George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola

Compare Coppola and Lucas all you want, but it comes down to one important distinction (and I point this out for people who claim that Peter Jackson has unseated Lucas as the best fantasy filmmaker): Lucas creates all of this stuff. No, not the minute details, but the story, characters, concepts, etc. are all Lucas's whereas Coppola and Jackson rely on the work of others for starting points. Lucas is utterly in a class all by himself and comparisons to other directors are so meaningless as to border on being humorous. (And please don't misconstrue this as a slam on Jackson or Coppola, both of whom are phenomenal directors, but neither of them are what Lucas is. I can't think of any other director who is.)

 

................umm, yeah... they know each other....

 

It's possible that Palpatine's transformation aftermath is based around Coppola's Draclua, but the far more obvious Coppola homage is with the Jedi slaughter and Michael taking out the bosses the the end of the Godfather. Which incidently is a scene Lucas edited together for Coppola.

 

From the reports I've heard, Coppola is a fan of RotS. And I don't think a direct comparison Lucas to Coppola is productive as they don't make movies anywhere in the same vein as one another. Coppola might--might--be more successful directing actors than Lucas, but then "Dracula" was one of the worst-acted movies ever, period.

Also, as far as the Palpatine make-up looking different in RotS and RotJ... I'd love for someone to dig up a photo of Ian from 1983 so that we can compare it to him now. It could have more to do with the changes in Ian's own facial structure than anything else, and we can't exactly help that.

 

ha ha ha thats a good one

 

If Lucas deliberately copied the design from Coppola's Dracula, he did it well before the Prequels. I have a 10 inch tall Emperor Palpatine from 1997 or so, and if you pull back his hood some, you can see the same ridge down the middle that you see in ROTS. This tells me that Lucas had already known what Palpatine would look like without his hood a long time ago, much before any prequel planning was done.

 

If I ever felt a nod to Coppola, it was during the birth scene with the death of Anakin scene. It reminded me very much of the Baptism in The Godfather where Michael Corleone had all the heads of the other families executed. Good Jedi Michael Corleone died and was rebuilt as Darth Corleone.

 

Also Order 66 reminded of when all the families are executed.

 

I would agree with that. Anakin's turn and thinking so hard about whether to go through with going to the temple and then to injure Mace reminds me of Michael Corleone in the Italian restaurant debating whether to get the gun and cross over to kill both men, one being the police officer.

 

The montage scenes were DEFINATLY Coppolaesque. The Order 66 Montage was classic Coppola, as was the Sepratist Slaughter/Declaration of the Emperor set to Opera Music, sequence, plus Vaders Birth/Padme's Death.

All were classic Coppola, which probably explains why Francis actually liked this movie.

 

And the Battle of Kahyyyk was extremely Saving Private Ryanesque which explains why Spielberg likes the film.

 

Spielberg likes everything Star Wars! I think he's always been on George's wave-legnth with these films. Poeple always say what would Star Wars be like if Spielberg had made a Star Wars film? However, IMO it really wouldn't have been very differant to what we already have.

 

MAD Magazine gave a nod to the Godfather. Palpatine said, "Execute Order 66. Let the montage ripped off from the Godfather commence!" So it shows all the Jedi being killed and then it shows Moe Green getting his massage and then he gets shot by a laser blast.

 

TPM was probably the most Spielbergesque of the Prequels in terms of story. I wouldn't have wanted Spielberg to get his hands on RotS for anything (apart from what he did at the anamatics stage).

 

I can only imagine how AWESOME the prequels would be if they had been "The Godfather" Trilogy in a Star Wars universe. (not that they aren't good now, mind you) If the Godfather could have been translated to Star Wars, what a hell of a good story the prequels could have been.

 

Ugh. FFC doing SW would be an ugly film.

GL is about redemption. There is very little redeeming about Godfather.
Don'ta getta me wrongo, I love all 3 Godfather films. But for different reasons.

Palpatine, about Anakin: "I made him an offer he couldn't refuse."
The cinematography of FFC is pretty conventional. Not an eye for angles, mostly
talking heads when not shooting people. And the action is often shot at long,
inpersonal angles. Fine for the Andolini family, meh for the SW.

 

on my PC i had video of this documentary about "Apocalypse Now" that was done maybe 15 years ago with old footage and "new" interviews

anyway, Lucas is in it giving some of his opinions of Francis' style.

i remember he said Francis gets caught up in trying to make these grand scenes but can confuse the audience and lose their attention

its interesting because im sure that Francis' criticisms would probably be the exact opposite: the Lucas is too simple or he jumps from one thing to another too quickly

the thing i got form it is that it seems Lucas is very self-conscious about being viewed as a pretentious director

 

just wanted to bump my above post for any that are interested but missed it

 

good points maynard....i recall hearing that intel some time ago

 

The cinematography of FFC is pretty conventional.

Depends on the movie.
His work with Gordon Willis is pretty extraordinary,
especially on GODFATHER II where the saturation of the
period scenes, the brilliant lighting, everything makes it a
standout example of great and thoughtful cinematography.
Cinematography is way, way more than just choosing angles,
but I'm sure you know that.

 

It's been some time sense I have seen the movie. But I would say no, just remember I have not seen the movie in sometime.

 

I wish that Coppola had influenced Lucas more, when it comes to Anakin. The descent of Michael Corleone into evil is far more compelling than that of Anakin Skywalker. Maybe Coppola could have fleshed it out some, made Hayden more believable. Pacino was relatively unknown at the time, as is Hayden. Lucas seems to prefer overt acting, making transitions obvious, rather than trusting the audience to pick up subtle details over time, as Coppola does with Michael Corleone.