zinner had wanted to move into film editing, and following his music-editing work with producer-director richard brooks on "lord jim", brooks asked zinner to edit "the professionals" (1967) and "in cold blood" (1967). his work on "the professionals" was nominated for an american cinema editors eddie award. by 1970 zinner had become sufficiently established as an editor that, zinner was asked to edit the latter half of "the godfather"; william h. reynolds edited the first half. the film, which was directed by francis ford coppola, has been very successful with critics and at the box-office. one of its sequences has become an icon of film editing. as critic tony sloman described it in 2007, "as the newly born child of michael corleone is christened, the young don michael, heir to the murdered don vito corleone, wreaks his revenge on his enemies, eliminating them to the soundtrack of the priest's baby-blessing and the church's organ music. it is unquestionably one of the most dramatically satisfying and audience-shattering sequences in contemporary cinema, a magnificent example of the art of motion-picture editing, the craft of story-telling by montage. the editor of the sequence was peter zinner." director frank pierson said, "...that's the kind of thing that he was brilliant at, and it's become a classic sequence in movie history."