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Film ‘Megalopolis’ shows the danger of dreaming alone

Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” explores the risks of a singular visionary path to societal transformation.
Arts & Culture

Dreams are important. In fact, Pope Francis has encouraged us to dream. Some people have modest dreams, others have big dreams, yet all our dreams affect the lives of others. We tend to give more attention, though, to the people who have big dreams for our world, especially when they have the political, religious, or financial sway to influence public discourse. Francis Ford Coppola has big dreams.

Coppola dreamed of being a filmmaker, vintner, hotel owner, and more, all of which he accomplished tremendously. Film lovers wax eloquent about Coppola’s artistry. From the famous baptism sequence in The Godfather to the audacious horror of Apocalypse Now, few filmmakers have shaped and challenged an art form while garnering wide public interest as much as Francis Ford Coppola.

The film he dreamed of making

Now in his mid-80s, Coppola has made Megalopolis, a film he dreamed of making for more than 40 years. An ambitious film, Megalopolis aspires to grapple with the future of America (or “New Rome,” as it is imagined in the film) and what the nation might need not only to avoid collapse but to flourish. Hollywood studios refused to gamble on such a film.

Given the dearth of original material and the proliferation of sequels, franchises, and remakes we’ve been offered lately, this might not be a surprise. In fact, it’s part of a larger problem for current cinema. While there are many great cinematic talents around the world, if their dreams and visions are not deemed likely to make a profit, their artistic voices are not heard.

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With Megalopolis, Coppola was in the rarified position to eschew the normal means of film production and make the film he wanted to make. He sold a significant part of his winery and self financed his film. With a reported budget of 120 million dollars, Coppola made his dream real.

A vision of crisis

At the height of the pandemic, Pope Francis released an inspiring book titled Let Us Dream, in which he invites society to step back, take stock of itself, and envision a better future for the planet and its inhabitants. He speaks about times of crisis: People emerge from a crisis, he says, “either better or worse, but not the same.” He enumerates one crisis after another (poverty, immigration, the environment, etc.) and the need for a new vision to replace the status quo.

The combined notions of crisis and dreaming of a future parallel Coppola’s film nicely. The film Megalopolis envisions America in a time of crisis, an age of moral decline and gluttonous excess. In the film, two individuals with different visions vie to shape the future of the city: Mayor Cicero mostly focuses on the status quo and yet is attentive to the current problems facing the people (such as poverty and lack of housing), and Cesar Catilina dreams of a dynamic new city, one that grows organically along with its people, creating greater harmony—but his plan requires the current city be torn down to make way for his vision.

Significantly, both Pope Francis and Coppola recognize a crisis—perhaps more than one. And both see the value in dreaming of a better future. Where they diverge might be encapsulated in the word us. Pope Francis envisions a communal discernment where all of us dream together. Megalopolis—and perhaps Coppola, too—has an individual vision that demands the attention and acceptance of others. While Pope Francis warns of the negative consequences of individualism, Megalopolis lifts up the singular vision of a genius. Tellingly, Cesar is rarely shown with everyday people, and he seems uninterested in them. The film portrays people whose homes and neighborhoods are being destroyed as a poor and angry mob easily swayed by populist speeches and money.

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A dangerous archetype

Coppola gives us an image of the singular artistic genius whose vision will transform and benefit society if only people are brave enough to embrace it. This is a flawed and dangerous idea, but Coppola is not the only artist to champion it. Frank Lloyd Wright, for example, created masterful spaces intended to bring people into greater harmony with the world around them—and yet he had very little interest in the practical concerns of people actually living in the spaces he designed. The aesthetic and dictatorial impulses can converge even in the most gifted and well-meaning visionary.

This is why Pope Francis’ call to communal dialogue—where each voice is valued and has a place in the process—is so vital. No future vision will work if people feel they are silenced or excluded. Likewise, no future vision can succeed without a goal bigger than itself. Pope Francis sees God and divine justice and peace as essential to this vision. It’s difficult to imagine a society flourishing without some shared transcendent values.

Coppola does speak about his belief in the amazing things human beings can accomplish when they work together for good. Still, Megalopolis doesn’t convey this message in a comprehensible way. This is a shame, because the film was an opportunity to do things differently. Coppola had the chance to work outside a Hollywood system that’s often most interested in entertainment rather than inspiring ideals or offering substantial insight into real-world problems.

One man’s dream

This is not to say that Megalopolis has nothing to offer. Catholic audiences should appreciate Coppola’s portrayal of time, which dovetails nicely with theological concepts of chronos and kairos. Cesar can stop time, often in a moment of creative exploration or insight. In the experience of love, he and his beloved together feel time stop. This stepping outside the ordinary flow of time due to depth experiences of connection with truths bigger than ourselves sheds new light on kairos moments in Christian thought. Megalopolis powerfully modernizes this ancient Greek concept.

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Unfortunately, the film conflates its kairos moments with other ideas—without enough narrative glue to hold them together. We are left simply with this: Coppola made his dream project.

What, we must ask ourselves, is our dream project? In Let Us Dream, Pope Francis writes, “We need a movement of people who know we need each other, who have a sense of responsibility to others and to the world.” Imagine if artists pursued that goal, inviting other voices to join with theirs. What dreams might we then realize?


This article also appears in the January 2025 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 89, No. 12, pages 36-37). Click here to subscribe to the magazine.

Image: Lionsgate

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About the author

John Christman

John Christman holds degrees in art and theology and often instructs and writes in the fields of art, theology, and spirituality.

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