola has accepted jobs that he definitely shouldn’t have, and as a result, the quality of his work has consistently declined.
What’s frustrating, however, is Hollywood’s insistence on allowing directors like Coppola, who have made many bad films since their heyday, to continue making films. Instead, funding and opportunities could go to underrepresented groups within the industry, like female filmmakers, but rather, figures like Coppola are continuously given more chances to redeem themselves. It seems like allegations and bad reviews don’t matter if you made a name for yourself decades ago – Coppola is reportedly working on a new film already.
Meanwhile, female filmmakers won’t be given half the opportunities he has been handed, and they often get cancelled for minor things in comparison. Hollywood is an unfair system, but by continuing to champion figures like Coppola when he should have thrown in the towel years ago, it only emphasises that if you’re a white male filmmaker, your legacy will be much less affected by controversy than anyone else’s. Let’s be real: Coppola hasn’t made a truly good movie in decades, and while that’s OK, it’s about time that more people recognise his flaws as a filmmaker who should really call it a day.
