Editing Francis Ford Coppola (section)

==== ''Patton'' (1970) ====
Coppola co-wrote the script for [[Patton (film)|''Patton'']] starting in 1963 along with [[Edmund H. North]]. This earned him his first [[Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay]]. However, it was not easy for Coppola to convince [[Franklin J. Schaffner]] that [[Patton (film)#Opening|the opening scene]] would work. Coppola later revealed in an interview,
{{Blockquote| I wrote the script of ''Patton''. And the script was very controversial when I wrote it, because they thought it was so stylized. It was supposed to be like, sort of, you know, ''[[The Longest Day (film)|The Longest Day]]''. And my script of ''Patton'' was—I was sort of interested in the reincarnation. And I had this very bizarre opening where he stands up in front of an American flag and gives this speech. Ultimately, I wasn't fired, but I was fired, meaning that when the script was done, they said, "Okay, thank you very much," and they went and hired another writer and that script was forgotten. And I remember very vividly this long, kind of being raked over the coals for this opening scene.<ref name="Francis Ford Coppola Interview page 4">{{cite web |url=https://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-ford-coppola/#interview |title=An Interview with Francis Ford Coppola |publisher=achievement.org |access-date=April 2, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190323144840/https://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-ford-coppola/#interview |archive-date=March 23, 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}

When the title role was offered to [[George C. Scott]], he remembered having read Coppola's screenplay earlier. He stated flatly that he would accept the part only if they used Coppola's script. "Scott is the one who resurrected my version," said Coppola.<ref>{{cite book |last=Phillips |first=Gene |title=Godfather The Intimate Francis Ford Coppola |year=2004 |publisher=The University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington, Kentucky |isbn=0-8131-2304-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/godfatherintimat00phil/page/32 32] |chapter=1 Point of Departure|chapter-url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/godfatherintimat00phil |url=https://archive.org/details/godfatherintimat00phil/page/32}}</ref>

The movie opens with Scott's rendering of Patton's famous military "Pep Talk" to members of the Third Army, set against a huge American flag. Coppola and North had to tone down Patton's actual language to avoid an [[Motion picture content rating system#Restricted|R rating]]; in the opening monologue, the word "fornicating" replaced "fucking" when criticizing ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]''. Over the years, this opening monologue has become an iconic scene and has spawned parodies in numerous films, political cartoons, and television shows.