tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/francis-ford-coppola-39236/articles
Francis Ford Coppola – The Conversation
2022-03-11T14:28:07Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/177769
2022-03-11T14:28:07Z
2022-03-11T14:28:07Z
The Godfather at 50: celebrating the mob saga that raised the bar for gangster films
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450047/original/file-20220304-19-1kees6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C1985%2C1997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Godfather starred Marlon Brando in his most iconic role.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/palu-city-indonesia-august-22th-2020-1800429997">Zero05Ard/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s one of the most famous climactic scenes in film: a tense and shocking denouement that sees a series of brutal assassinations intercut with the central character calmly renouncing Satan as he becomes godfather to his nephew.</p>
<p>Considered one of the great classics of American cinema, the triple Oscar-winning <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/feb/23/the-godfather-review-a-brutal-sweep-of-magnificent-storytelling">Godfather</a> turns 50 on March 14. A bold piece of storytelling, the film reinvented the gangster epic, setting a high bar for all the mafia movies that followed in its wake. It also secured legions of fans obsessed by the murky underworld of the mob.</p>
<p>Admirers of the saga are expressing their devotion in myriad Facebook groups and YouTube channels. Explanatory videos chart major plot developments, provide “<a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqwlqyi66C8">10 lessons from The Godfather</a> everyone needs to know” or offer sage advice about never revealing your hand when you’re in a negotiation.</p>
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<p>Paramount Pictures is commemorating the 1972 premiere of The Godfather with a series of new releases, building a sense of occasion for a film described as a “<a href="https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2019/06/14913/">towering masterwork</a>”. Beginning with a rare theatrical run and ending in April with a 10-part biographical drama about the making of the first film, Paramount is treating the films as landmark studio heritage.</p>
<p>Remastered DVDs, an accompanying coffee table book and a new interview with <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000338/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm">director Francis Ford Coppola</a> further cement the film’s status as lucrative cultural capital. Given that the studio purchased the rights to Mario Puzo’s bestselling novel for $12,500, it is fair to say that Paramount has enjoyed one of the most spectacular returns on investment in motion picture history.</p>
<h2>Crime and family</h2>
<p>The film revolutionised the portrayal of organised crime by conflating it with something all audiences can relate to: family. This one is a strong ethnic unit that, as film reviewer Todd Gitlins noted, ran counter to the “bleached American television family” of the early 1970s. Like many other reviewers, Gitlin felt that the appeal of the film was largely due to the fact that it provided “<a href="https://cinefiles.bampfa.berkeley.edu/catalog/51817">prime national nostalgia</a>” for an idealised version of the past.</p>
<p>The starkness of composer Nino Rota’s unforgettable trumpet solo signals a movement into a world where villains have values. Film critic Pauline Kael described Marlon Brando’s Don Vito as a “<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1972/03/18/the-current-cinema-24">primitive sacred monster</a>” who approved of gambling but felt prostitution and drug running were “infamia” – vile deeds and morally wrong.</p>
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<p>The Godfather trilogy continues to resonate with fans long after its original release. Coppola’s epic crime saga would do for Italian gangsters what the great Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein – director of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015648/">Battleship Potemkin</a> – did for Russian revolutionaries: lend the story a gravitas and epic grandeur that belied the brutality of the power struggles involved.</p>
<p>In her book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1879930.The_Annotated_Godfather">The Annotated Godfather</a>, film writer Jenny M Jones describes the climactic baptism murders scene as a homage to Eisenstein’s iconic <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sEPFd-1Dm8">Odessa steps sequence</a> from Battleship Potemkin – widely regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century cinema. Coppola crafted an operatic denouement, crosscutting between the calm of the church and the violence of the executions with deliberate nods to Eisenstein’s celebrated montage sequence, staging the action on steps and stairs throughout.</p>
<p>Involving simultaneous action across multiple locations – church, spa, suburbia, barbershop, hotel, courthouse – and boldly introducing minor and major players in the unfolding action, it is remarkable for its scope and scale. Each of the assassins is revealed in the build up to each execution: one is making heavy work of a flight of stairs while two prepare their guns and another has a professional shave.</p>
<p>The crosscutting lends a complexity to the action that pivots on Michael Corleone, played memorably by Al Pacino, performing the rites of baptism: far from rejecting Satan, Michael is embracing the evils of gangster life. </p>
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<h2>Creating a classic</h2>
<p>The aftermath scenes further showcase Coppola’s great skill as a filmmaker. Although not as thrilling as the denouement, these scenes are emotionally satisfying and foreshadow the reverse moral trajectory of the sequel, The Godfather Part II. </p>
<p>Having stood godfather to his sister’s child, Michael enters his brother-in-law Carlo’s house to confront him over his part in the murder of Michael’s older brother Sonny: “You have to answer for Santino”. Carlo is too stupid to realise that his fate is sealed and he is garroted in the front seat of a car to complete Michael’s revenge. His thrashing death throes shatter the car windscreen on the driveway, providing a subtle visual reminder of Sonny’s bullet-ridden car at the tollbooth where he was ambushed by rivals.</p>
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<p>Novelist and cultural commentator <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/20/umberto-eco-obituary">Umberto Eco</a> stipulated that a cult film must offer a “fully furnished world” that fans can return to again and again.</p>
<p>The forthcoming theatrical release of The Godfather trilogy provides an opportunity for fans to experience this cinema classic again on the big screen as part of a collective audience. There is something oddly comforting about slipping into this shady, familiar world of loyalty and revenge. A world of men and guns and pasta sauce. A world where the best veal in the city is served with a bullet in the throat.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177769/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gill Jamieson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Considered one of the greatest films of all time, Francis Ford Coppola’s sweeping epic is back on the big screen for its big birthday.
