Star Wars: Frames by George Lucas

Star Wars: Frames Reviews

• 
  Neil R. Coulter

  This seems to me kind of a strange book. In his introduction to the first volume, J. W. Rinzler says that George Lucas and a few friends spent many hours looking at the six Star Wars movies frame by frame, with Lucas selecting frames that he found particularly important or interesting. During these hours, according to Rinzler, Lucas also made comments on why he liked those frames, and things he might have done differently in the movies, with the benefit of hindsight.
  
  Unfortunately, all we get in this two-volume set is the frames—none of Lucas's commentary. So we flip through the pages silently, sometimes being delighted at the selection of frames and other times wondering why Lucas picked a blurry picture of a lightsaber or a spaceship exploding. But we don't get any insight into any of the frames.
  
  For me, I've spent so many hours watching the SW movies that I already have every frame memorized (especially in the original trilogy), so the book doesn't add anything that I haven't already thought about. The deliberate pairings of frames on facing pages is sometimes clever, but it's no big revelation if the original scene goes from one person to another anyway.
  
  Even given that these are frames taken more or less straight from the films, the printing quality seems not quite as sharp as it could be on a lot of the images. (And the original trilogy volume loses points for using the Special Edition versions of the films rather than the true originals.) What might have been better for this project is to put the frames up on a website, with the option of listening to Lucas's comments on at least some of them. Then the images could be viewed on a large, vibrant screen rather than on the pages of a book.
  
  SW is always fun, but this enormous brick of a set of books doesn't seem like a meaningful contribution.
• 
  Scott Nelson

  Browsed through this in the store. Was a bit disappointed by the format. Not what I expected. Thought there would less plates - and some commentary with each one. Not great.
• 
  C.J. Bunce

  Originally published online at BORG.com.
  
  After the completion of the Star Wars prequels, George Lucas sat down and went frame by frame through all six Star Wars movies, examining literally hundreds of thousands of images and selecting about 250 screen grabs from each film, frames that he believed showed particular artistry, each in its own right. The result was 2011’s limited edition of 1,138 boxed sets called Star Wars: Frames, sold for $3,000, and now only rarely available with one set being sold at Amazon.com for a whopping $11,500. Thanks to Abrams Books, Star Wars: Frames is being re-released this month in a far less expensive but complete edition, collecting 1,472 stills from all six films in the Star Wars saga. It is without a doubt the definitive visual work on Star Wars, in a rare league of deluxe book editions along with long out-of-print Dressing a Galaxy: The Costume of Star Wars and Sculpting a Galaxy: Inside the Star Wars Model Shop as the best Star Wars books ever released.
  
  This more affordable, unabridged version of Star Wars: Frames includes two hardcover books, each covering one of the two movie trilogies in 368 pages, housed in a hefty Death Star-themed silver box. Listing at a published price of $150, you can buy it for less than $100 at Amazon.com. The only difference between the $3,000 version and this version is the original was issued in a six-book set (one book for each film instead of one for each trilogy), with each image taking up a full page, packaged in a wooden crate instead of cardboard. The content is the same. Star Wars: Frames will be released November 5, 2013, but we received an early review copy this week. The book lives up to its promise, in surprising ways.
  
  Moving through the classic original trilogy first, we learn from the foreword by J.W. Rinzler that this is not just George Lucas’s view of the best images of his films, but it also includes visuals that help keep the beat of the story. So immediately you see key images that showed up in decades of marketing materials, on notebooks, stickers, trading cards, cardboard puzzles, and anything you can imagine. But you also see in-between frames that allow you to examine background detail your eye may never have caught before. You may be inspired to start a list of the best of the best–could this be whittled down further to the 50 best images of each film or even the top 10 (or one, as we looked at back in 2011 at borg.com)?
  
  The biggest surprise is that this should be a book for discussion among fans. Why did he select this shot of the Jawas in the Tatooine gorge instead of the memorable image of the Jawas carrying R2-D2? Where is that classic view of Han Solo and Chewbacca firing off the ramp of the Millennium Falcon? Lacking any text other than the forewords by The Star Wars comic book and “Making of” series writer Rinzler and director Guillermo del Toro and books dedications, each spread features four large widescreen “letterbox” images on impressive, high quality and highly detailed 15.7 inch x 14.1 inch pages in 20 lbs. of books. The rationale for the selection of each frame then is left to the imagination of the reader.
  
