--- title: Origins: Sucker Punch Director Zack Snyder on his Film Influences | TIME description: The director of 300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch [EM] and the upcoming Superman reboot [EM] talks about the films (<i>Star Wars</i>, <i>Robocop</i>, <i>Excalibur</i>) that have left the biggest impression on his work. canonical: https://time.com/video/F33RkXSE/ og:title: Origins: Sucker Punch Director Zack Snyder on his Film Influences og:description: The director of 300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch [EM] and the upcoming Superman reboot [EM] talks about the films (<i>Star Wars</i>, <i>Robocop</i>, <i>Excalibur</i>) that have left the biggest impression on his work. og:url: https://time.com/video/F33RkXSE/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/F33RkXSE/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Origins: Sucker Punch Director Zack Snyder on his Film Influences twitter:description: The director of 300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch [EM] and the upcoming Superman reboot [EM] talks about the films (<i>Star Wars</i>, <i>Robocop</i>, <i>Excalibur</i>) that have left the biggest impression on his work. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/F33RkXSE/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Origins: Sucker Punch Director Zack Snyder on his Film Influences > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Origins: Sucker Punch Director Zack Snyder on his Film Influences [Watch (HLS stream): Origins: Sucker Punch Director Zack Snyder on his Film Influences](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/F33RkXSE.m3u8) (6:09)  _Published 2011-04-01. The director of 300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch EM and the upcoming Superman reboot EM talks about the films (Star Wars, Robocop, Excalibur) that have left the biggest impression on his work._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:11 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [HBO Is In Talks With Zack Snyder About A 'Watchmen' Series](/video/RHErTCx0/) ### HBO Is In Talks With Zack Snyder About A 'Watchmen' Series [Origins: The Director of 'Up' on His Influences](/video/J1PLAO6X/) ### Origins: The Director of 'Up' on His Influences [Watchmen Director Zack Snyder](/video/cqNClxTN/) ### Watchmen Director Zack Snyder --- ## Transcript >> I left everyone I ever loved and they locked me away. >> This is Gilbert Cruz for TIME and you're watching Origins, a video series in which we ask directors to talk about the movies and TV shows that have most influence to their work. Zach Snyder has an instantly recognized full visual style. Anyone who's seen the ancient war Epic 300 or its adaptation of the classic graphic novel, Watchmen, who recognize those film's slow motion action scenes and the saturated color and this new movie, Sucker Punch. That film, about the fantasies a young woman dreams of in order to escape her life in an insane asylum is in theaters now. -[ Foreign Language ] >> What's that? What's that? >> I don't know. The king's castle. >> And one of the movies early on that influenced me was Excalibur because it's an R- rated, recall of the King Arthur's story, you know, with Jacksonville violence. It's exactly aesthetically hit me right on the nose and I just really enjoyed it. -[ unk ] >> You know, you can see its influence [ unk ] my movies. The 300 has a lot of reference as Excalibur, you know. In the end like when the [ unk ] dies and he's like [ unk ] this year. So, that's directly from Excalibur. The first big giant movie, of course, that rocked my world was Star Wars. I mean, I love the movie up to that point because Star Wars really hit it out of the park for me. And maybe I was at that perfect- I was like, you know, 11 years old and it just, you know, too much. And in particular, you know, the opening shot of the movie, it just knocked my mind in a great way. It's like just halfway now [ unk ] to see the [ unk ] runner in the distance, you know. I mean, it's just like, oh, my god. How could it- it's still going on. >> Cool. Candy- colored gun. -[ unk ] me a lot. >> The movie that really rocked me when I thought the [ unk ] was Blue Velvet, it's an amazing movie. I remember thinking, when I came out, that I was shaking and I thought, okay. That's a movie. That's how you see it. You crush it like that. -[ unk ] >> I'm haunted by so many scenes, candy- colored clown. You know, you can fast forward it to that like any time you want and it's awesome. Such a bizarre movie. It was so great. I love, you know, I'm a fan of kind of bizarre movies anyway. >> You like that? >> Hold on tight. >> You know, when the violence happens, it goes all the way. You know, like he goes all the way. The violence, he doesn't push show like his arm getting broken, you know, like this [ unk ] in a movie that you would imagine just from a sort of genre that that wouldn't happen. It shows the consequence of the violence which is really kind of cool and unstoppable in a weird way. >> What are they doing to- breaking in to his mind is like hacking a computer. All it takes is time. >> And, of course, to make these movies, you know, especially the first Matrix. They got it right in that movie. Absolutely. I remember seeing that. It's like, man, that's good stuff. It's [ unk ] people that gets fight. It understands what's cool about a fight. They didn't hide anything, but they did it play it plain. You know, there's like a hole, this very fine line. I think the fights are, in my mind, sort of this pinnacle sort of your act [ unk ] for that moment most of the time and that struggle, that life or death struggle, there's beauty to it. There can be a beauty and [ unk ] to it. It's not just movement for movement [ unk ]. There's consequence and there's outcome. The [ unk ] Watchmen is, you know, Watchmen is such a sort of hyper- stylized, the design experience that you- if you constructed this in a lot of ways, it's like we're deconstructing site itself when we were doing them. I wanted it to like remind you of other things you've seen in movies, remind you of like what is violence, why do you watch movie violence. Sometimes, like punish you for liking this because all those things like, you know, are part of the movie experience, stories that you take for granted that [ unk ] enjoy the sightseeing, right? Especially in the superhero context. But then, you know, you take it that one step too far. You like break a guy's arm or whatever you do to make it- make a person feel like that. I don't know if this is right, you know, if this is how I should be feeling. >> And it's my great pleasure to present to you, Robocop. >> Robocop, I'm a huge [ unk ] fan. I love [ unk ]. I love Robocop because it does the same thing that my favorite Cronenberg movies that does. It combines that social commentary and sort of emotional realism with a clear metaphor that is incredibly [ unk ] and, you know, you can see lessons of the movie, of what the movie is trying to say to you. >> Your move, creep. >> The entire outer skin, hope you like this. >> One of the great things, I think, from Robocop is the montage of his reconstruction. There's a beautiful montage where they try to get them online, see the time going by and, you know, [ unk ] and the girl ended up like with lighting shots where it's like coming on and off. [ unk ] one like [ unk ] in the [ unk ] of your mind, it's like [ unk ] and the [ unk ] hit the [ unk ] on the land and, at the same time, it's enjoyable, enigmatic genre [ unk ]. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Origins: Sucker Punch Director Zack Snyder on his Film Influences","description":"The director of 300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch [EM] and the upcoming Superman reboot [EM] talks about the films (\u003ci\u003eStar Wars\u003c/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eRobocop\u003c/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eExcalibur\u003c/i\u003e) that have left the biggest impression on his work.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/F33RkXSE/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2011-04-01T17:43:33.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/F33RkXSE.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/F33RkXSE/","duration":"PT6M9S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/F33RkXSE/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```