Gill Jamieson, Senior Lecturer in Film, Television & Cultural Studies, University of the West of Scotland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/178030
2022-03-06T18:58:39Z
2022-03-06T18:58:39Z
The Godfather at 50: set among the American Mafia of the 40s, Coppola’s film is unmistakably a film of the disillusioned 70s
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448820/original/file-20220228-20-1xn1tw4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C2000%2C1329&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paramount Pictures</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When it was released 50 years ago, The Godfather won a swag of Oscars and hailed director Francis Ford Coppola as the voice of a new auteur. But timing is, as they say, everything. </p>
<p>The story of an ageing Mafia Don and his family in New York City from 1945 to 1955, The Godfather is a sweeping saga of the trials and tribulations of running a criminal organisation.</p>
<p>There are two timelines that need to be looked at when watching The Godfather: when it was set, and when it was made. They are inextricably linked, yet polar opposites of the moral, cultural and social fabric of the United States. </p>
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<h2>Post-war optimism</h2>
<p>Coming out of the devastating destruction and loss of life of the second world war, Americans had a newfound <a href="http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/2/america-in-the-post-war-period">sense of optimism</a> that the worst was behind them. </p>
<p>After years of uncertainty and stress, people yearned for a “normality” in the mundane in their suburban houses, family life and nine-to-five job. People believed in governments and traditional institutions to look after their interests and well-being.</p>
<p>New opportunities and an even distribution of wealth created through low post-war unemployment incentivised growth and created “<a href="https://www.economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/The-Economic-Consequences-of-War-on-US-Economy_0.pdf">an advanced consumer economy</a>” which drew both legitimate and illegitimate businesses. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449124/original/file-20220301-25-1w4bpmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diane Keaton and Al Pacino in The Godfather" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449124/original/file-20220301-25-1w4bpmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449124/original/file-20220301-25-1w4bpmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449124/original/file-20220301-25-1w4bpmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449124/original/file-20220301-25-1w4bpmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449124/original/file-20220301-25-1w4bpmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449124/original/file-20220301-25-1w4bpmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449124/original/file-20220301-25-1w4bpmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Michael (Al Pacino) has experienced life outside of the family, and is optimistic for a different future.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paramount Pictures</span></span>
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<p>With easy money to be made, <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/706895">Mafia groups flourished</a>. This is the world where we find the Corleone family: Italian immigrants who sought a distorted vision of the American Dream through theft, extortion and violence.</p>
<p>Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) wants to continue with the old ways. He is suspicious of this new trade in drugs offered by the Tattaglia crime family. His son Michael (Al Pacino) has experienced life outside of the Mafia world and wants to change the whole structure of the organisation, vowing to make the family legitimate.</p>
<p>What happens next is as much a statement on the character arc of Michael as it is about a statement of when The Godfather was made.</p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-movie-scenes-the-godfather-98173">The great movie scenes: The Godfather</a>
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<h2>A new war for a new generation</h2>
<p>By 1972, the social and cultural norms had shifted dramatically. </p>
<p>People, especially young people, had grown increasingly <a href="https://notevenpast.org/seventies-great-shift-american-culture-society-and-politics-2001/">suspicious and disenchanted</a> with both government and the institutions that had grown post war. While many saw the second world war as a “moral war”, they did not express the same feelings towards the Vietnam war. Many saw America as the <a href="https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/vietnam-war-immoral/">immoral aggressor</a>.</p>
<p>The 1960s had started out as a decade of hope, full of idealism. Young people were not happy with continuing the ways of the past and wanted change. They were leading the charge for the better. </p>
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<span class="caption">The Godfather is as much a story of the lost ideals of the 60s as it is the Mafia families of the 50s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paramount Pictures</span></span>
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<p>But in the 1970s, it was dawning on the Woodstock generation the values they had fought for were not coming to fruition. The ongoing Vietnam War, the publishing of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/06/13/fifty-years-ago-pentagon-papers-shocked-america-they-still-matter-today/">Pentagon papers</a> and the unravelling <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/8/7/5970967/what-was-watergate-scandal-nixon">Watergate</a> all added to the disillusionment. </p>
<p>Despite the cries of revolution, the old institutions kept a strong grasp on the mechanisms of society.</p>
<p>This all becomes a metaphor for The Godfather. </p>
<h2>Growing into pragmatism</h2>
<p>The Godfather argues the principles of a generation are often corrupted by the realities of the times.</p>
<p>As with the the lost ideals of the 1960s, Michael is confronted with the pragmatism of running a criminal organisation. The Corleone’s could never be legitimate: the institutions of the past are just too powerful. </p>
<p>Like a big Italian opera, the film sways between personal loyalties, betrayals and consequent ruthless murders. </p>
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<p>At the end of it all, Michael – a man of morals who desperately wants to transform the world into something better – falls back down the rabbit hole of the past. He takes over the family “business” and is forced to be more cunning and ruthless than even his father was. </p>
<p>The one figure who stood for light turns out to be the darkest of them all. There will be no change from the past.</p>
<p>The film’s ending is powerful but pessimistic. Early in the film, Michael tells his then girlfriend Kay (Diane Keaton) he is going to change the whole way the organisation operated. </p>
<p>Now, Michael tells his wife Kay “don’t ask me about my business”. He closes the door on her as he takes his father’s chair.</p>
<p>In a way, Coppola was predicting the path of the next generation, and perhaps every young generation. </p>
<p>They all start with good intentions but practicalities often change ideals. The 1980s started as the era of anti-apartheid and Live Aid, but soon changed to “<a href="https://theconversation.com/wall-street-at-30-is-greed-still-good-87612">greed is good</a>”. The 1990s started with the fall of the Soviet Union and the confirmed belief in Western Democracy, but resulted in disillusioned grunge.</p>
<p>Will the youth movements of this era have any demonstrable impact in ten years time? Or, like Michael Corleone, will they have been turned by the power and authority of the traditional institutions?</p>
<p>Five decades later, The Godfather still remains an allegorical tale for the passing of power from one generation to the next. But perhaps the greatest lesson from the film is the old adage that unless you learn from the past you are doomed to repeat it. The past often makes an offer you can’t refuse.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wall-street-at-30-is-greed-still-good-87612">Wall Street at 30: is greed still good?</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178030/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daryl Sparkes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Francis Ford Coppola’s story of warring Mafia families is truly a story of the changing moral, cultural and social fabric of the United States.
