he had to be ruthless, but he could be friendly. in other words, he was a complex hero. we re here in the nappa vally on a rainy day to interview francis ford coppola. now, he s one of greatest movie directors of all-time without any question. if you google the best movies of all-time, the greatest movies of all-time, the godfather is number one usually. i m going to make him an offer he can t refuse. but the godfather 2 is often on that list of top ten, and so is apocalypse now. so of the 10, 15 greatest movies of all-time this man has made three of them. i m really interested in talking to him for another reason. when i came to america first i was in college and i took a class, classics of american cinema. it was in some ways helpful for me because it gave me a sense of the culture and the country that i was now living in. and i wrote my final paper on the godfather, actually on the opening four or five minutes of the godfather, the first scene, and i had
favors. you don t offer respect. you don t offer friendship. you don t even think to call me godfather. and it s this fascinating tension in america between wanting the individualism and the freedom of the new but being pulled back into the world of the old. does that make sense to you? well, of course. it says everything about america and why america is perhaps different from these other systems. so what is this? when i was a kid i was been trained today be a stage manager, and a stacge manager hs something called a prompt book. people come on, everything happens and that was the prompt book. everything was changing. and i was given the godfather and i was nervous because this was starting to become a big production. here s this massive novel and i m going to be like a sculptor