The Path to Paradise

Wasson puts out a pretty interesting book about Francis Ford Coppola centered on Apocalypse Now and One from the Heart as the dominating frames. There is a bit of biography on Francis, but the interest is really with his approach to filmmaking and his philosophy on artistic spaces. A lot of the text has to do with American Zoetrope, and later in the book, Electronic Cinema.

I love many of Coppola's films. I couldn't help but think that he sounds like a real headache to work or live around. I have to imagine that his charisma must be nearly on the level of someone like a Steve Jobs to command the loyalty he did/does throughout so much consternation.

I agree with other reviews here that this would have benefitted from additional editing and structure. The book is only loosely chaptered and mainly operates on sections (Dreams and The Apocalypse) that kind of have no meaning. Sometimes, it felt disorganized and tangential. I think additional scaffolding would have helped.