Daryl Sparkes, Senior Lecturer (Media Studies and Production), University of Southern Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/125771
2019-10-24T13:41:46Z
2019-10-24T13:41:46Z
Martin Scorsese says superhero movies are ‘not cinema’: two experts debate
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298519/original/file-20191024-170475-9zkfcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2044%2C1076&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jeremy Renner and Robert Downey Jr in Avengers: Endgame.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">©Marvel Studios 2019</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Ken Loach have all recently expressed scorn at the growing dominance of superhero movies in the commercial cinema, with Scorsese saying that the Marvel film universe is “not cinema”. We asked two academics: an expert in cinema and an expert in comics to debate the question.</em></p>
<p><strong>Julian Lawrence: senior lecturer in comics and graphic novels, Teesside University</strong></p>
<p>Marvel movies aren’t cinema. So what are they? Martin Scorsese <a href="https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2482391/martin-scorsese-clarifies-controversial-comments-about-marvel-movies">recently labelled them</a> “<a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/martin-scorsese-marvel-theme-parks-1203360075/">theme parks</a>” but I suggest they function primarily as commercials. I agree with British filmmaker <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/ken-loach-marvel-superhero-films-boring-and-nothing-to-do-with-art-of-cinema-11841486">Ken Loach’s comment</a> that Marvel movies are “a commodity which will make a profit for a big corporation – they’re a cynical exercise”. </p>
<p>Fellow film great Francis Ford Coppola <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/oct/21/francis-ford-coppola-scorsese-was-being-kind-marvel-movies-are-despicable">agrees with them both</a> – except he doesn’t think they went far enough, labelling superhero films “despicable”. </p>
<p>They are not the first to take aim at superhero movies. In 2014, director/screenwriter <a href="https://www.nme.com/news/film/birdman-director-alejandro-gonz-lez-i-rritu-c-868003">Alejandro G. Iñárritu</a> (Birdman) condemned superhero blockbusters saying “… they purport to be profound, based on some Greek mythological kind of thing. And they are honestly very right-wing … Philosophically, I just don’t like them.”</p>
<p>He could be on to something about the right-wing propaganda aspect. Superhero movies tend to set up situations where the world is in grave danger – and sell superheroes as the solution. The message here is that might makes right and that the end always justifies the means: a classic fascist trope. You can see why someone like Loach might not like this narrative trend. His stark new film, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysjwg-MnZao">Sorry We Missed You</a>, makes it clear there are no superheroes to save us, just ordinary people in real situations living lives of quiet desperation.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/bread-and-circuses">bread and circus</a> commodities, Marvel movies also function as self-advertisements – not just for the countless prequels and sequels, but also for merchandising, which is the real cash cow. Licensing revenue for toys, games, clothing, even breakfast cereal far <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/superhero-earns-13-billion-a-748281">eclipses box office receipts</a>. </p>
<p>Selling a commodity as art has become so normalised that we consumers gladly invest our money and time to collectively participate. I <a href="https://time.com/3630878/binge-watch-tv-shows/">invested a great deal of time</a> watching the TV series Mad Men, only to discover in the final episode that it was a <a href="https://variety.com/2015/tv/news/mad-men-finale-coca-cola-hilltop-ad-1201499510/">seven-year-long Coke commercial</a>. Since then, I’ve refused to spend any more of my life on episodic television and had to laugh when I read abut the inadvertent <a href="https://fortune.com/2019/05/06/game-of-thrones-starbucks-cup-advertising/">Starbucks product placement</a> in the final series of Game of Thrones.</p>
<h2>The ninth and seventh arts</h2>
<p>Franco-Belgian scholars <a href="https://www.tempslibre.ch/actualites/la-classification-des-10-arts-que-personne-ne-connait-vraiment-146">classify cinema</a> as the “seventh art”, with comics being the ninth. But if we are to distinguish cinema from a murky mash-up of all media, then some protocols are needed. First, how about a moratorium on custom-made scenes that pander to international audiences? Iron Man 3 was <a href="https://kotaku.com/why-many-in-china-hate-iron-man-3s-chinese-version-486840429">cut for the Chinese market</a> by upping the screen time for a minor character and adding foreign product placement that are not included in the original version. This is not done for art’s sake, but to generate increased revenue.</p>
<p>The backlash to Loach, Scorsese and Coppola is not surprising, since <a href="https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/Marvel-Cinematic-Universe#tab=technical">almost everyone in Hollywood</a> (and beyond) is in on this game. For instance, Marvel movies accounted for 48.2% of Samuel L. Jackson’s <a href="https://comicbook.com/marvel/2019/04/28/samuel-l-jackson-films-13-billion-dollar-box-office-gross-worldw/">entire career box office take</a>, and a whopping <a href="https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/Marvel-Cinematic-Universe#tab=acting">82.6% of Robert Downey Jr’s</a>. Over in the DC Extended Universe in 2017, feminist icon Wonder Woman earned millions for her investors, which included oil tycoons <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/conservative-koch-brothers-are-secret-investors-wonder-woman-1027376">Charles G. Koch, David H. Koch</a> and Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, <a href="https://variety.com/2019/politics/news/mnuchn-ratpac-dune-jackie-speier-1203125377/">Steve Mnuchin</a>.</p>
<p>It isn’t the genre that is the problem, it’s that mainstream superhero movies are created primarily to sell more mainstream superhero movies. The claim that Disney/Marvel innovated “narratives that are dispersed across its extended network of movies” is more evidence for their being capitalist commodities rather than cinema. Dispersing narratives across a network is a marketing ploy used by Marvel and DC for decades (known as <a href="https://www.marvel.com/comics/events_crossovers">crossovers</a>) to boost sales of failing titles– readers are lured into buying issues of comics they don’t normally follow in order to continue reading a storyline or get closure. The films are essentially doing the same thing.</p>
