Zack Snyder names his four favourite movies of all time
As far as big-budget blockbuster directors go, it’s hard to look beyond the impact that Zack Snyder has had on the film industry. Making his first dent with his feature debut, a 2004 remake of the 1978 horror classic Dawn of the Dead, Snyder has since set about dominating the realm of the comic book and superhero movie.
Following up with the 2007 historical action film 300, Snyder continued to impress on the silver screen, delivering one of the most intense and bloody showings of the 2010s. Watchmen saw Snyder venture further into adapting comic books and graphic novels, and eventually, he began serving up some of the better DC Comics movies in recent years.
It’s hard to see Snyder as more than just the man behind the blockbuster camera, but if his favourite films of all time are anything to go by, then there’s slightly more to him than meets the eyes. In a feature with Letterboxd, the Justice League director named his top four choices and included some classic science fiction and a touch of the surreal to boot.
Snyder kicked things off with George Lucas’ original Star Wars movie, retroactively retitled Episode IV – A New Hope, the first time the world was introduced to the Galactic Empire, Stormtroopers and the battle between Sith and Jedi. “Because I have to,” Snyder explained. “You don’t include that, and you’re my age; I’d take a small issue. ‘Really, you’re saying Tarkovsky, but what are you really saying?’ Come on.”
The director followed up with Bob Fosse’s 1979 musical drama All That Jazz, co-written by Fosse and Robert Alan Aurthur. Based on Fosse’s life as a dancer, choreographer and director and inspired by his experience trying to edit his 1974 drama Lenny whilst also staging Chicago on Broadway in 1975, the film was widely admired and won the 1980 Palme d’Or at Cannes.
There’s a big change in direction for Snyder’s third selection, the 1981 epic medieval fantasy Excalibur, directed by John Boorman. The film retells the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and sees the likes of Nigel Terry, Nicol Williamson, Nicholas Clay, and Cherie Lunghi portray Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot and Guenevere, respectively, while Liam Neeson, Helen Mirren and Patrick Stewart also feature.
Synder’s list is rounded off by one of David Lynch’s best movies, 1986’s Blue Velvet, starring Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper and Laura Dern. The film focuses on a young college student who uncovers a mysterious criminal conspiracy after finding a severed ear and begins an unsettling relationship with a lounge singer.
Zack Snyder’s four favourite movies:
- Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (George Lucas, 1977)
- All that Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)
- Excalibur (John Boorman, 1981)
- Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)
