The 70s were undoubtedly the best years of Francis Ford Coppola cinematically speaking.
But before his success as a director came to him, he came as a screenwriter with the film "Patton", with which he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 1971 with his partner Edmund North, with whom he wrote it.
Also in 1971 he produced his friend's debut feature George Lucas "THX-1138", as president of the production company "American Zoetrope" that both had created.
In 1972 he finally unveiled all his talent with the masterpiece "The Godfather". Paramount Pictures considered firing him because they thought that the director would not be violent enough in the adaptation of the Mario Puzo novel and because he did not see well the hiring of Marlon Brando and an Al Pacino who was starting at that time.
The film, which was shot in 52 days, had a script adapted by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo himself that won the Oscar award, and also received the statuettes for best film and Marlon Brando best actor.
In 1973 he returned to produce a film for George Lucas, “American Graffiti”. Film that was nominated for five awards from the Hollywood Academy, including best picture.
That same year he directed "The Conversation", a film that won, among other awards, the Palme d'Or and the Ecumenical Jury Prize in Cannes.
If he got a masterpiece with "The Godfather", with "The Godfather II" in 1974 it was no less. Once again, the filmmaker is in charge of the adaptation of the script with the author of the novel, Mario Puzo. Two stories that intersect in montage, on the one hand the one that continues by Michael Corleone, and on the other the one of the young man Vito Corleone years ago, played excellently by a Robert De Niro who joins the cast of the first installment. The film won six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay, all three raised by Coppola.
The same year that “The Godfather II"So does" The Great Gatsby ", a film that has a script by Francis Ford Coppola.
After this, his next project was not released until 1979, it is about "Apocalypse Now”, A project that Orson Welles himself had planned to carry out at the time, but had to be dismissed due to its high cost.
"Apocalypse now" is a script adapted by the director himself together with John Milius from the novel "Heart of Darkness”By Joseph Conrad.
From March 1, 1976 to May 21, 1977 the filming lasted in Philippine lands in which Martin sheen came to suffer a heart attack.
Nominated for 8 Academy Awards, this cult film won the Oscars for best sound and best photography.