Robin Williams and Francis Ford Coppola on the set of 1996’s ‘Jack’.Credit : 

Buena Vista/courtesy Everett Collection

Jack holds a special place in the heart of everyone who worked on the 1996 film.

Francis Ford Coppola honored the film’s anniversary on Instagram in a post with production company American Zoetrope, looking back at the film’s premiere at a charity benefit. The film’s star, Robin Williams, can be seen acting out a scene with costar Adam Zolotin, who played young Louis.

“30 years ago, JACK premiered at the Palace of Fine Arts as a benefit supporting local charities,” the caption began.

Adding insights from the famed filmmaker, it continued, “I loved making Jack and thought it was imaginative and unusual, despite the fact that the theme had been dealt with perfectly in Big by Penny Marshall. And the ending of Jack is very touching.”

The caption concludes, “Robin Williams plays Jack, a 10-year-old boy in a 40-year-old’s body. In this rehearsal clip with Adam Zolotin, the two adlib their way playfully through song, with the young Louis coercing his nervous friend to pretend to be the principal so that he won’t get in trouble with his mother.”

In the film, Williams, who died in 2014 at the age of 63, played a boy who ages four times faster than normal. Jack also starred Diane Lane, Jennifer Lopez, Brian Kerwin, Fran Drescher, Michael McKean and Bill Cosby.

While the film was beloved by some, it received negative reviews upon release, with Roger Ebert writing, “Williams works hard at seeming to be a kid inside an adult body, and some of his inspirations work well. But he has been ill-served by a screenplay that isn’t curious about what his life would really be like.”

In a 2009 interview with Esquire, Coppola responded to the criticism, sharing, “People feel the worst film I made was Jack. But to this day, when I get checks from old movies I’ve made, Jack is one of the biggest ones. No one knows that.”

“If people hate the movie, they hate the movie,” he continued, adding, “I just wanted to work with Robin Williams.”

Over the years, others have spoken out in defense of the panned film. Director Luca Guadagnino told the British Film Institute in 2024 that he thinks Jack is one of Coppola’s masterpieces.

“For me, a great director invisibly masters everything he does. In Jack, you feel the way in which he’s taking this kind of conventional story but bringing humanity, and the way in which the world is created. It’s so beautiful,” he explained.