When you think of Zack Snyder, you probably picture stylized action and epic set pieces. Given everything he’s done in the DC Universe and with Netflix, you shouldn’t feel wrong thinking that.
But there’s still a lot of filmmaking ground you can tell that he wants to cover and that he appreciates from the past.
I was watching his Letterboxd four favorite video, and I was struck by one of his picks that caught me off guard. It’s a classic movie that I feel like not enough people have seen.
Let’s dive in.
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Zack Snyder’s Four Favorite Movies
In the video, we saw he picked Star Wars, All The Jazz, Excalibur, and Blue Velvet. This was a wide array of movies that covered sides of Snyder I feel like we’ve seen, and ones I’d love for him to bring out even more.
That’s why I love Letterboxd so much; it feels like people get to share many different sides of themselves.
But as it turns out, Snyder hopes to one day make a mythological movie—specifically, something in the realm of Arthurian fantasy.
So I was really pumped to see Excalibur on his list.
Excalibur Is Underrated
When Zack Snyder cited 1981’s Excalibur as one of his all-time favorites, I leapt for joy. While fantasy fans often rank it as one of the best medieval movies ever, Excalibur hasn’t had the massive cultural footprint of other titles.
It’s one of those cult movies I feel like I have to tell people about to get them to watch it. The film has such beautiful cinematography and takes you into a side of the Arthurian legend that has some grit and darkness to it.
Excalibur adapts Thomas Malory’s epic poem “Le Morte d’Arthur” (“The Death of Arthur”), giving it a strong literary and mythological foundation that many other retellings lack.
Snyder is a guy who feels like he’s always trying to unpack his movies with ancient mythology. There are gods, kings, subjects, wats, and no matter if they happen in the space of Gotham City, they all end in epic battles.
Excalibur also had a lot of special effects and camera work that other people had never really tried at the time, making it feel revolutionary even though it was set in the past.
So Snyder loving a movie about the idea of destiny and worth should be no surprise.
And I can imagine Snyder making a movie about knights that is really epic.
Summing It All Up
It’s easy to see why, more than 40 years later, Excalibur still leaves a powerful impression on viewers and inspires filmmakers like Zack Snyder to dream of their own trip to Camelot.
Will we get a Zack Snyder Knight movie? Only time will tell.
Let me know what you think in the comments.