Interesting insofar as Lumet so carefully considers every aspect of his films, and then fills you in on what he was thinking, how he achieved that effect when it succeeded, and where he thinks he went wrong in the cases in which his movies didn't work.

There is wisdom in the first quarter, irrespective of the movie-making project; it's decent management or art-creation advice. The back three-quarters, though, is pretty locked into the movies themselves, and depending on your excitement about specific movies (Long Day's Journey, Dog Day Afternoon, 12 Angry Men and Network are all thoroughly spelunked), or his filmography as a whole, you might find your interest waning rapidly on technical discussions of lighting those. Even if you do like those movies a lot (as I do), there is discussion of how to handle actors, but nothing specific about any of them, so if you're curious how Ned Beatty's insane short scene in Network came to be so thunderously intense, no luck for you; it isn't even mentioned.

For '70s[1] movie fans I could see it being considered essential. It just isn't for me.
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[1] Oh, and also, he admits/brags about hauling off and slapping an actress at one point, in order to have her performance be "more real." Not a great way to get me on one's side. ( )

OK account of the nuts and bolts of moviemaking by Lumet. Sometimes he goes on a little long about his grievances with the process like too much producer control, etc. It is a really big team effort and sometimes results are great. ( )

he really didn't like teamsters. ( )

Great book that has a lot to say about making movies of course, but also pursuing any kind of craft or art form in general. Very well worth the read for any film buff, my head is full of new understanding regarding nearly every aspect of film-making. Some technical details are probably out of date due to the ever advancing march of technology but the fundamentals still hold and learning about the technical limitations and constraints of analog film allows for understanding regarding many film-making techniques that are still widely practiced today. ( )

Very informative and briskly paced. It goes step by step into the filmmaking process as it pertains to studio filmmaking. ( )