Cuarón and Hitchcock and Scorsese, Oh My! The Greatest Directors Of All-Time

12. Francis Ford Coppola

Image Source: Vanity Fair

Arguably “The Godfather” of American cinema (much pun intended), Francis Ford Coppola was the catalyst which spurred on a revolution in American cinema in the ’70s and changed the course of cinematic expression. Of the triumphant California film school grads, Coppola is the only one who has followed his artistic impulses; Lucas has locked himself away with tech toys; Spielberg is too simple a genius to self-destruct.

He revolutionized the landscape of gangster films with his path-breaking The Godfather and Godfather II, adapting a decent Mario Puzo novel into a compelling analysis of the American Dream and its rickety foundations. An auteur with a keen understanding of the human condition, Coppola’s cinema is thematically opulent and philosophically obscure. And while the jury is still out on naming his finest work, no film has better personified his vision and flair quite the way Apocalypse Now has.