<p>The best superhero film I’ve seen all year is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2v3_jHrvBQ">Woman at War</a> by <a href="https://www.screendaily.com/news/woman-at-war-director-benedikt-erlingsson-blasts-film-industrys-carbon-farting-crisis-in-karlovy-vary/5140851.article">Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson</a>. It tells the story of one woman’s battle against planetary annihilation. Go see it if you get the chance.</p>
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<p><strong>Neil Archer: senior lecturer in film studies, Keele University</strong></p>
<p>For the record, I’m ambivalent about much of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe (MCU) – yet I was still struck by <a href="https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2481615/martin-scorsese-has-some-blunt-thoughts-on-marvel-movies-and-james-gunn-is-sad-about-it">what Scorsese had to say</a> about Marvel movies being more theme park than cinema. </p>
<p>That Scorsese should take this line, in some respects, is apt. <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/interview-peter-biskind-revisits-easy-riders-raging-bulls">Peter Biskind’s 1998 book</a>, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, evokes Scorsese as one of the great filmmakers of the “New Hollywood”, the decade or so from 1968 when it seemed that film-literate, adventurous directors and writers would re-imagine Hollywood.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298521/original/file-20191024-170458-17ob0ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298521/original/file-20191024-170458-17ob0ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298521/original/file-20191024-170458-17ob0ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298521/original/file-20191024-170458-17ob0ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298521/original/file-20191024-170458-17ob0ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298521/original/file-20191024-170458-17ob0ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298521/original/file-20191024-170458-17ob0ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Josh Brolin as Thanos in Avengers: Endgame.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">©Marvel Studios 2019</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The end of this period, in Biskind’s view, was down to the infantilism of films such as Jaws and Star Wars. These were films which were often viewed more as amusement-park rides than cinematic art – what Robin Wood critically dismissed as the childish, commercially-driven “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lM-rx7S2ijoC&pg=PA350&lpg=PA350&dq=robin+wood+spielberg+lucas+syndrome&source=bl&ots=7EcDUK5f7c&sig=ACfU3U0RIq_THBU4qFm0caG9sGG9yl2x5w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6ht3m4LTlAhVAShUIHYOlA7AQ6AEwB3oECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=robin%20wood%20spielberg%20lucas%20syndrome&f=false">Spielberg-Lucas syndrome</a>” dominating mainstream film.</p>
<p>But if you want to look at the economical, expressive storytelling possibilities of film, just watch Spielberg’s Jaws, or even better, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLiRnvppAaM">Close Encounters of the Third Kind</a>. Don’t take my word for it – <a href="https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/martin-scorsese-jj-abrams-christopher-nolan-pay-tribute-steven-spielberg/">Scorsese, ironically, said so himself</a> in a 2018 interview with Empire magazine, describing Spielberg as “a pioneer of visual storytelling … reinventing our art form with each new picture”. </p>
<p>Since he so strongly supports Spielberg, sometimes associated with the demise of grown-up cinema, it’s surprising that Scorsese should come out against the most current examples of popular film.</p>
<p>So what’s the problem with Marvel? As I <a href="https://filmkeele.wordpress.com/2019/03/05/hooray-for-hollywood/">explored in a recent book</a>, the MCU’s most significant contribution to modern cinema – like it or not – has been to rethink the idea of the “standalone feature”, favouring narratives that are dispersed across an extended network of movies. From one perspective, the superhero franchises have simply expanded “classical” narrative form across a series of films.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298522/original/file-20191024-170489-18vkz6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298522/original/file-20191024-170489-18vkz6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298522/original/file-20191024-170489-18vkz6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298522/original/file-20191024-170489-18vkz6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298522/original/file-20191024-170489-18vkz6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298522/original/file-20191024-170489-18vkz6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298522/original/file-20191024-170489-18vkz6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Comic book hero: Zade Rosenthal as Iron Man.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 2012 MVLFFLLC. TM & © 2012 Marvel.</span></span>
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<p>Has this been at the expense, in Scorsese’s terms, of the “<a href="https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2481615/martin-scorsese-has-some-blunt-thoughts-on-marvel-movies-and-james-gunn-is-sad-about-it">emotional, psychological experience</a>” and the emphasis on “human beings” that is his preferred view of cinema? Well, Hulk is not Hamlet – and nor is Iron Man, despite the absurdly regal send off that character gets at the end of Avengers: Endgame. </p>
<p>But for all its self-congratulation, <a href="https://youtu.be/ooAsQ7Z5d2A">Endgame</a> still offers much of the experience Scorsese demands – and which he might recognise. There are meditations on loss, on family, as well as debates on responsibility and moral choice, reflections on time and the impact of life decisions. And while we’re at it, were there many more films made in 2018 as refreshing, and politically engaging, as <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-i-marvelled-at-black-panthers-reimagining-of-africa-91703">Black Panther</a>?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-i-marvelled-at-black-panthers-reimagining-of-africa-91703">How I marvelled at Black Panther’s reimagining of Africa</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Corporate enterprise</h2>
