Why is Francis Coppola’s Megalopolis so polarizing? So half-bad?
Because (deep breath), apparently, no one ever told Coppola “Don’t Bleed On The Copy.” When you’re the writer, director and producer, who is there to offer sage counsel? Clearly, at no point, did anyone ask him to tighten up the script or leave a moment of film on the cutting room floor.
As a young man, I was taught both the literal and figurative meanings of the phrase “Don’t Bleed On The Copy.” (copy being a term for your written work).
Literally, in the days of cold-type reproduction, it meant that when you used an Xacto-Knife to slice up the copy prior to pasting it down on a board, it was important not to cut yourself and bleed on it. Not, of course, because a bleeding cut was dangerous, but because it ruined the copy which had to be recreated.
Figuratively, it meant don’t be so much in love with every word you write that you bleed when one of them is cut. As a person who writes long, I would have heard this regularly from editors, had anyone outside The Tech ever used the phrase in the figurative sense.
If you are a Francis Coppola completist (he doesn’t like the Ford, so I don’t use it except parenthetically), you must see his Magnum Opus.
Still, it’s no wonder reviewers and audiences are split 50/50 on this overlong (2:20) epic; they can’t decide if it is trash or treasure. How could it not be treasure?
The film stars Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Kathryn Hunter, Grace VanderWaal, Chloe Fineman, James Remar, D. B. Sweeney, and Dustin Hoffman. They all offer performances that are no less than creditable and sometimes downright amazing. Coppola knows how to direct actors.
Read someone else for the plot, the budget, the backstory. If you’re a film buff, you already know these things. My take: it’s as if all the elements of a great film where thrown into a blender: actors, sets, cinematography, musical score, high concept (on the back of a business card: The Catilinarian conspiracy reset in modern New York City). It looks and sounds like a real film, is moving and interesting, but comes off as an incoherent jumble and a waste of talent.
Before you rush to the comments section: Yes, ironically, I bled all over my copy, so this review is too long.