George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey. - video recording reviews

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Nov, 1993 by Robert S. Rothenberg

Written and directed by his son, George Stevens, Jr., this film biography traces the life and career of one of Hollywood's giants. George Stevens rose from cameraman at the Hal Roach Studios, shooting Laurel and Hardy two-reelers, to director of such classics as "A Place in the Sun," "Gunga Din," "Shane," "Giant," "The Diary of Ann Frank," and countless others. Despite his causing great despair to the producers of his pictures by shooting more film than any other director, then taking months to edit it painstakingly, Stevens' movies set box-office records at RKO, Paramount, and the other studios he worked for.

While many documentaries of this nature tease their audiences with mere snippets from their subject's motion pictures, this one lovingly provides extensive clips that allow the context of the scene to be readily apparent, then explores them in depth through interviews with their noted stars, such as Katharine Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Cary Grant, and Joel McCrea. Comments by Stevens' colleagues--directors John Huston, Fred Zinnemann, Frank Capra, Alan Pakula, and Rouben Mamoulian; producer Pandro S. Berman; and writers Joseph Mankiewicz and Irwin Shaw--put his career into perspective, and reveal the man behind the moviemaker.

Most fascinating are the films brought back by Stevens after he was appointed a lieutenant-colonel in charge of the Special Coverage Unit formed to record D-day and subsequent events in the closing year of World War II. Stevens shot extensive footage of the liberation of Paris, the joining of American and Soviet troops at the Elbe preparatory to their plunge into Germany, and poignant and heartrending images of the liberation of Dachau and other Nazi concentration camps. In addition, he took a vast amount of personal shots with his own camera, the only color pictures made of World War 11. For movie buffs and students of film history, this video is a must-see.