<p>But isn’t Loach right about Marvel being <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/oct/22/superhero-films-are-cynical-exercise-to-make-profits-for-corporations-ken-loach">a corporate enterprise</a>, designed to take our money? Of course he is – these are Hollywood movies after all (I believe Scorsese makes these too). Do we then disqualify every major studio production in history as an advert for itself?</p>
<p>But the bigger issue here is that, because they are linked to broader practices of commercialisation, the films themselves are – mistakenly – deemed guilty by association. The political critique of the films also reduces the sizeable audience to an undifferentiated, uncritical mass. Loach, like most critics of the films – who also admit to not watching them – doesn’t seem to credit Marvel’s viewers with any discernment or intelligence. But marketing and merchandising - as plenty of Disney flops have shown - can’t alone guarantee audience devotion.</p>
<p>Indeed, as <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814743485/media-franchising/">media scholar Derek Johnson reminded us</a>, within “corporate” Hollywood, filmmaking and merchandising divisions are often separate – even in conflict with each other. The skill of Marvel’s filmmakers, in fact, has been both to create and sustain an audience that wants to follow its characters over ten years and more. This is an achievement in narrative – not in flogging toys or pillowcases.</p>
<p>To be clear: I get why people don’t like Marvel. But why can’t filmmaking like theirs, and like Loach’s, coexist? As <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xPGPXu2MokkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=tom+shone+blockbuster&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiTtrb_8a_lAhWCThUIHUnvAPkQ6AEIKDAA#v=snippet&q=biskind&f=false">Tom Shone wittily asks</a> in his book Blockbuster, the demonising of modern movies tends to be all one-way traffic. Film connoisseurs tear into Star Wars for failing to be The Godfather, but nobody rips up Coppola’s family saga for missing a few space battles. Why need cinema be just one thing? Why not both? Isn’t cinema, in the end, something for everyone?</p>
<p>The elephant in this particular room, I suspect, is neither art, nor commercialism. And probably not “right-wing neoliberal propaganda” either. It’s exhibition. For the likes of Scorsese, the popularity and distribution muscle behind such films make it harder both to make and screen non-franchise or lower-budget movies. And he has a point. </p>
<p>But while there is clearly an imbalance problem within the contemporary cinema landscape, that doesn’t mean the films themselves are “not cinema”. Maybe they are just the cinema you’d rather not see.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125771/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Martin Scorsese believes superhero movies are ‘not cinema’. What do the experts think?
Julian Lawrence, Senior Lecturer in Comics and Graphic Novels, Teesside University
Neil Archer, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, Keele University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/113448
2019-05-06T20:01:52Z
2019-05-06T20:01:52Z
Apocalypse Now turns 40: rediscovering the genesis of a film classic
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272667/original/file-20190505-103078-1khc1gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=169%2C323%2C4941%2C3094&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For the film's 40th anniversary, director Francis Ford Coppola has unveiled Apocalypse Now: Final Cut.</span> </figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>The ocean rushes below as suddenly the LOUDSPEAKERS BLARE out Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>So reads the screenplay for the 1979 war movie Apocalypse Now. It describes the sequence in which a squadron of American helicopters blasts Wagner while attacking a Viet Cong village during the Vietnam War. </p>
<p>The scene would become one of the most iconic in cinema history – acknowledged, celebrated and parodied in countless subsequent films. </p>
<p>On the occasion of the film’s 40th anniversary, director Francis Ford Coppola has now unveiled <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/apr/29/apocalypse-now-the-final-cut-francis-ford-coppola-vietnam-movie-new-version">Apocalypse Now: Final Cut</a>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TqtehtSB0LI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This scene from Apocalypse Now has been referenced in many movies since.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Apocalypse Now and film history</h2>
<p>Apocalypse Now’s contribution to cinema history is not limited to the helicopter attack sequence. In 2004, this memorable <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jts9suWIDlU">monologue uttered by Robert Duvall</a> as Lt. Colonel Kilgore was voted the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3362603.stm">best-ever film speech</a> by a survey of 6,500 movie buffs. </p>
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<p>You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The epic scale of the production, shot on location in the Philippines jungle, and Coppola’s operatic direction that brought together spectacular cinematography, a hypnotic soundtrack and brooding performances, make Apocalypse Now a major cinematic landmark.</p>
<p>On its initial release 40 years ago, the film received mixed reviews. It was honoured with the Palme D’Or at Cannes but failed to win the Best Picture Academy Award. With time, it gradually acquired the status of a classic film. This was further reinforced in 2001 with the release, to much acclaim, of the extended version, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxENJ2LwecY">Apocalypse Now Redux</a>. </p>
<p>This year marks another major turning point in the film’s history with Coppola’s release of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/apr/29/apocalypse-now-the-final-cut-francis-ford-coppola-vietnam-movie-new-version">Apocalypse Now: Final Cut</a>. The film, which premiered at the 2019 <a href="https://www.tribecafilm.com/">Tribeca Film Festival</a> in New York, has been described as “a new, never-before-seen restored version of the film … remastered from the original negative in 4K Ultra HD”.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/apocalypse-now-our-incessant-desire-to-picture-the-end-of-the-world-46104">Apocalypse now: our incessant desire to picture the end of the world</a>
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<h2>John Milius: from Nirvana Now to Apocalypse Now</h2>
