Oscar Profile #591: Francis Ford Coppola Revisited

Born April 7, 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, Francis Ford Coppola’s father Carmine was a flautist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. His mother Italia was a former actress. Two years after his birth his father was named principal flautist for the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the family moved to Woodside, Queens. Originally trained as a musician, he developed an interest in theater, graduating Hofstra University with a degree in theater arts in 1959. He then attended UCLA for graduate work in film studies and upon graduation went to work for Roger Corman, obtaining assistant director credits on 1962’s Premature Burial and three subsequent films.

Directing on his own, he had his first major success with 1966’s You’re a Big Boy Now, which earned Geraldine Page an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress as the exasperated mother of the teenage hero. He directed his first big budget film, the long -waited screen version of Finian’s Rainbow in 1968. His screenwriting work on 1970’s Patton earned him the first of his 14 Oscar nominations for which he won the first of his five Oscars, six counting the Thalberg.

His 1972 masterwork, The Godfather earned him three Oscar nominations, after which he produced two major 1973 films, Paper Moon and American Graffiti, securing a Best Picture nomination for the latter.

1974 was a fortuitous year for Coppola, earning him five Oscar nominations, two for The Conversation for Best Picture and Screenplay and three for The Godfather Part II for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay, winning all three.

Coppola re-edited the first two Godfather films in chronological order for television in 1977, but did not direct another film until 1979’s eagerly anticipated Apocalypse Now for which he was once again in the Oscar race for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay, but failed to win although the film itself did manage to win two Oscars.

Coppola’s 1980s projects included The Outsiders; Rumble Fish; Peggy Sue Got Married and Tucker: The Man and His Dream, but did not personally return to the Oscar party until 1990’s The Godfather: Part III which had a popular though critically mixed reception.

His output since has been sparse with only 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula and 1997’s The Rainmaker drawing any real enthusiastic support. In 2004 he produced daughter Sophia’s popular Lost in Translation.

Coppola, who has also been a winemaker since 1975, has seen twelve family members join him in the movie business including his father. His is only the second family to win Oscars across three generations following the Hustons. His father, nephew Nicolas Cage and daughter Sophia are all Oscar winners. Next up for him is the planned all-star cast science fiction film, Magalopolis at 83.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

FINIAN’S RAINBOW (1968)

By the time the beloved 1947 Burton Lane – Yip Harburg musical made its way to the screen the story had become pretty hoary, but Coppola overcomes the built-in awkwardness and stage-bound sets with the charm of his cast led by Fred Astaire singing and dancing for the first time since 1957’s Silk Stockings; Petula Clark at the height of her popularity and Tommy Steele, fresh from his success in Half a Sixpence and The Happiest Millionaire. It’s little long, but with that glorious score and top-notch singers and dancers to sing and dance them, what more could you ask for?

THE GODFATHER TRILOGY (1972/1974/1990)

One of the most eagerly anticipated films of all time, the original 1972 The Godfather lived up to all expectations and then some. Brilliantly played by Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, James Can, Robert Duvall, Richard Castellano, Talia Shire and others, it was a phenomenon matched by its even better 1974 sequel in which Pacino, Robert De Niro, John Cazale, Keaton, Duvall, Shire, Lee Strasberg, Michael V. Gazzo and others shine. Only the third film in the trilogy gave us less than we had hoped for, although Pacino, Keaton, Shire, and Andy Garcia are all first-rate. The film’s one downer is the casting of Coppola’s inexperienced daughter Sophia in a pivotal role.

APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)

Coppola’s adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness set in the Vietnam War has legions of supporters but has its detractors as well. Certainly, much of the film is spectacular with terrific performances from Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Laurence Fishburne, Sam Bottoms, and others but the film’s final act, which should contain its finest moments, falters because of the less than stellar appearance of its biggest star, Marlon Brando. Brando so overweight and out-of-shape that he is seen only in shadow. Coppola has been tinkering with it ever since. It does get better with subsequent viewings.

PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (1986)

Coppola’s nostalgia filled time travel film works better than many in the genre. There are no special effects, just people doing what people do. Kathleen Turner shines in the title role and there are some good supporting performances from Barbara Harris as her mother, Barry Miller as the class nerd, Kevin J. O’Connor as the class jock, Helen Hunt as Turner’s daughter, Joan Allen and Catherine Hicks as her friends and Maureen O’Sullivan as her grandmother. Three performances that don’t work: Nicolas Cage as her jerk of a husband, Jim Carrey as the unfunny class clown, and Don Murray as her obtuse father. Fortunately, the good outweighs the bad on balance.

THE RAINMAKER (1997)

If Matt Damon hadn’t been nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for 1997’s Good Will Huning for which he and Ben Affleck won Oscars for their screenplay, he might just as easily have been nominated for his idealistic young lawyer in this film version of one of John Grisham’s better novels. Coppola backs Damon with a superb supporting cast which includes Danny DeVito, Claire Danes, Jon Voight, Mary Kay Place, Dean Stockwell, Virginia Madsen, Mickey Rourke, Andrew Shue, Roy Scheider, Randy Travis, and in her final screen appearance, the legendary Teresa Wright who shines in her all too few scenes as Damon’s lovely landlady.