Why George Lucas’ Star Wars Success Makes Francis Ford Coppola Feel ‘Sadness’

It’s truly the ultimate version of the filmmaker’s conundrum in Hollywood. While it’s the instinct of any artist is to flex their creativity, finding real success in the movie industry means that a lot of people want you to start doing the same thing over and over again. Obviously George Lucas wasn’t forced into the priorities he demonstrated, and clearly it led to him gaining tremendous wealth and a great deal of influence, so it’s hard to argue against his choices working within the system and expanding on his most successful idea (plus he spent most of the 1980s working as a producer and supporting the visions of filmmakers like Jim Henson, Ron Howard, Paul Schrader, and Akira Kurosawa).