In a blistering and seemingly unprovoked rant in the New York Daily News, one-time director Francis Ford Coppola ripped into Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, and Jack Nicholson and the current state of their careers … seemingly without any sense of irony regarding his own.

While DeNiro, Pacino, and Nicholson are widely considered America’s three greatest actors, Coppola apparently disagrees completely. Listen to what he says about them:

I think if there was a role that De Niro was hungry for, he would come after it. I don’t think Jack would. Jack has money and influence and girls, and I think he’s a little bit like (Marlon) Brando, except Brando went through some tough times. I guess they don’t want to do it anymore.

He also went into more about each actor individually. Here, for instance, Coppola attacks Pacino:

I don’t know what any of them want anymore. I don’t know that they want the same things. Pacino always wanted to do theater … (He) will say, ‘Oh, I was raised next to a furnace in New York, and I’m never going to go to L.A.,’ but they all live off the fat of the land.

NOTE TO COPPOLA: You ARE the fat of the land.

He also has a few kind words for Nicholson:

Nicholson was — when I met him and worked with him — he was always kind of a joker. He’s got a little bit of a mean streak. He’s intelligent, always wired in with the big guys and the big bosses of the studios.

Not a very nice thing to say about a guy with powerful friends.

Not only does he rip on the current state of their careers; he also questions the motivations behind their entire output as actors:

You know, even in those days, after ‘The Godfather,’ I didn’t feel that those actors were ready to say, ‘Let’s do something else really ambitious.’ A guy like (38-year-old “Before Night Falls” star) Javier Bardem is excited to do something good: ‘Let me do this’ or ‘I’ll put stuff in my mouth, change my appearance.’ I don’t feel that kind of passion to do a role and be great coming from those guys, because if it was there, they would do it.

Hmmm…

Let’s make this perfectly clear. Coppola has, in the last ten years, directed exactly two movies: the upcoming Youth Without Youth, and the shitty Rainmaker. Not exactly an amazing tapestry of creative output. To make matters worse, he has executive produced stunning crap like Jeepers Creepers, and … wait for it … Jeepers Creepers 2.

Perhaps he’s not the best judge of career integrity and passion.

These three fine actors are being unfairly judged by a man that cashed in his one true masterpiece – The two Godfather films – with a second sequel so horrible and pointless that its only useful function was to print money upon its release. This is a director so whorish for a hit that he poorly adapted The Outsiders in order to desperately appeal to kids, and Dracula in order to appeal to the popcorn crowd.

Gimme a break, Coppola.

The man’s big-nosed lezbo daughter has shown more talent, integrity, and passion than her father has shown with anything outside of a big plate of pasta con broccoli in the last twenty-five years.

Instead of questioning the integrity DeNiro, Pacino, and Nicholson, perhaps Coppola should look into that nasty mirror along with the seventies directors like himself who once believed in directorial passion and integrity. Coppola has sold himself out. Steven Spielberg did that long ago, only to struggle to find it later in his career. And George Lucas has spent the last twenty five years making the same damn toy commercial over and over again.

The truth hurts, doesn’t it Francis? Clean the shit out of your own underwear before you start bitching about someone else’s smell, you fat fuck.