Phillips's book is a somewhat uneasy mixture of brief scholarly analysis--technological analysis, production information, plotting analysis, exploration of mise-en-scène, and box office success--and chatty trivial pursuit that is common in promotional material on Hollywood. Over the course of the book the Phillips's focus on Coppola's themes--family (an obsession that seems to be the reason why Coppola's relatives show up habitually in his films) and possible redemption--working methods--rehearsals, filming of rehearsals, utilisation of the newest technologies of filmmaking--and Coppola as both a maverick and director for hire, makes one often wish that the book was, as so many of the books of this genre should be, a 20 or so page synoptic article rather than a 300 plus page book.
Unfortunately, like many books of the auteurist genre, Phillips's romanticises Coppola as an artistic David versus the Goliath of corporate profit obsessed Hollywood. Simultaneously, however, Phillips's also seems to suggest that judicious editing by others of Coppola's films--he shot extensive coverage--helped these films become more coherent. Additionally, Phillip's study was completed before Coppola ceased being an active Hollywood director. Coppola has completed three unsuccessful films at the box office--Youth Without Youth (2007), Tetro (2009). and Twixt (2011)--after Phillips's book was published making Phillips's book somewhat incomplete. Recommended for those interested in post-60s Hollywood and Coppola.
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