<p>Apocalypse Now is usually considered to be Coppola’s magnum opus, alongside The Godfather Part I and II. As producer, director and co-writer, he is regarded as the auteur of the film. In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxowb5IQRuI">Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse</a> (1991), his wife Eleanor Coppola’s documentary about the making of it, discussion of Apocalypse Now has tended to glorify Coppola as a genius filmmaker able to overcome all sorts of obstacles to bring his masterpiece to light. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272749/original/file-20190506-103085-1spuf3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272749/original/file-20190506-103085-1spuf3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272749/original/file-20190506-103085-1spuf3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272749/original/file-20190506-103085-1spuf3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272749/original/file-20190506-103085-1spuf3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1147&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272749/original/file-20190506-103085-1spuf3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1147&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272749/original/file-20190506-103085-1spuf3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1147&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover of The Cinema of John Milius, written by the author.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alfio Leotta</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most contemporary viewers might not be aware of the major contribution another, less known figure made to the film. <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498543729/The-Cinema-of-John-Milius">John Milius</a>, credited as co-writer of the film, was responsible for creating some of its most iconic moments, including the helicopter attack sequence. He also wrote some of the film’s most memorable lines, including “I love the smell of napalm” and “Charlie don’t surf”, and even the title itself. </p>
<p>Although most contemporary film viewers have forgotten him, in the early 1970s Milius was a central figure of the so called <a href="https://books.google.co.nz/books/about/The_New_Hollywood.html?id=B5PjuAbEPooC&redir_esc=y">“New Hollywood”</a>, a moment in American cinema history characterised by an anti-establishment, innovative approach to filmmaking. During this period, Milius achieved international fame as creator of cinematic icons such as Dirty Harry (1971) and Jeremiah Johnson (1973). </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/big-wednesday-four-decades-between-surfing-and-myth-making-95859">Big Wednesday: four decades between surfing and myth making</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>It was Milius who had the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZswrVALi2M">idea</a>, during his studies at the University of Southern California Film School in the 1960s, of making a film loosely based on Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-conrads-imperial-horror-story-heart-of-darkness-resonates-with-our-globalised-times-94723">Heart of Darkness</a>. Milius thought the Vietnam War, which was raging at the time, would provide the perfect setting for an adaptation of Conrad’s story. Before him, a number of filmmakers, including Orson Welles, had <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/200623651/Heart-of-Darkness-by-Orson-Welles">tried and failed to adapt</a> Heart of Darkness. Milius was intrigued by the possibility of making history by being the first to succeed. </p>
<p>Milius came up with the title of the film before actually writing the screenplay. He said the title Apocalypse Now emerged out of his own contrarian spirit and rejection of the hippy culture that was increasingly gaining terrain in late 1960s California. In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZswrVALi2M">Milius’s words</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I had the title, Apocalypse Now, because the hippies at the time had these buttons that said Nirvana Now. I loved the idea of a guy having a button with a mushroom cloud on it that said Apocalypse Now. You know, let’s bring it on, full nuke.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Milius envisions the Vietnam hell</h2>
<p>Milius wrote extensive notes and recorded stories of returning Vietnam veterans, but did not write the screenplay until contracted to do so in 1969. During this period, he discussed the project at length with fellow USC student George Lucas, who was interested both in the Vietnam War and in directing the film. In 1969, Coppola, who had studied film at the University of California Los Angeles and was a close friend of both Milius and Lucas, established independent production company American Zoetrope, which would fund a number of innovative projects, including Apocalypse Now.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-science-fiction-and-fantasy-can-help-us-make-sense-of-the-world-110044">How science fiction and fantasy can help us make sense of the world</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>According to the original arrangement, Lucas would direct the film while Milius would write the screenplay. The story was conceived as a journey into the horrors of the Vietnam War and was influenced by Milius’s passion for the classics of world literature, particularly Homer’s Odyssey and Dante’s Inferno. </p>
<p>While writing the screenplay, Milius imagined a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZswrVALi2M">soundtrack that would include Wagner and The Doors</a>. Milius’s idea to use Wagner for the helicopter attack was inspired by real events, as American troops sometimes played rock and roll music from loud speakers during the Vietnam War as a way of intimidating the enemy. The Doors, who had <a href="https://www.vietnamfulldisclosure.org/10-top-anti-warprotest-songs-about-the-vietnam-war/">written several songs about the madness of the war</a>, provided another major source of inspiration. </p>
<p>In Milius’s original screenplay, rogue American Colonel Kurtz (played in the film by Marlon Brando) is a big fan of Jim Morrison and his band. In one of the sequences of the original script, Kurtz orders his soldiers to blast <a href="https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=light+my+fire+the+doors">Light My Fire</a> by The Doors on big speakers as their compound is attacked by the North Vietnamese army. Eventually, Coppola never shot the scene featuring Light My Fire, but used extracts of another Doors hit, The End, in both the opening and closing sequences of the film. </p>
<h2>Milius and Coppola: clashing auteurs</h2>
