Why ‘The Godfather’ made Sam Peckinpah hate Francis Ford Coppola
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(Credits: Far Out / MUBI)
Despite being one of the most influential directors in cinema history who crafted a number of movies that would go on to enjoy classic status, Sam Peckinpah always viewed himself as an outsider in Hollywood.
That was an opinion that appeared to be shared by the industry’s most prominent awards bodies, with a ‘Best Original Screenplay’ nod for The Wild Bunch the only Oscar nomination of a stellar career, which was the one and only time he ever found himself shortlisted for a major prize.
Of course, that’s hardly reflective of the contributions made by the man who revolutionised on-screen violence and the action genre at large through the aforementioned revisionist western, even if there was plenty of controversy to contend with along the way when audiences and critics found themselves up in arms over the jarring bursts of visceral bloodshed.
Peckinpah’s signature style was on full display in Straw Dogs, The Getaway, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, too, with his maverick approach to the artform and his outspoken nature ensuring that his outsider status remained intact whether he was basking in the warm glow of adulation, fielding accusations he was glorifying death and despair, or embarking on one of his many self-destructive sabbaticals.
He knew what he liked and what he didn’t, with Peckinpah happy to voice his opinions either way. When he was interviewed by Playboy in 1972 he hadn’t even gotten around to watching Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather yet, but its reputation was more than enough to instil him with a deep-seated dislike for its director.
Peckinpah may not have seen it, but he rather unequivocally said, “I hate Coppola”. Not for any personal reasons but entirely professional ones. The Godfather vacated cinemas as the highest-grossing film ever made before going on to win Academy Awards for ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Actor’, and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’. He knew all about it, which is exactly why he detested it.
“I hear the film is great, and the only movies I want to like are my movies,” he explained. “I don’t want any other son of a bitch making good movies.” Yep, it was little more than professional jealousy at the end of the day, which may have been exacerbated by the fact Peckinpah shot two movies that were released in the months after The Godfather but didn’t make a similar splash.
Coppola’s masterpiece premiered in March, with Peckinpah’s modern western Junior Bonner and action thriller The Getaway landing in June and December, both of them starring Steve McQueen. The former was a flop, but the latter recouped its production budget ten times over, and then some, not that it was comparable to the sprawling saga of the Corleone clan.
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