Legendary 'Godfather' Director: Didn't Want New Movie to Be 'Some Woke Hollywood' Film That's 'Lecturing'
Christians go astray the moment we begin to think of ourselves as good people, for self-congratulation leads inevitably to pride.
Furthermore, because we recognize that pride tempts us to pose as someone else’s moral superior, we notice and approve of that same recognition in others.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, legendary Hollywood director Francis Ford Coppola, best known for the 1970s classics “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now,” explained that he did not want his new film, “Megalopolis,” to come across as “some woke Hollywood production that’s simply lecturing viewers.”
How refreshing.
Much like the new political alliance between former President Donald Trump and former Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Coppola’s film featured a cast built on unity and overcoming minor differences.
In fact, interviewer David Fear noted an interesting casting choice.
“You cast Jon Voight in a role that bears a strong resemblance to Donald Trump, and I’m going to guess that there are some political viewpoints he holds that you don’t share,” Fear said.
Voight ranks as one of Hollywood’s few prominent conservatives and Trump supporters.
“We must vote for President Trump because he will save this nation,” Voight said in a three-minute video posted to the social media platform X on Aug. 6.
Civil War pic.twitter.com/m78FFPKgWy
— Jon Voight (@jonvoight) August 6, 2024
Coppola explained his brave decision to eschew Hollywood wokeness.
“What I didn’t want to happen is that we’re deemed some woke Hollywood production that’s simply lecturing viewers. The cast features people who were canceled at one point or another,” Coppola said.
Then came the paean to unity.
“There were people who are archconservatives and others who are extremely politically progressive. But we were all working on one film together. That was interesting, I thought,” he added.
“Megalopolis” will hit theaters on Sept. 27.
Coppola described the film as “a Roman Empire epic set in modern America.”
Fear called it “a sprawling, ambitious, all-over-the-map story about a dying republic filled with corrupt politicians, club-hopping hedonists, [and] a Caligula-like figure who bears a strong resemblance to a recent former president (played by no less than Jon Voight).”
Of course, Voight’s presence, coupled with Coppola’s anti-woke intentions, might reassure potential movie goers that the film’s “Caligula-like” character will not resemble a mere Trump caricature.
In fact, Fear characterized “Megalopolis” as “the single most divisive film” of the entire Cannes film festival in France, when it premiered in May.
That suggests additional reassurance. After all, had the movie pushed woke or anti-Trump themes, then we know Cannes audiences would have praised it.
Above all, Coppola’s new film seems to acknowledge that American moviegoers find wokeness repellent.
In 2023, for instance, some of Hollywood’s worst big-budget flops featured race- and sex-related overtones that paying customers have rejected.
Furthermore, whether or not “Megalopolis” succeeds at the box office, Coppola’s mere words have struck an important blow against wokeness.
Meanwhile, Coppola also tacitly acknowledged the very small step from the woke pastime of “lecturing viewers” to the diabolical practice of canceling dissenters altogether. The former temptation involves pride, which springs from a belief in our own moral goodness. The latter — a deadlier manifestation of the same sin — has totalitarian dimensions.
Thus, armed with awareness of my own unfortunate temptations to pride, determined to avoid the sin of sanctimonious moral preening, and grateful that a famous Hollywood director has actively tried to exclude these things from his new film, I will look forward to seeing “Megalopolis” on the big screen.
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