On my best of 1970–74 list numbers 2, and 3, and 6 are The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II and The Conversation. How good can Coppola be if none of those even made my #1 spot in a period of 5 years. To that I would offer Apocalypse Now. That was the best film of at least the last 5 years of the 1970’s. What makes those films so great varies from film to film. Even The Godfather films, while both distinctly his, differ greatly from each other in message, organization and style.

In between those two acknowledged classics came The Conversation starring Gene Hackman. He plays a professional eavesdropper. He is not even a private investigator, but merely someone who records things professionally. He is the best, but he has reservations about one recording and gains a conscience. Duvall, Ford, Cazale, Garr…and he gets the best out of them. Just like he did in The Godfather.

In Apocalypse Now he got Martin Sheen drunk, Robert Duvall crazy, and Marlon Brando under control. Combining those strengths and following that boat down the river into Cambodia, he shows the Vietnam War better than any other movie—and some great directors have tried, including Oliver Stone and Stanley Kubrick.

Those four films outshine the careers of all but a few directors. He directed them in a row. While filming The Conversation in between the Godfather films was impressive, to follow up those three with Apocalypse Now is unheard of. To put that into comparison, Sergio Leone directed A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, AND Once Upon A Time in The West in a row, but those were all Westerns. Leone opened the door to spaghetti westerns and then eulogized it beautifully. Coppola created/legitimized mob movies, before creating an almost perfect cerebral thriller, and revolutionizing the war genre.

If he had died then, he might be considered the greatest director of all-time. He still can be, but he did make some stinkers before returning for the coda that everyone thought they wanted—The Godfather: Part III. Clearly, it does not hold up when compared to parts I & II. Yet, neither does The Prestige, Hot Fuzz, Scarface, Platoon, or any number of very good movies. As best as I can recall, Part III deserved its Oscar Best Picture & Direction nominations. How could it when up against Costner and his Dances With Wolves??

Coppola’s next motion picture was Dracula, aka “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” Coppola’s greatest success in this was that he successfully made a genre picture, without losing his personal stamp. Kevin Smith has Cop Out, and that has his stamp, but was not a very good movie. Brett Ratner has Rush Hours 1 & 2, X-Men 3, and Red Dragon, but has no stamp to put on his films. Coppola is a true auteur, who also succeeded within the Hollywood system.