Jeff Meene has found a new angle on one of the most remarkable filmmakers of his era. In Francis Ford Coppola (published by University of Illinois Press), Meene identifies Coppola as an especially prominent manifestation of the post-industrial, new workplace ethos that came to fruition with the 1960s. Given the irony that his second name honored that titan of the industrial age, Henry Ford, Coppola “played a part within his own industry, as members of his generation did in other industries, to redefine the labor of individuals.”
To put it another way, Hollywood during its golden age was a factory town employing crews of skilled artisans on a creative assembly line. The auteur theory, which inspired Coppola and other filmmakers of his generation, held that some directors rose above their role as managers in an industrial setting and were able to craft a body of work with consistent themes and a prevailing vision. Meene makes the intriguing argument that auteur theory “turned out to have a similar prescription for a post-war business culture.” Even if they weren’t joining the Counterculture, Americans were tired of being company men in gray flannel suits.
If the failure of Coppola’s indie studio, Zoetrope, counts as a flaw in the author’s thesis of Coppola as a model for the new workplace, the director’s ongoing entrepreneurship (he even went into winemaking) might be indicative of the wider quest for seeking autonomy and meaning in work. Meene is often at his most interesting when analyzing Coppola’s films and screenplays. In comparing The Godfather with Patton, the author finds evidence of the revolt against the mid-century industrial model for social and business relations. Both stories stand outside their era yet comment on the ‘60s, refracting the present through the past. The subjects of neither film wanted to play by the rules and shared roots in the pre-industrial age. The Mafia’s ethos was feudal, as was Patton—a flamboyant figure in a khaki-clad army of organization men.
