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Hollywood is where imaginative stories are put on the silver screen and people with minimal backgrounds can make historical careers of glamour. But aside from inviting in people of various backgrounds and creative mindsets, Hollywood has encouraged, mostly indirectly, daring filmmakers to go against its system and attempt to make successful pictures outside of the often creatively restraining industry. Legendary directors Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas formed in the early 1970s the best example of such rebellion with American Zoetrope, an independent film company which in the days prior to each of their legendary success, was their conjoined mission to challenge the Hollywood status quo in moviemaking, inviting a diverse array of storytelling and directors to form a new kind of cinema alternative.
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In Response to Hollywood’s Struggle
American Zoetrope was in many ways a product of the New Hollywood Movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After decades of high budget epics, Hollywood began to show its cracks. The clean, idealistic way of making movies had proven to be less successful since the golden age. ‘Cleopatra’ (1963) was made for an exuberant amount of money and bombed in a spectacular fashion, signaling the waning days of expensive, high profile movies based on historical figures. In came a new generation of young filmmakers, most of whom were from upbringings not in association with Hollywood in the slightest and introduced methods of guerilla style filmmaking that, while lacking on budget, ended up being hits among critics and general audiences. ‘Easy Rider’ (1969) and ‘The Wild Bunch’ (1969) were textbook examples of this approach where both followed morally grey characters in an unforgiving world, told in cinematic realism akin to the French New Wave. This was the start of the great New Hollywood movement, a period of films that was just as significant in its success as it was in its fall.
Within all this experimentation came two promising creatives. One from an Italian immigrant family settled in New York and the other from the tiny Californian town of Modesto. Despite their differing personalities with Coppola being the loud boisterous motivator while Lucas was the quiet, pensive small kid who thought more before he did, they hit it off as friends greatly, both wishing to make change by encouraging similar positioned filmmakers to courageously step outside Hollywood and make their films without such strings attached.
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The Dream
It all started at the film schools. USC and UCLA were the only film schools in California at the time with Coppola at UCLA and Lucas at USC, respectively making names for themselves. Lucas was impressing classmates with his experimental short films such as ‘Look at Life’ (1965) and ‘Electronic Labyrinth: THX-1138 4EB’ (1967) which had innovative editing that no one else in the school was daring to do. Francis Ford Coppola was known all around as one of the only young people who had directed a feature film within the Hollywood system. The two met on the set of Coppola’s ‘Finian’s Rainbow’ (1968) and bonded. In their developing friendship, they conceived American Zoetrope, a company shared by both which in their mind encapsulated a ranch far out in the country that they and other talented directors could make films completely outside of the system. To make films purely out of creative impulses rather than monetary desires.
Coppola bought a studio’s worth of editing machines and equipment to fill up a base of operation for the company. Friends including Carol Ballard and John Milius joined in and a roster of upcoming films was in effect, a few being ‘THX-1138’ (1971) and ‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979) meant to be made by George Lucas and ‘The Conversation’ (1974) by Francis Ford Coppola. They would all be made on location instead of sound stages and the primary goal was to avoid any creative withholdings, something that Hollywood was all too infamous for. However, only Lucas’ science fiction thriller ‘THX-1138’ ended up being made under the Zoetrope banner, effectively starting and ending the hopes the two had for the company.
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Decline and Continuing Hopes
‘THX-1138’ was distributed by Warner Bros. pictures and was part of a seven picture deal Coppola had negotiated. It was produced in the manner that the pair had intended, free of studio interference and shot on real locations rather than having studio executives breathing down Lucas’ easily irritable neck and filming in the sanitized safety of sound stages. However, problems arose when they presented the finished film to Warner Bros. executives for distribution who were highly dissatisfied with it. They insisted on cutting the film down which Lucas despised to an immeasurable degree.
While upon release, it received some muted praise, the film was a financial flop. Coppola had countless debts to repay and Lucas, alienated by the whole experience, switched gears from cold and bleak science fiction to more approachable films. In the process of recovering from the failed gamble, Coppola took a job directing a little movie called ‘The Godfather’ (1972) and while some of the original Zoetrope projects were made, Coppola was the only one from the initial group involved in making them. No longer was it a team of young, passionate filmmakers fresh out of college in the mood to change the landscape of cinema but the separated careers of friends now too old and wise for such fantasies.
In the years following, Hollywood would change not in the favor of American Zoetrope. The gritty, realist films of the New Hollywood movement soon had more underwhelming output while brighter, more approachable movies were huge successes and it became more clear what kind of movies were not only going to be more profitable, but which the industry was going to pivot more towards. ‘Jaws’ (1975) was the film that established the summer blockbuster and while it is a great film on its own, it made clear to studio executives what kinds of films to put their money on. Ironically, it was Lucas himself who contributed to this change, pivoting from his experimental and bleak ‘THX-1138’ to the adventerous, upbeat, and profitable little project of his called ‘Star Wars’ (1977).
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Zoetrope in the modern day
Within all of this change, American Zoetrope still remained in the hands of Coppola and continued to produce his films up until the present day with its credit on ‘Megalopolis’ (2024). Known as Coppola’s exclusive production company, it remains a far cry from the dream of two young visionaries who were forced to conform with the changing circumstances of the industry they had dedicated themselves to.
Yet, this does not mean that the company was all for nothing. Everyone involved with Zoetrope continued work in the industry, finding talent and success. Lucas used the experience of working with Coppola to take his own risks, leading to him today where he stands as the wealthiest individual in Hollywood. Still, there are lots of wishes over what could have been if the company succeeded in its vision. It is a dream that is still held by many today where the easy access to film equipment makes the possibility of creating great independent films unrestrained by Hollywood limitations. Perhaps the lesson to be learned with the hope and failure of American Zoetrope is that some restraint and planning is needed to bring cinematic dreams to life.
By Elijah van der Fluit
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Author
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Elijah van der Fluit is a writer for The Hollywood Insider based in California with aspirations to write and direct films for a professional career. In his spare time, Elijah enjoys watching and discussing movies of all genres as well as reading, hiking, spending time with family, and being one with the world. Elijah believes that art, whatever form it may take, has the ability to inspire and broaden people’s perspectives in a positive way and he hopes to use his work in film and writing to do so.
Elijah van der Fluit is a writer for The Hollywood Insider based in California with aspirations to write and direct films for a professional career. In his spare time, Elijah enjoys watching and discussing movies of all genres as well as reading, hiking, spending time with family, and being one with the world. Elijah believes that art, whatever form it may take, has the ability to inspire and broaden people’s perspectives in a positive way and he hopes to use his work in film and writing to do so.