  What also comes across is the scene by scene design artistry of one movie over the other. Maybe not surprisingly the most artistic compositions of the movies appears to be Episode IV: A New Hope, yet equally eye-popping is the imagery of Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Yes, devoid of clunky dialogue and stilted acting, Attack of the Clones is full of beautifully designed visuals, including shots inspired by Maxfield Parrish. You also notice that the movies heaviest in action–Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith–have far less iconic stills. The Empire Strikes Back, arguably the best of all the films, in particular is in need of its rousing John Williams soundtrack, although it clearly has its defining moments, including the contemplative Yoda on Dagobah, the AT-ATs and tauntauns on Hoth, and the capture at Cloud City. Even The Phantom Menace has brilliant sweeping cityscapes, although this is eclipsed by many images of the endless pod race scene. Yet, maybe more than before, it becomes clearer what Lucas was attempting to do with the prequels.
  
  What is missed or overlooked in the quick scenes and edits of the films in the special effects realm can be seen and studied now in Star Wars: Frames. That the futuristic spacescapes of Attack of the Clones look so much like Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, and that A New Hope looks so much like a David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on the River Kwai, Dr. Zhivago) production, add to the elements that stack in favor of this boxed set.
  
  Is Star Wars: Frames a must-have for Star Wars fans? No question. For a study in design and movie making this set will be one you pull from the shelf again and again.
  
• 
  Alfred

  Amazing. Beautiful. George is awesome.
• 
  Art of the Film

  For photos/video of this book, please visit my blog
  movieartbook.com
  
  I am a big fan of Star Wars - I love all six movies and think that the saga is one of the best-looking series of films ever created. So naturally, I had high expectations for this book of Star Wars Frames. I have mixed feelings about the results... I love the concept of the book and what it represents, but I think the execution of the idea was poor in a few areas.
  
  As a play-by-play through the films, this book is a massive success. A person who hand never seen Star Wars would get a good idea of the overall story just by looking at these frames (over 200 images per film). Virtually every scene/sequence of the saga is represented with at least one frame. If you love the movies, this book is a trip down memory lane.
  
  As for the printed image quality, I think it is quite good - although you must understand that these are frames taken directly from the films and adjust your expectations accordingly. Since the images are not enhanced in any way, the entire frame is not always in focus (and some action shots are going to appear blurry altogether). What you see in the book is essentially what you'd see if you paused a blu-ray of the movie and looked at one frame.
  
  Apparently George Lucas himself curated this massive collection of frames, going through over a million images and reducing it to the 1400 that appear in this book... a remarkable feat, and one that no doubt was very time-consuming. But I'll be honest: in looking through the book, it sometimes feels as though the frames could have been randomly selected. I am assuming that's not the case, but some of Mr. Lucas's decisions are bewildering to me - I would love to get some insight into why he chose what he chose.
  
  Obviously, Star Wars is first a motion picture. But the principles of motion pictures and the principles of still imagery differ in some areas, and in a sense the printed book format does not lend itself to isolated frames from what was originally intended to be a moving image. I say this because in flipping through the book it becomes quite obvious that many of these isolated frames (each of which contributed to a marvelous movie) would not pass a high-school photography class. They do not follow the basic rules of what make a good image - color balance, composition, etc.
  
  Now, to be clear about the problems stated above: I am talking about a relatively small percentage of frames. The majority of the book is marvelous. I can see that Mr. Lucas and/or his editors took the time and effort to ensure that most of the 4-frame spreads had optimal symmetry. Many of the scenes get an even-number of frames, which is a good thing because it allows an entire page or two to be dedicated to the same scene/setting (rather than having two completely unrelated frames sharing the same page).
  
  Having looked through the book, it is fun to think about which frames I would personally add or omit had I curated this collection. Overall, this is a nice collectible for the Star Wars fan and one that I'm proud to own.
• 
  Steven

  I have a new appreciation for A New Hope. Some extraordinary close-ups and two-shots.