Cinemaps: An Atlas of 35 Great Movies

By Andrew DeGraff and A.D. Jameson

This beautifully illustrated atlas of beloved movies is an essential reference for cinephiles, fans of great films, and anyone who loves the art of mapmaking.

Acclaimed artist Andrew DeGraff has created beautiful hand-painted maps of all your favorite films, from King Kong and North by Northwest to The Princess Bride, Fargo, Pulp Fiction, even The Breakfast Club—with the routes of major characters charted in meticulous cartographic detail. Follow Marty McFly through the Hill Valley of 1985, 1955, and 1985 once again as he races Back to the Future. Trail Jack Torrance as he navigates the corridors of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. And join Indiana Jones on a globe-spanning journey from Nepal to Cairo to London on his quest for the famed Lost Ark. Each map is presented in an 9-by-12-inch format, with key details enlarged for closer inspection, and is accompanied by illuminating essays from film critic A. D. Jameson, who speaks to the unique geographies of each film.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Oct 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9781594749902

Andrew DeGraff

Andrew DeGraff is a freelance illustrator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His clients include Kellogg’s, Visa, Gap Kids, Bed, Bath & Beyond, The New York Times, and The New York Observer.

Reviews for Cinemaps

[hardlyhardy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mapping movies seems like a good idea. That's why I bought the book “Cinemaps: An Atlas of 35 Great Movies” by Andrew DeGraff and A.D. Jameson. The idea originated with DeGraff, an artist and illustrator, who thought it would be cool to draw maps illustrating the movement of characters in his favorite movies from his youth, which explains why the majority of films included are ones that drew teenage boys and young men from the late Seventies to the early Nineties. There are exceptions, such as “North by Northwest” and “Fargo,” but most of the movies are things like Star Wars,” “Star Trek, “ “Ghostbusters” and anything featuring Indiana Jones.Yet while his maps are visually interesting, many of them wall worthy, they don't add much to one's appreciation of the movies. At one point he refers to his map of “Clueless” as "a big old mess," and it would be an apt description for most of the movies he illustrates. There are just too many characters who go back and forth, their paths intersecting, moving together until going off in separate directions. The various paths are color coded, but once DeGraff gets past the primary colors, distinguishing one character's path from another becomes difficult, if not impossible. The title of one of the movies he illustrates could serve as the title of each of these maps: “Labyrinth.”His “North by Northwest” map works best because he follows just one character, Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant). You can actually find where the path begins and where it ends, while reliving each harrowing stop along the way. As characters multiply, so does one's confusion. “The Pulp Fiction” map follows 17 characters. That includes at least six shades of blue.But if DeGraff's maps disappoint, Jameson's essays about these movies do not. They give insights the maps fail to provide. Jameson suggests that Grace Kelly in “North by Northwest” could be viewed as the first movie James Bond, that “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” could have been called “Richard Nixon and the Holy Grail,”and that Cher, the main character in “Clueless,” has much in common with Sherlock Holmes. He convinces us that, though most of these films may have been made to attract teenagers, they are each worth some mature thought.

[jessicadelellis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book for free from the publisher (Quirk Books) in exchange for an honest review.I really liked this book. The idea behind it is so fun! The book consists of maps from 35 different movie worlds. Some of the movies featured include, Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Clueless, and Guardians of the Galaxy. The maps are also not your typical flat ones. They are more three dimensional and are reminiscent of bus/subway maps because of the characters’ paths that run throughout them.Artistically, each map is stunning, You can tell so much work was put into each one. There is so much detail in each map. It’s really amazing.The essays that accompanied each map were incredibly insightful in its analysis. The essays don’t necessarily correlate to the map; they just talk about the film in general. I also really liked the writing style of the essays. They were easy to read, concise, and flowed nicely. My one issue with this book is the size of the maps. Even though they take up a whole page, the maps are still too small to fully appreciate. Some parts are made bigger which helps, but it’s still not enough to gain the entire experience. You would need a magnifying glass to see all the little details. In person, the maps would be glorious, but in the book they fall a bit flat. Together, the essays and the maps create a beautiful coffee table book that will make you want to re-watch the movies featured.

[oddandbookish · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book for free from the publisher (Quirk Books) in exchange for an honest review.I really liked this book. The idea behind it is so fun! The book consists of maps from 35 different movie worlds. Some of the movies featured include, Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Clueless, and Guardians of the Galaxy. The maps are also not your typical flat ones. They are more three dimensional and are reminiscent of bus/subway maps because of the characters’ paths that run throughout them.Artistically, each map is stunning, You can tell so much work was put into each one. There is so much detail in each map. It’s really amazing.The essays that accompanied each map were incredibly insightful in its analysis. The essays don’t necessarily correlate to the map; they just talk about the film in general. I also really liked the writing style of the essays. They were easy to read, concise, and flowed nicely. My one issue with this book is the size of the maps. Even though they take up a whole page, the maps are still too small to fully appreciate. Some parts are made bigger which helps, but it’s still not enough to gain the entire experience. You would need a magnifying glass to see all the little details. In person, the maps would be glorious, but in the book they fall a bit flat. Together, the essays and the maps create a beautiful coffee table book that will make you want to re-watch the movies featured.