Spielberg, Coppola and Lucas: The toxic friendship that built modern Hollywood

"George Lucas should have died. It was 1962; the 17-year-old had just crashed his yellow Autobianchi convertible into a walnut tree, in Modesto, California. The car rolled, bounced and came to rest - it was "beyond mangled, flipped upside down and twisted like a crushed Coke can against the tree". When the teenager woke in hospital two weeks later, his heart having nearly stopped, he had a new philosophy: "Maybe there's a reason I survived this accident that nobody should have survived.""

"The Last Kings of Hollywood chronicles what might be called the Season of New Hollywood Content: three filmmakers who between 1972 and 1977 smashed every box office record, redrew the map of popular cinema, and then spent the next four decades arguing about who deserved the credit. It's a saga of bold men and their outsized visions - and of what happens when those visions collide, corrupt and, eventually, consume each other."

"As the old studio system collapsed, into the vacuum stepped Coppola, who adapted Mario Puzo's pulp novel The Godfather into the most decorated mob film of all time; Spielberg, who established the template for the modern summer blockbuster with Jaws; and Lucas, who of course sculpted Star Wars into a vast and enduring mythology."

George Lucas survived a near-fatal 1962 car crash that shaped his worldview and subsequent career. Lucas, along with Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg, emerged as transformative filmmakers during Hollywood's transition from the old studio system. Coppola overcame childhood polio, while Spielberg endured antisemitic bullying. Between 1972 and 1977, these three directors revolutionized cinema by breaking box office records and reshaping popular film. Coppola adapted The Godfather into an acclaimed mob film, Spielberg created the modern summer blockbuster template with Jaws, and Lucas developed Star Wars into an enduring mythology. Their collective impact established the franchise-dominated entertainment landscape that continues today, though their legacies remain contested among them.

Read at The Independent