The first successful director to come out of a film school, he spearheaded a talent renaissance in Hollywood, the results of which are very much with us today. Coppola, originally known as Francis Ford Coppola before he temporarily dropped the middle name (he came to the conclusion that nobody trusts a man with three names), immersed himself in both the theater and in film, eventually enrolling in UCLA's graduate film program. Like so many others, Francis Ford Coppola (while still at UCLA) worked for ROGER CORMAN and received slave-labor wages along with invaluable experience. It was thanks to Corman that Francis Ford Coppola had the chance to make his first film, a "B" movie quickie called Dementia 13 (1962). Francis Ford Coppola quit UCLA when he was offered a job for US Dollars 300 a week to write screenplays. He penned 11, many of which were never made; one that did make the cut, however, was Patton (1970).
While writing screenplays, Francis Ford Coppola fought for the opportunity to direct and finally had his chance with one of his own works, You're a Big Boy Now (1966). The film was a modest success, and it led to his opportunity to direct Finian's Rainbow (1968), with FRED ASTAIRE. It was Astaire's last musical, and unfortunately for both the famed dancer and the director, the movie was not a commercial success.
Francis Ford Coppola was buoyed by his Best Screenplay Oscar for Patton a couple of years later, but it wasn't until The Godfather (1972) that the young director became a major force in the industry. Cited by critics for its superb direction, the film became a monster hit, winning an Academy Award for Best Picture and giving Francis Ford Coppola the clout to make a small, personal movie that many consider to be his best, The Conversation (1974), starring Gene Hackman. The film is a detailed, incisive character study of a professional wiretapper who overhears too much. Francis Ford Coppola's next film was The Godfather, Part II, and it surprised everyone by being an even richer, more complex film than its predecessor. The film was almost as big a commercial hit as the original, and Francis Ford Coppola was at the height of his Hollywood power.
Unlike many who made it to the top, though, Francis Ford Coppola was more than willing to share his success. From the very beginning, he helped fellow film students such as GEORGE LUCAS and JOHN MILIUS reach their own potential. For instance, it was Francis Ford Coppola who produced Lucas's first film, THX-1138 (1971). He also produced Lucas's breakout film, American Graffiti (1973). Film school graduates could be emboldened by Francis Ford Coppola's trail of box-office success combined with personal vision, and the director was an inspirational "godfather" to a new generation of directors, including MARTIN SCORSESE, BRIAN DE PALMA, and STEVEN SPIELBERG.
Setting Francis Ford Coppola apart from most other directors was his ambition. Wanting to be more than just a filmmaker, he displayed something of the old-style movie mogul in his makeup. He founded several film companies, including Zoetrope Studios, and invested in a distribution network, but his business efforts were thwarted by his notable creative excesses, the first of which was Apocalypse Now (1979) starring MARLON BRANDO and Martin Sheen. A landmark movie about the Vietnam War, loosely based on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, the film was shot in the Philippines under horrendous conditions. Typhoons and Martin Sheen's nearly fatal heart attack caused massive delays and the film nearly bankrupted Francis Ford Coppola. Good reviews and reasonably good box office saved him.
Then came One From the Heart (1982), a simple love story set in Las Vegas. Francis Ford Coppola chose to recreate the Nevada gambling city and drove the cost of the film through the roof. The film bombed, despite some positive critical attention, and Francis Ford Coppola was on the ropes.
His big comeback movie was supposed to be The Cotton Club (1984), a US Dollars 30 million musical extravaganza. Although the movie was visually stunning, that wasn't enough for either critics or audiences. Nonetheless, Francis Ford Coppola has proved to be a Hollywood survivor. Following Roger Corman's example, Francis Ford Coppola has continued to back young filmmakers, producing and distributing films, and making a handsome profit at it. After a period of relative inactivity (during which time he directed the Disney World 3-D spectacular, Captain EO, starring Michael Jackson), he made the less than momentous Gardens of Stone (1987). He followed this, however, with a powerhouse production of Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), a film that received high praise, if only modest box-office success. The movie, a true story about a visionary car manufacturer driven out of business by the automotive establishment, was a deeply personal film. It paralleled Francis Ford Coppola's own fight against the Hollywood power structure and was richer for the resonance.
While facing financial problems with Zoetrope during the 1980s, Francis Ford Coppola provided a real service for cinema culture by getting behind Kevin Brownlow's five-hour reconstruction of Abel Gance's 1927 masterpiece, Napoleon, which Francis Ford Coppola presented at Radio City Music Hall in New York with a full orchestra playing original music composed by Carmine Francis Ford Coppola, who conducted, to enhance the silent images. Gance himself was too ill to travel from Paris to New York for the premiere, but Gene Kelly was there to convey the director's gratitude to the audience through a telephone hookup to France. Napoleon was a surprise success for Francis Ford Coppola and went on to tour several other major American cities with the orchestra.
A few films followed into the 1990s. New York Stories (1989) was an anthology film Francis Ford Coppola directed with Martin Scorsese and WOODY ALLEN. His most significant film of the decade was surely Godfather III (1990), which completed his Corleone trilogy. In 1996 he directed Jack, an odd film graced by Robin Williams and Bill Cosby, followed by John Grisham's The Rainmaker in 1997. Aside from Godfather III, Francis Ford Coppola's most ambitious project for the decade was Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), a visually resplendent adaptation of Stoker's novel with a splendid cast (including WINONA RYDER as Mina, ANTHONY HOPKINS as Professor Van Helsing, and Gary Oldman as the Count).
The problem for purists with this approach was the added prologue, which seriously changed the relationship between Mina and the Count, and a clueless, snickering approach to the manners and mores of Victorian England that turned Mina's friend Lucy into a randy tart. Francis Ford Coppola has kept active since 1997, mainly as a producer of films and fine wine (he has his own vineyard and label), and in that role he served as executive producer of The Virgin Suicides, directed by his daughter Sofia in 1999.
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