<p>Originally, Milius and Lucas envisioned Apocalypse Now as a pseudo-documentary shot on location in 16mm and black and white. They were interested in emulating the realist aesthetic of films such as Gillo Pontecorvo’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i9V1rlY-PQ">The Battle of Algiers</a> (1966) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSMwtG-nGfo">The Anderson Platoon</a> (1967), a documentary about the Vietnam War directed by one of Milius’s favourite filmmakers, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/mar/15/pierre-schoendoerffer">Pierre Schoendoerffer</a>. Milius and Lucas intended to bring cast and crew to Vietnam where they would intersperse a mix of scripted and improvised scenes of performers interacting with real soldiers and events. </p>
<p>But eventually, Lucas abandoned the project to direct Star Wars (1977) and was replaced by Coppola, who radically changed the original approach to Apocalypse Now. He envisioned a large-budget spectacular production. </p>
<p>After Coppola completed revisions of the screenplay in 1975, Milius spoke out about the two filmmakers’ conflicting creative visions. Milius was particularly critical about Coppola’s attempt to transform Apocalypse Now into an anti-war film and accused the San Francisco-based director of rejecting the creative input of his collaborators. In a 1976 <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43753072?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">interview</a> Milius claimed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Francis Coppola has this compelling desire to save humanity when the man is a raving fascist, the Bay Area Mussolini. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Milius’ legacy</h2>
<p>But a comparison between the 1969 and <a href="http://www.screenplay.com/downloads/scripts/Apocalypse%20Now.pdf">1975 versions of the screenplay</a> dispels the myth promoted by Milius that Coppola completely rewrote it. More importantly, the final film version was far from what Milius contemptuously defined as “an anti-war movie”. Many scenes and lines created by Milius remained virtually untouched and Coppola retained Milius’ key themes, in particular the conception of war as simultaneously exciting and horrific, the ultimate expression of man’s “inherent bestiality”.</p>
<p>Later in his career, Milius changed his opinion of the film, expressing appreciation of Coppola’s revisions and describing the director as “a genius on a par with Orson Welles”.</p>
<p>For their work on Apocalypse Now, Milius and Coppola received a nomination for best screenplay at the 1979 Academy Awards. In the 1980s, <a href="http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc57.2016/-LeottaMillius/index.html">Milius went on to direct</a> films such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwdYd_RdLCQ">Conan the Barbarian</a> (1982) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZLLKwFpFG4">Red Dawn</a> (1984), but a combination of commercial flops and health problems would lead to the gradual decline of his career in the 1990s and 2000s. </p>
<p>Milius is now considered a minor figure in film history. For creating many of the ideas behind Apocalypse Now, however, he should be remembered as a major contributor to one of the most influential stories ever told on the big screen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113448/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alfio Leotta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Apocalypse now, and a director’s cut version of the film classic premiered last week.
Alfio Leotta, Senior Lecturer, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/98173
2018-07-02T02:45:38Z
2018-07-02T02:45:38Z
The great movie scenes: The Godfather
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223301/original/file-20180615-32307-13p3pbe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C2986%2C1482&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Composite: Stills from Godfather (1972), Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>What makes a film a classic? In this column, film scholar Bruce Isaacs looks at a single sequence from a classic film and analyses its brilliance.</em></p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Godfather, 1972.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The Godfather is hailed as one of the greatest American films of all time. Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 saga about a New York crime family represents a turning point in the history of Hollywood cinema.</p>
<p>Set in post WWII New York, the film chronicles how the youngest son Michael (Al Pacino), the only one not in the family business, reluctantly becomes the head of the Corleone mafia following the death of his father, Vito (Marlon Brando).</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sydney-symphony-orchestra-brings-the-godfather-to-life-37036">The Sydney Symphony Orchestra brings The Godfather to life</a>
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<p>In this scene (spoiler alert: this clip contains the last scene), Michael is at the baptism of his nephew - he is the godfather - while, at the same time, the heads of five rival mafia families are being executed on his orders.</p>
<p>Coppola brings these two independent sequences together using a traditional editing technique known as parallel montage. But he pushes it to its limits, focusing on rhythm and intensity, and prioritising viewer experience over plot development.</p>
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<p><em><strong>See also:</strong></em> <br></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-movie-scenes-hitchcocks-vertigo-63320">The great movie scenes: Hitchcock’s Vertigo</a>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-movie-scenes-antonionis-the-passenger-65395">The great movie scenes: Antonioni’s The Passenger</a>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-movie-scenes-eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind-74166">The great movie scenes: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind</a>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-movie-scenes-steven-spielbergs-jaws-79043">The great movie scenes: Steven Spielberg’s Jaws</a>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-movie-scenes-hitchcocks-psycho-and-the-power-of-jarring-music-97325">The great movie scenes: Hitchcock’s Psycho and the power of jarring music</a>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-movie-scenes-stanley-kubricks-2001-a-space-odyssey-100170">The great movie scenes: Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98173/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Isaacs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The final scene of The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola deploys a technique known as parallel montage to great and rhythmic effect.
