'How Rome lost their republic': Francis Ford Coppola warns US could suffer same fate

20 May 2024

Some prominent figures in Hollywood, from actor Robert De Niro to actor/director Rob Reiner, have been sounding the alarm about what is at stake for the United States in its 2024 presidential election. De Niro said that he believes presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump will pursue some type of retaliation against him if he returns to the White House, and Reiner argued that Trump's agenda is that of a "fascist."

Director Francis Ford Coppola, best known for his 1972 film "The Godfather" (starring the late Marlon Brandon) and its two sequels, is speaking out as well.

Speaking at a press conference during the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in France on Friday, May 17, Coppola discussed his new film "Megalopolis" and the threat U.S. democracy faces from the far right.

The 85-year-old Coppola told reporters, "What's happening in America, in our republic, in our democracy, is exactly how Rome lost their republic thousands of years ago. Our politics has taken us to the point where we might lose our republic."

The director continued, "America was founded on the ideas of the Roman Republic. We didn't want a king, Rome didn't want a king. So they invented a new form of government called the republic with the Senate and with Roman law and with all of the things which we embrace.”

The Guardian's Philip Oltermann, reporting on Coppola's during the Cannes press conference, notes that his new "Megalopolis" film "draws inspiration from the Catiline conspiracy to overthrow the rules of the Roman Republic in 63BC and is set in a New York-like metropolis of the future."

Coppola told reporters, "My feeling was to make a Roman epic set in modern America, and I had no idea that the politics of today would make that so relevant.”

Read The Guardian's full report at this link.

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