EPISODE 320: artist profile of ZACK SNYDER

alex says:

Great episode — this was the profile episode I didn’t know that I wanted. It seems like Snyder is one of the most frustrating filmmakers out there right now; he can frame and stage a scene with some of the best, but there rarely feels like anything is alive under the polish and speed ramps.

David, I’m glad you mentioned your experience watching Watchmen for the first time. I had a very similar experience (becoming disillusioned within the first 30 seconds or so), but I could never quite articulate why the absolutely-impossible-incredible human strength and reflexes bugged me so much. I will say that the FINAL CUT (director’s cut + Tales of the Black Freighter) is kind of a monstrosity, but I can’t help but like it. It reminds me of the Hobbit in a way — I know it’s not great, but I just love spending the extended time in this universe. Is it a good movie? Nope, but it feels complete I suppose, where the theatrical cut (and even the director’s cut) felt a bit disjointed. And also (if I can make another comparison), it feels a bit like Tarsem’s The Fall. It’s this big hulking story that, after watching it, you’ll wonder how this ever got made (in a good way).

This isn’t the first time David has mentioned 300 as being possibly the worst movie produced in his lifetime. His reasons are good for despising it, but the worst? Even with Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hooooooole sitting by? If we’re just sticking with mass-marketed big-budget studio releases, Transformers 2, Quantum of Solace, The Spirit, Ultraviolet, or Bangkok Dangerous all seem to be worse than 300 in my opinion. Why is it that The Hangover Part 2 gets pass for being framed, paced competently, but 300 gets the thumbs down, even though both movies seem to intentionally avoid being something that’s worthwhile to think about? I’m not trying to be confrontational here, I’m just genuinely curious!

Thanks for this week’s episode!

Steve says:

This is what I took from Sucker Punch.

Synder set up a couple of parallels that meant something to me. The first was between the dancing and action sequences. In one world, provocatively dressed women are being forced to dance as powerful men pay to watch. In the other world, provocatively dressed women are ‘dancing with guns’ for men who are paying to watch. This other world is the world of male fantasies, movies, and video games. Besides the whole prostitution/rape issue going on in the dancing world, a more realistic consequence of sexualizing women in the movie world is commented on in the second parallel.

The second parallel is between the lobotomy sequence and the movie itself on a meta level. Baby Doll is about to have her identity and humanity stripped from her via a lobotomy performed by a man. Back in the world of video games and movies, men often write and draw sexy women devoid of any real humanity, for the sole purpose of exciting a male audience. Men pay handsomely to see it. And young girls grow up influenced by these images of male fantasies (see Baby Doll in a school girl outfit having very male fantasies in which she’s dressed to please the male sexual gaze – would a woman really fantasize about that if she hadn’t grown up in a culture that glorified it?).

I felt that Snyder was daring me to objectify Baby Doll as she ran around in her sexy school girl outfit. I was watching scenes of a violent and sexually provocative nature, but at the same time what was really happening was that same woman was stripping for horny men who wanted to pay to have sex with her, against her will. The fact that we don’t see her dance is a comment on how some people don’t see, or don’t acknowledge, the negative consequences of this type of portrayal of women (and violence) in various forms of media.

And I had just plunked down $10 to watch this myself – I felt implicated. So I turned back to my motivations. Was I here because of the artistic merits of a Snyder film? Was I hoping to see some violence? Meaningless action? Or scantily clad women?

The film made me question myself, which is a good thing. I’m nearing 40 now, but there was a time when I’d play a video game or go see a movie that treated woemn as objects just because I thought the women were hot. I didn’t think twice about the nearly naked women on comic book covers fighting alongside men in heavy armor.

Of course rape is wrong, coercion is wrong, using women is wrong, but what about all this sexualizing of women, of girls even, in the media? And of the men (including me) who buy it up? It was a Sucker Punch – a blow that came when I was least expecting it. I had to acknowledge and reconcile the part of me that enjoyed seeing these attractive women fighting in a world of senseless violence with the part of me that wouldn’t want my sister, for example, on screen in that kind of outfit, let alone being treated the way Baby Doll was treated.

Maybe Snyder’s making a comment on the subject, or maybe he’s just enticing us to ask the question ourselves. Maybe I’m giving him too much credit – but that’s how I felt watching the movie in the theater on opening weekend. And that feeling, that question has stuck with me. You might say I’m taking this too far, analyzing too much where’s it’s not warranted. But much of this intellectualization came long after seeing the movie, even while writing this post. The feelings behind these words all came up while watching it, without searching for any meanings.