Bruce Isaacs, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/78696
2017-06-01T14:18:46Z
2017-06-01T14:18:46Z
Sofia Coppola emerges from her father’s shadow with Cannes triumph for The Beguiled
<p>Sofia Coppola’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/5/24/15676900/beguiled-review-sofia-coppola-dunst-kidman-fanning-cannes">triumphant win at Cannes</a> as best director for The Beguiled is the latest in a series of notable successes for a director quietly but forcefully blazing her own trail as a female director in a film world in which most of the awards, kudos and money still go to men. </p>
<p>With only her second film, Lost in Translation, she won an <a href="http://oscar.go.com/video/2014-oscar-winner-acceptance-speeches/sofia-coppola-wins-first-oscar-in-2004">Oscar in 2004 for best screenplay</a> and, in 2010, she was only the third woman, and the first American woman ever, to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-11274372/sofia-coppola-wins-venice-golden-lion-for-somewhere">win a Golden Lion</a> at the Venice Film Festival, which she was awarded for Somewhere. </p>
<p>But Coppola’s roots in the cinema go back much further than these successes. She first appeared on screen <a href="http://entertainment.time.com/2012/03/15/the-anniversary-you-cant-refuse-40-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-godfather/slide/sofia-coppola-played-a-boy/">as a baby boy</a>, Michael, at the end of The Godfather (1972), her father, Francis Ford Coppola’s critically acclaimed film based on the novel by Mario Puzo. She is baptised on-screen, in a sacred ceremony marking the importance of birth and continuity of family, both in the story world of The Godfather and in the “real world” of the Coppola family. </p>
<p>Within the complex narrative of The Godfather, the baby she plays unknowingly provides a vital service for her uncle and literal godfather Michael “Don” Corleone, as the baptism provides him with an alibi while his “soldiers” are out murdering the family’s enemies during the ceremony. Of course, in the real world, she also unwittingly provides a service for her father, “performing” for him in the film which would make his career. </p>
<p>Her involuntary transvestite performance nicely sums up the privileges and the difficulties of Coppola’s position in contemporary film culture. On the one hand, she is welcomed, both on and off screen, into a highly influential family, bound not only by ties of blood but also business and loyalty. On the other, she is marked from the very start as being from this family, contained by its meanings and the powerful image her father created as one of the most successful directors of the New Hollywood. </p>
<h2>All about my father</h2>
<p>It is depressing – but hardly surprising – then, that when interviewed by David Letterman on his show in October 2004, following two Academy Award nominations for Lost in Translation (Coppola was nominated for best director as well as best screenplay), Letterman spent the interview asking her about following in her father’s footsteps, whether he visited her on set, and what advice he gave. Similarly, when interviewed for Italian television by Anna Praderio on the occasion of winning the Golden Lion, Coppola was asked whether she was pleased for her father who recently had been given the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award.</p>
<p>Coppola clearly has benefited from her father’s contacts and especially his production know-how, using his experience to help her stitch up complex co-production deals <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3612759/Shining-star-of-the-Coppola-dynasty.html">working alongside her brother, Roman</a> (often but not always with Focus Features). But the persistent interest in her position as the child of a famous director never seems to affect sons in the same way. Just look at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/jason-reitman">Jason Reitman</a> (son of director and producer Ivan Reitman) or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/noah-baumbach">Noah Baumbach</a> (son of film critic Jonathan Baumbach). </p>
<h2>Sofia’s world</h2>
<p>Nor is having a famous movie director as a father a guarantee of the kind of commercial and critical success Sofia Coppola has achieved, as is illustrated by <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/jennifer-lynch-a-new-peak-for-the-daughter-of-darkness-8466023.html">Jennifer Lynch</a> (daughter of David Lynch) and <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cassavetes-idUSN2826892120070629">Zoe Cassavetes</a> (daughter of John Cassavetes). What is remarkable is how Coppola has taken the very question of her own privilege – and how it functions as both an enabler and a cage – and explored it across her film worlds. </p>
<p>She places us alongside pampered, privileged daughters – from the adored and luminous Lisbon girls in the <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-virgin-suicides-2000">Virgin Suicides</a> to the teen queen <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/oct/08/features.review1">Marie Antoinette</a>, from a movie star’s charming 11-year-old with her ice-skating lessons and gelato fests in an upscale Milan hotel in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/dec/12/somewhere-sofia-coppola-review">Somewhere</a> to the scheming wannabes, home educated by a new-age mother and <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/sofia-coppola-focuses-teen-thieves-bling-ring-article-1.1365593">breaking into celebrity mansions</a> at night, in The Bling Ring. She takes her time to linger on the textures and the delights in these girls’ lives, rather than dismissing them as stupid, trivial or useless. </p>
<p>In a world that refuses to take you seriously – and undermines any attempt you might make to establish yourself as a whole person – the decision to find alternative ways of being seems in contrast eminently sensible. From the hazy meadows and fantasy travel plans of the Lisbon sisters to Marie Antoinette’s fantasy retreat, Le Trianon, Coppola’s films carefully place us into these girls’ fantasy worlds, showing how and why they are necessary.</p>
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<p>The Beguiled once again places us into an all-female universe – a young ladies’ seminary in the Deep South, where all the men have left to fight. An injured soldier turns up and the introduction of a man to the all-female school evokes various passions – the trailer promises kissing, disrobing and tousled sheets. Violence simmers beneath the surface, however, and the trailer finishes with the soldier’s distressed call: “What have you done to me, you vengeful bitches?!”</p>
<p>If earlier films have shown us girls attempting to carve out some space for self-expression in a world ruled by dads, here we have a film that shows us women ready to turn to violence to protect their sanctuary. As she emerges from the long shadow cast by her father, making films that determinedly and repeatedly show us stories from the female perspective, Coppola also suggests a new strength both on and off screen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78696/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona Handyside does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Father is a Hollywood great, but daughter is on course to take her own place in the movie pantheon.
Fiona Handyside, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, University of Exeter
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.