Francis Ford Coppola is one of the most famous American directors in history, he counts 15 Oscars and 63 Academy Award among his accolades. Of course, he is best known for directing the legendary Godfather movies, but Coppola has revealed that the flagship movie “ruined him”.
In an interview with GQ, the legendary director spoke about the legacy he created with the Godfather series of movies. The hugely successful original film starred Marlon Brando, Al Pachino and Diane Keaton and is still largely considered one of the best movies of all time.
Speaking of the success of the movie, Coppola said that it was hard to live up to the expectations he built with Godfather.
“That film ruined me,” he told the publication, “in the sense that it was so successful that everything I did was compared to it.”
Coppola added: “I was so busy trying to survive and support my family, and have a successful career as a movie director, and not have the profound fall from grace that I saw myself as. I made this big movie, The Godfather, and the next thing I know, I’m making all these pictures that maybe are embarrassing. And of course I criticized myself.”
During the same chat, Coppola took aim at Marvel films, saying they’re each offering has essentially the same storyline.
“There used to be studio films,” Coppola said. “Now there are Marvel pictures. And what is a Marvel picture? A Marvel picture is one prototype movie that is made over and over and over and over and over again to look different.”
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He added: “You could take both those movies, and you and I could go and pull the same sequence out of both of them and put them together.”
“The same sequence where the cars all crash into each other. They all have that stuff in it, and they almost have to have it, if they’re going to justify their budget. And that’s the good films, and the talented filmmakers.”
Some of Marvel’s most successful productions include Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Avatar and Black Panther. These five titles grossed over $9.1 billion USD worldwide (approx $12.64 billion AUD) and Avengers: Endgame has become the highest grossing movie of all time.
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