It really is unbelievable the amount of work that went into these films, and their predecessors. Props that are glimpsed for a second (or less) have been laboured over with love, on the off-chance that they might feature more prominently, giving the director a lot of latitude in choices.

The strengths of these books are the (if this were a documentary) "talking heads" ... almost all of the text are lengthy discussions by the crew and cast about the reasoning behind the choices. It's scrupulously detailed.

The books only miss out on five-star status because, as engrossing as they are, they aren't as emotionally engaging as I'd expect a five-star book to me. But for me, 4-stars is quite high praise!

(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. There are a lot of 4s and 3s in the world!) ( )