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Francis Ford Coppola when great directors fall off badly

TidWell

TidWell

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Coppola was the man, but he went from The Godfather, Apocalypse now, true classic great flicks,to Jack

I loved The Outsiders but man he really fell off

He seemed to become a lazy director, He did Jack a comedy that looked like a director straight out of College first job in Hollywood, it was a basic comedy flick. You would never think Coppola would wind up doing something this low grade :(

Is he filthy rich and just lost the hunger or love of the art that he once had? Its like he doesn't even try anymore he had a few straight to DVD flicks after Jack and The Rainmaker.
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Well, at least he didn't do a Michael Cimino.

Watch The Deer Hunter and then watch Desperate Hours.
 
He even said the only reason he did GF3 was for money.
 
Here's the thing- there's a bunch of filmmakers out there- like 90 percent we're talking who would give anything to have made three epic movies on par with Godfather, Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now. Three absolute classic American films.

I think the point being that although Coppola definitely never approximated that success afterwards (thought The Outsiders and Godfather Part III are good), he had cachet for life on the basis of those three films.

What it also does, however, is give you a ton of appreciation for guys like Spielberg and Scorsese who have been working at a high level for decades. Sustaining the type of career success that they have had is no easy feat.
 
Jack is a really good movie. Vastly underrated. And it's not a comedy, the entire second half is insanely depressing. They tried to sell it as a comedy because the studio didn't know what the hell to do with it, it transcends genre. Same way Fox tried to sell Fight Club as a simple action movie and it bombed.

I agree that Coppola fell off a cliff quality-wise for the most part though.
 
Bram Stoker's Dracula was pretty good. It was shot very well.
 
It happens fair bit with directors it's sort of similar to a fighters prime they just start loosing a step. Probably hard to keep the same passion for projects as they age. I think it was John carpenter who said he lost interest and passion and he found it got increasingly harder to get the films he wanted to make made. Studios seemed to let directors take more chances back in the day too, so maybe some of these older director had trouble changing with the system and just said fuck it and started working for a pay check
 
BisexualMMA said:
Well, at least he didn't do a Michael Cimino.

Watch The Deer Hunter and then watch Desperate Hours.
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Didn't Heavens Gate ruin him? like studios did not want to invest in his talent anymore after that financial disaster? I think his mistake is Cimino became a businessman type instead of just being a director, he wanted an epic and promised them financial gold and it ruined him. and the studio, and his reputation was sullied after that.
 
Peteyandjia said:
Jack is a really good movie. Vastly underrated. And it's not a comedy, the entire second half is insanely depressing. They tried to sell it as a comedy because the studio didn't know what the hell to do with it, it transcends genre. Same way Fox tried to sell Fight Club as a simple action movie and it bombed.

I agree that Coppola fell off a cliff quality-wise for the most part though.
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Jack was in that The Mighty and Jack the Bear type comedy drama movies genre, also My Girl, happy and sad type flicks directed toward kids and families.

He did The Rainmaker right after that, and it was only OK, his quality of direction fell off completely.
 
SSgt Dickweed said:
Speilberg following suit if he hasn't already.
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I think once you have a quality career that stretches over a handful of decades, like Spielberg does, you should be exempt from a list like this.
 
SSgt Dickweed said:
Speilberg following suit if he hasn't already.

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lol come on man, Spielberg is still top level thats one crap movie, he has had many hits, and many of his recent flicks are still great quality with effort

War horse, lincoln, bridge of spies. the bfg, Steven still enjoys the art and is dishing out good flicks just like Scorcesse.

I think Coppola is much like his friend George Lucas, Lucas barely directed any movies and just enjoyed the business aspect raking in the money off his Star wars franchise, Lucas even said he only came back to direct those star wars prequels for the money, he had a divorce and those were some horrible movies, long and cheesy and boring.

The only thing I liked was Yodas fight scene.
 
TidWell said:
Jack was in that The Mighty and Jack the Bear type comedy drama movies genre, also My Girl, happy and sad type flicks directed toward kids and families.

He did The Rainmaker right after that, and it was only OK, his quality of direction fell off completely.
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Jack isn't just sappy feel-good sad though, it goes fuckin dark. Personally I find it to be a high quality movie. Not anywhere near his The Godfather / Apocalypse Now epics of course, but then again only about 2% of all movies are.

Still haven't seen The Rainmaker, oneathese days.

It's clear that Coppola fell out of love with movies, or at least making them, I think largely disillusioned with the system. Then he replaced that love with a strange passion for fermented grapes.
 
Sebchenier said:
His wine is quite good
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Yeah, he's cared more about his vineyards for over two decades. I remember even when I was back at school in the early 2000's every interview I would read with the guy he wanted to spend more time talking about his damn wine, and metaphors he'd drawn from his winemaking, than about film or film culture.

Hasn't changed since.
 
All great Director's have at least one stinker on their resume.
 
Prefect said:
Bram Stoker's Dracula was pretty good. It was shot very well.
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That was his last great flick, I loved bram stoker Dracula and the style he shot it in. Gary Oldman was perfect in it.
 
Peteyandjia said:
Jack isn't just sappy feel-good sad though, it goes fuckin dark. Personally I find it to be a high quality movie. Not anywhere near his The Godfather / Apocalypse Now epics of course, but then again only about 2% of all movies are.

Still haven't seen The Rainmaker, oneathese days.

It's clear that Coppola fell out of love with movies, or at least making them, I think largely disillusioned with the system. Then he replaced that love with a strange passion for fermented grapes.
Click to expand...

Man, I never got that Dark vibe from Jack, what parts did you get that from, it came off as a family flick to me, It think its sorta like that movie Hardball with Keanue Reeves similar style of feels you get.

Jennifer Lopez was so hot in Jack, I forget just how girly she was her voice and everything. this scene was well acted by both Robin and Jlo though it was tough to watch man very awkward but you also feel for Jack
 
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