well, managed to sit down and plow through it in a few evenings. overall, i'd say it was worth the money. i enjoyed reading it, and think it's definitely something anyone who is a fan of this movie would enjoy having in their collection.
there are a few things that i'll add to the pros and cons:
pros:
pre-production notes were added in the back and offer some extra info about the cast and their work up to that point, as well as a brief synopsis.
again, it includes tons of great photos that give a much better look at some of the amazing work on the ghouls than you're able to see watching the film.
there are some amusing anecdotes and stories russo recalls over the years from before, during, and after the film.
i learned a few things i didn't know, such as the fact that mr. russo wanted for the film to be longer and do a quicker version of the story we all know and love, then add in extra scenes and plot to perhaps follow the posse to other houses and add new characters after that.....i'm pretty glad they didn't go that route, and from what he describes romero and streiner weren't too fond of the idea either.
cons:
even though this version has been revised and some typos were corrected, i still did see a couple pop up here and there....nothing too major however.
none of the photos have any captions, so even though you read a lot about some of the people responsible for certain aspects of the film, and there are a ton of people featured in the photos, you don't really know who you're looking at aside from romero, russo, streiner and some of the original cast members, the cast from this film, and tom savini.
mr. russo's memory of certain events don't quite jive with what happens on film. the most glaring example i could find was when he discusses the filming of the attempted escape scene, he seems to recall they get the keys for the gas pump from uncle rege's corpse as they are running to the truck, rather than running back inside after they retreive them to formulate a plan from the safety of the house before running to the truck. then he says something about the truck driving away or turning around as it is burning, but the truck explodes as it is parked right there at the pump as tom shoots the lock and the gas instantly sprays all over the torch and causes a flash fire/explosion.
doesn't quite go into as much detail compared to "the complete night of the living dead filmbook" does about the original. some things i'd really like to know more about, such as how they came to the agreement to film in the house, how much work and effort went into the pyrotechnics of the truck explosion, and any details or description about what was probably the biggest production day, which is the ending with the posse and all that ruckus. it's been a spell since i read "the complete night of the living dead filmbook", but i'm fairly certain it goes into way more detail about all aspects of the production and maybe even detailed several individual shooting days and whatnot.
this was just released in 2020, a few years after george romeo's death. i kind of wonder about the timing of that, as there are certain things mr. russo has included that i think mr. romero may have contradicted, mainly concerning the scope of russo's influence on the remake. at times, he seems quite humble and says he was more of a behind-the-scenes guy, then at other points he mentions things that he supposedly did that "saved" the movie. he come off as very down-to-earth and humble for the most part, but once in a while a bit of something comes through in his writing that comes off as a tad self-important or maybe even a bit pretentious.
thanks for reading, hope this helps if any of you are on the fence about purchasing this. i plan to dig out my copies of the film and watch any special features, "making of" bits, and even watching the film and listening to the commentary track before a proper re-viewing with a new perspective on things. if anyone has any questions, i'll be happy to answer them to the best of my ability.
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Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. [click for more]
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