<p>[Francis</a> Ford Coppola Interview – page 4 / 4 – Academy of Achievement](<a href=“http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/cop0int-4]Francis”>http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/cop0int-4)</p>
<p>Check out the first two interview segments with Francis Ford Coppola:</p>
<p>“I wrote the script of Patton. And the script was very controversial when I wrote it, because they thought it was so stylized. It was supposed to be like, sort of, you know, The Longest Day. And my script of Patton was – I was sort of interested in the reincarnation. And I had this very bizarre opening where he stands up in front of an American flag and gives this speech. Ultimately, I wasn’t fired, but I was fired, meaning that when the script was done, they said, “Okay, thank you very much,” and they went and hired another writer and that script was forgotten. And I remember very vividly this long, kind of being raked over the coals for this opening scene. My point is that what I’ve learned is that the stuff that I got in trouble for, the casting for The Godfather or the flag scene in Patton, was the stuff that was remembered, and was considered really the good work.”</p>
<p>“In your own time, usually, the stuff that’s your best idea or work is going to be attacked the most. Firstly, probably because it’s new, or because they’d never seen an opening of a movie like that, or seen a gangster movie done in this style. So you have to really be courageous about your instincts and your ideas, because otherwise you’ll just knuckle under and change it. And then things that might have been memorable will be lost.”</p>
<p>Patton was made years later. Coppola was about 27 when he wrote the screenplay and the film was released as he was handed the helm of The Godfather, which was a gangster film based on Mario Puzo’s novel. But when the casting came around for The Godfather, Coppola had to buck the studio which refused his choices. He was almost fired but then he won the Academy Award (best screenwriting) for *Patton<a href=“for%20a%20script%20he%20had%20been%20ridiculed%20for%20when%20he%20wrote%20it”>/I</a> and that made it difficult for the studio to fire him (without looking like idiots).</p>
<p>Imagine if Coppola hadn’t held his ground, coming close to being fired as the director of The Godfather – or if he hadn’t taken an unconventional approach when he wrote *Patton<a href=“because%20he%20believed%20in%20it,%20not%20because%20it%20was%20unconventional%20for%20the%20sake%20of%20being%20unconventional”>/I</a>. The Godfather would have been directed by someone else, it would have starred Ernest Borgnine or Danny Thomas as Vito Corleone, and newcomer Al Pacino may have never become a star with Redford or O’Neal playing his part, Coppola would not have been able to make Apocalypse Now or other films, and I’m pretty sure there would never have been *Godfather II<a href=“which%20is%20also%20one%20of%20my%20top%2010%20favorite%20films”>/I</a>. From his point of view, had he not taken these risks at a time when he had no clout or cachet in Hollywood, he’d be known today as the guy who directed Finian’s Rainbow and then used that as a springboard to, perhaps, direct some of the Barbie direct-to-DVD animated videos by Mattel Studios.</p>