300: The Art Of The Film - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
What does it mean to turn one of the great graphic novels of our time into a major motion picture? In 1998, Frank Miller shook the comics world with his groundbreaking series 300. Marking Miller's first collaboration with watercolor artist Lynn Varley (Ronin, The Dark Knight Returns) in over a decade, 300 was a gritty reimagining of a battle in which 300 Spartan soldiers fought to hold back the entire Persian army. The series won five Eisner Awards, including Best Limited Series, Best Writer/Artist (Miller) and Best Colorist (Varley). 300: The Art of the Movie takes you behind the scenes as director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead) adapts 300 to the silver screen. With 200 pages of production photos, concept art and much, much more, 300: The Art of the Movie is sure to delight Miller fans and movie buffs alike.

Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Movie Stills Are A Let Down February 5, 2007
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

The book is great at documenting the film progress but it LACKS completely in regards to the film still resolution. All of the great shots from the movie are blurry and pixelatd which really take away from the overall effect. They come off looking like bad scans. I would pass this book over in hopes of another release after the film and the movie studio invests in providing better photos.

4 out of 5 stars

Good But Not Perfect January 12, 2007
6 out of 8 found this review helpful

This book is a fascinating look at how the movie 300 was put together. It will be very pleasing to both Frank Miller and SFX fans. It goes into some detail about how the look of the film was achieved, but is a cursory look at the FX and serious computer FX enthusiasts may feel a bit short changed as the book doesn't really go into the nitty gritty of computer graphics, but it does show the general process from book to storyboard to film, and Zack Snyder's attention to detail. If you are a Gerry Butler fan, be warned that the book does not feature him prominently, but there are plenty of pictures where he is part of the shot. There is a serious mistake on the page that features Butler and his costuming. The text refers to him as "Gerald Butler" not Gerard, and that is an editing error that should have been caught. Maybe a second printing will correct the problem. I did like that the cover of the book is designed to look almost exactly like my copy of Miller's 300. They sit nicely side by side, and it was fascinating to take the orginal text and look at the movie's recreation of the shot. Overall, a fun book to own.

5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Addition March 30, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Film, as we've all come to now accept, is a very difficult media with which to work (and even moreso) fall in love with. Hollywood seldom puts out movies that make you FEEL the story. Yes, there are perhaps one or two per year that really do stand out, but that would most definately be the limit. Think of "Saving Private Ryan" or "You've Got Mail" or even "Lord of the Rings"--what do all of these pictures have in common? (1) Good acting, (2) good screenplays, (3) visually compelling cinematography, and (4) gripping soundtracks. All four of these elements make these three movies wonderful. These same characteristics can be found in far older pictures like "Citizen Kane" or "Patton."

The unique aspect of "300" is its cinematography. Set in front of green screens, the actors did their very best to act emotionally and physically to elements not present until post-production editing. That's what makes "300" so compelling and wonderful a movie. Yes, it incorporates the four elements mentioned above, but the reason people are flocking to watch this movie is because IT IS DIFFERENT. Sure, we've had movies based on comic books for quite some time...the original "Superman" TV shows and movie, "Spiderman", and the more recent additions. But NONE of these actually bring the comic world to the screen. The screenwriters tried to reform the comic book image to fit real life. In some cases it worked. In most it did not.

"300" was a comic book from the very first shot. No one wanted to make it "realistic" or "convincing." It was just made to look and feel like a comic book. And it works.

Having said that, "300: The Art of the Film" is a great addition to the movie. Though not essential, it certainly gives interesting background information about perhaps the most visually compelling and moving film made in decades (and, yes, even more compelling than "Lord of the Rings"). It's a nice book to show you where movies can go, how much further our imaginations can stretch, and how Hollywood sometimes sends us a movie we can all be proud of.

3 out of 5 stars

Concepts galore August 26, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Translating a graphic novel into the world of cinema can be a tricky business.

And the first step is concept art -- creating basic images of the characters, costumes, and important, visually-striking scenes. "300: The Art Of The Film" is crammed with such images, detailing virtually every part of the movie... but it's very skimpy on explanations and information.

It starts off with a couple of prefaces -- one by an expert on military history, and the other explaining the purpose of revealing the concept art. Then concept art itself: it basically outlines the story, beginning with the "inspection" of newborn Spartan boys and ending with another battle brewing between the Spartans and Persians.

These include pages and pages of rough sketches and detailed drawings for the cinematogrpahers, some representing only a few seconds (a fist hitting a slave's face). Then there are plenty of costume sketches, depictions of unreal-looking monsters, tents, and the gorgeous sets for things like Xerxes' opulant golden litter. Actually, it's more of a portable house.

But it has more than just concept art -- there are clay models, special effects shots, elaborate makeup and costume for things like the hunchbacked traitor, Xerxes' chain-porn costume, and things like knives stuck in a eye, and even green-screen shots before the CGI gloss was put on. And there are shots showing how they managed certain effects, like the people who controlled the animatronic "wolf."

And with every sketch and behind-the-scene shot, they show the finished result as it appears in the movie. A lot of them have the original art by Frank Miller as well, to show us how close the movie actually is to its source material. Visually speaking, it's a feast of behind-the-scenes information.

Buuuuut....

"300: The Art Of The Film" suffers from a lack of background information -- they show us loads of information, but don't tell WHY they were done, or even the intricacies of HOW. Come on, they must have had some trial-and-error in this film. While we can see the art for ourselves, we're rarely told much about why they chose this costume, or that monster, and how they created some of the weirder visuals.

So while the book is visually rich, it feels incomplete, like they left a lot of the text out to keep the guide from getting too long. Sometimes pages and pages will go by with only a few sparely-written paragraphs describing the intricacies of the movie. "300" is a visual movie, but come on, there's more to it than that.

"300: The Art Of The Film" has loads of art, but not much explanation in how it got from art to movie. It stumbles badly as a behind-the-scenes guide, but it's still an intriguing visual read.

5 out of 5 stars

Super Impressed January 15, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

Way to go, KM! This book rocks. I saw it early, before it was on the shelves, and I know how much effort went into it. The ENTIRE book was assembled and edited in a short (and made even shorter by production elements) time and I think it is FANTASTIC. I especially admire the Foreword by V.D. Hanson - He is a supremely intelligent man and eminently readable writer... I love his work and it lends an interestingly academic air to the impressive rendition of the legend by F. Miller.

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