Filmmaker and video essayist Patrick H.
Willems has some thoughts about Zack Snyder (who will henceforth be known as our “himbo auteur”).
He’s proposed that the key to understanding the director is his love of John Boorman’s 1981 medieval fantasy epic “Excalibur.” Snyder has expressed his love of Boorman’s film many times over the years, even incorporating it into his version of the Caped Crusader’s origin story in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” Snyder’s ultimate goal as an artist, Willems reasons, is basically making his version of “Excalibur,” a film Roger Ebert once described as “a record of the comings and goings of arbitrary, inconsistent, shadowy, figures who are not heroes but simply giants run amok.”The more you think about it, the sounder this argument becomes.
It certainly explains Snyder’s tendency to craft brutal, bombastic films that prioritize spectacle over coherent storytelling or political messaging.
Indeed, given his love of mythic storytelling,…
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