Francis Ford Coppola directed The Godfather, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, and The Godfather Part II — four of the greatest films ever made — and then spent the next four decades funding his artistic independence by selling wine. The director who nearly killed himself making Apocalypse Now bought a Napa Valley estate and built a wine empire so profitable that he never had to take a studio assignment again.

This episode traces Coppola from his Italian-American childhood through the New Hollywood revolution, the Apocalypse Now nightmare, the financial collapses, and the winery that gave him something Hollywood never could — the freedom to fail on his own terms.

• Coppola’s film school origins and the Godfather casting battles that launched his career
• Apocalypse Now — the Philippines shoot that nearly destroyed his health, marriage, and finances
• The financial crashes, the studio-for-hire years, and the loss of creative control
• The Napa Valley winery that funded his independence and the late self-financed films