In defense of Francis Ford Coppola's post-'Apocalypse Now' career

Rumble Fish

I should preface this post by saying that Francis Ford Coppola is one of my favorite directors of all time.

If he never made anything besides The Godfather and The Godfather Part II he would be a legend, but his remarkable run of '70s films also includes the classics: The Conversation and Apocalypse Now.

Unfortunately his work after this fertile period tends to get a bad rap.

Some of this is well-deserved. I have never seen Jack for instance, but most reasonable people tell me I'm not missing anything.

I also haven't seen his trio of reportedly self-indulgent, self-consciously arty films that he has made recently and which have failed to gain wide distribution.

Still, I am a huge fan of some his later career films, even if there are a few abysmal misfires here and there (like the ill-fated One From the Heart).

In 1983, he made a pair of sensitive, earnest films inspired by S.E. Hinton's young adult novels, which were aimed at the youth audience of the time. Neither The Outsiders or Rumble Fish really connected with audiences when they were first released, but now both films stand out as cult favorites and legitimately satisfying art films.

For me Rumble Fish is the more successful of the two. It's a visual tour-de-force, with a terrific propulsive score and note perfect performances from one of the most incredible casts ever assembled. A young Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, Mickey Rourke, Laurence Fishburne, Nicolas Cage and Chris Penn all share the screen alongside the unpredictable Dennis Hopper.

Nostalgia seems like a recurring theme in Coppola's work in the 1980s. He followed up the two greaser films mentioned above with Peggy Sue Got Married and Tucker: The Man and His Dream, which are both movies which pay homage to the simplicity, innovation and sincerity (or at least the perception thereof) or an earlier time -- and most specifically Coppola's own adolescence.

Peggy Sue Got Married interestingly came out the year after another time-travel themed nostalgia piece, Back to the Future, but while the latter film relies heavy on (at the time) big budget special effects and the charms of a star (Michael J. Fox) with innate youth appeal -- Peggy Sue Got Married is a little more whimsical, and its framed from the perspective of a more middle aged character, played soulfully by Kathleen Turner.

By 1990, financial woes forced Coppola to craft a third entry in the The Godfather series. I've said it before and I'll say it again -- The Godfather Part III is a very good film, in fact several aspects of it are great. Pacino plays Michael Corleone as a broken man desperately clinging to the false hope that he can make his criminally mired family legitimate. Yes, the film is hamstrung by Coppola's stubborn insistence on casting his own daughter in a pivotal role -- but it doesn't ruin the movie.

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Sofia Coppola actually pops up in small roles in most of her father's latter career work until she became a formidable director in her own right. She might have developed into a fine actress someday, who knows. But it's clear she didn't have the range and gravitas she needed to pull off such a challenging role at that time.

Although the film was a success at the box office, it was a disappointment in relation to its cost. But in 1992 Coppola had his last -- albeit unlikely -- bonafide blockbuster with his lush and romantic retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula. I have never been too interested in vampires, but this is my favorite film I've seen on the subject to date. Despite the inept performance of Keanu Reeves, this is a perfectly cast and beautiful looking film.

There were some quibbles then and now that the film isn't truly scary enough -- and I guess it might not satisfy audiences looking for pure horror. Still, it's a sumptuous and authentic retelling of the Dracula myth, with a never-better Gary Oldman in the title role.

The last film of Coppola's I've seen is the competent courtroom drama The Rainmaker, based on a John Grisham film. There is nothing in this film that possesses Coppola's trademark voiee or visual techniques, but it's a solid piece of entertainment, albeit inferior to other Grisham films like The Firm and The Pelican Brief.

At 75, Coppola is no longer a major force in Hollywood but his contribution to modern cinema is unparalleled. Any serious film buff should keep in mind that directors like Martin Scorsese, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were all either proteges or acolytes of Coppola.

I would like to think he has one last masterwork left in him, and even if he doesn't I'll be enjoying the work he'd done to date for many years to come.