Francis Ford Coppola’s American Panorama

In a weird way, sitting in a near-empty movie theater drove home the sheer scale of what Francis Ford Coppola aimed to accomplish in his new film Megalopolis. The acclaimed director spent decades trying to produce this film, with disruptions ranging from the terrorist attacks of September 11 to Coppola’s firing of much of the visual effects department in 2022. He  reportedly liquidated much of his net worth to finance this passion project, which is estimated to have made only $4 million in the American market on its opening weekend. These are high financial stakes. But this mad epic has even greater thematic ones, putting the visionary themes of American life on trial.