Zack Snyder names the favourite scene he’s ever directed
At the dawn of the 21st century, no individual better represented the forthcoming technical renaissance of cinema better than Zack Snyder. With a knack for dynamic filmmaking and vibrant cinematography, Snyder started his career making music videos for some of the biggest names in the industry, including Morrissey, Rod Stewart, ZZ Top and My Chemical Romance.
His first big break would come in 2004 when he collaborated with writer James Gunn for a remake of George Romero’s iconic 1978 zombie flick Dawn of the Dead. A competent remake that featured a number of solid performances from the likes of Oscar-nominee Sarah Polley, Ty Burrell and Ving Rhames, the film opened the door to Snyder for many other exciting Hollywood opportunities.
Gaining a number of critical and commercial fans, even the horror aficionado Stephen King approved of Snyder’s zombie film, writing on Twitter: “Genius perfected would be Zack Snyder’s 2004 Dawn [of the Dead] remake, which begins with one of the best opening sequences of a horror film ever made”.
Later, Snyder completed a trio of unrelated favourites, adding the Spartan action movie 300 to his filmography, which seized the imagination of contemporary pop culture in 2006, as well as the superhero flick Watchmen in 2009, released at the dawn of the genre’s popularity. To this day, Watchmen remains one of the genre’s very best, telling the story of superheroes who meddle with the Cold War and change the course of human history.
The movie was clearly one of Snyder’s favourites, too, choosing a scene from the superhero film as one of his own all-time favourites.
Whilst speaking in an interview with The Guardian, Snyder was asked a series of questions about his career, with one being, “What’s your favourite shot in your filmography? What’s the best scene you’ve directed?”
“The mirror shot from Sucker Punch was pretty fun,” Snyder responded in respect to the first question, referencing his 2011 film, “And for scene: documenting Dr Manhattan’s origins story in Watchmen. With the Philip Glass music and everything. That was cool”.
Recognised as one of the most beloved moments in Snyder’s movie, the scene shows Billy Crudup’s Jon Osterman being transformed into his fantastical alter-ego, Dr Manhattan, during a disastrous laboratory fault. Scored to Phillip Glass’ ‘Prophecies’, a piece of music originally written for the influential 1982 documentary Koyaanisqatsi, the scene is an epic and emotional origin tale that fast-tracks a cliched genre moment.
Later in the interview, when asked about his cinematic legacy, Snyder stated: “The challenge is people having preconceived ideas about genre movies. They say: ‘Oh, I’m not really into zombie movies.’ I go, ‘You should check it out! Guys, there’s a lot of fun to be had!’ People don’t expect genre movies to be smart. I hope we could make a dent in that a little bit”.
