‘George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey’ is one that you will want to take, too

4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS

19-year-old George Stevens operates a camera during the filming of Rex, a star horse, in two 1925 Westerns for the Hal Roach Studios. (2) 40 years later, Stevens filmed the Biblical epic “The Greatest Story Ever Told” at the Arches National Park in Utah.

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“GEORGE STEVENS: A FILMMAKER’S JOURNEY”


4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray, 1984, not rated, harrowing World War II footage



Best extra: Director Christopher Nolan’s address at the 70th-anniversary screening of “Shane”



MIRIAM-WEBSTER defines “documentary” as “a presentation (such as a film or novel) expressing or dealing with factual events.” In that regard, “George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey” checks the boxes.


But it’s also so much more - as much a loving celebration as a journey of rediscovery for his son, George Stevens Jr., its writer, director and producer. “By the end, we are less aware of George Stevens as a filmmaker than as a good and gifted man who happened to use movies as a means of expressing his gifts,” Roger Ebert wrote.



And if you aren’t familiar with Stevens’ legacy - “Swing Time,” “Gunga Din,” “Woman of the Year,” “A Place in the Sun,” “Giant,” “Shane” - here’s the perfect introduction. 



Katharine Hepburn describes how she pushed Stevens to direct “Alice Adams” (1935), his first feature film for RKO Radio Studios.

It begins in a crowded storeroom on Los Angeles' Ventura Boulevard. As the camera pans over the cowboy hats, belt buckles, cans of film, scripts and Oscars, Stevens shares a quote from his father’s war-time diary: “Life is a journey, and it is always most interesting when you’re not sure where you’re going.”



His journey began as a cinematographer for Laurel and Hardy’s classics, an experience, he said, that made him realize that “comedy could be graceful and human.” He directed other shorts and a handful of features, but it wasn’t until Katharine Hepburn pushed for him to direct 1935’s “Alice Adams” that his career took off. He directed Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in “Swing Time” (1936), their sixth film together, and Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in their first, “Woman of the Year” (1942). 

Stevens, though, wasn’t one to follow form. Rogers remembers how he let her and Astaire “speak without talking, love with loving.” A clip from the song “Never Gonna Dance” makes her point. And he didn’t lean on easy gags. The perfectly-paced breakfast scene in “Woman of the Year,” where Hepburn tries to show Tracy that she knows her way around the kitchen, builds and builds without dialogue. And in Stevens’ hands, “Gunga Din” (1939) was more comedic than swash-buckling. We also see behind-the-scenes color footage shot by Stevens.



 (1-4) “Gunga Din” (1939) was inspired by Rudyard Kipling's 1890 poem, and Stevens demanded that the production be filmed on location near Lone Pine, Calif., on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It became the most expensive RKO production, and starred Cary Grant as British sergeant Cutter and Sam Jaffe as the humble Gunga Din.

But he never made another comedy following World War II. After watching “Triumph of the Will” in a Hollywood screening room, Stevens said the Nazi propaganda film “influenced my life more than any I would ever see.” He was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in charge of a Special Coverage Unit that included many of his Hollywood colleagues. Among the discoveries in that Ventura Boulevard storeroom was what the family says is the only known color footage of the D-Day invasion, the joyous liberation of Paris and truly harrowing footage of Dachau.



“Films were much less important to me and, in a way, perhaps, more important,” Stevens said after returning to America.



His work in those years is a testament: The Oscar-winning “A Place in the Sun” (1951) and “Giant” (1956), the towering “Shane” (1953), “The Diary of Anne Frank” (1959) and “The Greatest Story Ever Told” (1965).

Before the journey ends, we hear from fellow directors John Huston (“The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”), Joseph L. Mankiewicz (“All About Eve”), Fred Zinnemann (“A Man for All Seasons”),  Frank Capra (“It’s a Wonderful Life”), Alan J. Pakula (“All the President’s Men”) and Warren Beatty (“Reds”), as well as a who’s who of his stars, including Hepburn, Astaire, Rogers, Alan Ladd (“Shane”), Joel McCrea (1943’s “The More the Merrier”) and Max Von Sydow (“The Greatest Story Ever Told”).



All speak to his vision and integrity, but one quote stands out most. After Stevens death in 1975, a friend told his son, “He was a diverse man of many parts. The only time they converge is on a strip of film. That is when you can say, ‘That’s him.’”



Lt. Col. Stevens during World War II

 Stevens was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, in charge of a Special Coverage Unit during the D-Day invasion and the Allied advance toward Germany.

(1-5) Stevens (top left, center) and his crew of photographers used his personal 16mm camera with rare color film to capture the joyous liberation of Paris and truly harrowing footage of Dachau.



VIDEO/AUDIO


Funded in part by Steven Spielberg, his wife, Kate Capshaw, Martin Scorsese, and The Film Foundation, the 4K restoration had its world premiere two years ago at a Stevens retrospective. The archival interviews were captured on 16mm (1.37:1 aspect), which hold up fine with plenty of natural film grain, and scenes from “Woman of the Year,” “Gunga Din,” “Swing Time,” “Giant,” “Shane,” and other films revisited over the course of nearly two hours look terrific. All were sourced from the latest 4K and 2K masters from Warner Bros., Columbia Pictures, and Paramount Pictures. But the restoration crew really delivers with the “Gunga Din” (MIA on Blu-ray or 4K) and World War II footage. To say that colors are bold and lively is an understatement.

As for the audio, the dialogue, in the film clips and interviews, is always clear and front and center.



EXTRAS


Warner Bros. has included short features on the 4K and Blu-ray with Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth, “The Shape of Water”) (24 mins.) and Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) (5 mins), both of whom discuss “The Greatest Story Ever Told.” Stevens was a modern auteur, del Toro says, while Scorsese points to the intensity and artistry of the film - Stevens’ final movement in a multi-picture symphony. 



The other feature is Christopher Nolan’s George Stevens Lecture for the 70th-anniversary (20 mins) screening of “Shane” at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in L.A. The movie continues to influence his own films - he remembers a Warner Bros executive telling him, “But that’s ‘Shane,’” after reading the script for “The Dark Knight” (2008). Nolan also had Stevens' archetypal Western in mind when designing the New Mexico set for “Oppenheimer” (2023).



“But what comes back to me more are his ethics,” Nolan says. “He didn’t separate good or bad or black and white. He was somebody who fully embraced the complexity of human life.”



— Craig Shapiro

Stevens returns to Hollywood

(1-4) George Stevens’ “A Place in the Sun” (1951) is deservedly considered one of the great classics of cinematic drama. It stars Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor as crossed lovers.

Filmmakers salute Stevens: (1) Hal Roach (“Laurel and Hardy” & “Our Gang”), (2) Alan J. Pakula (“All the President’s Men”), (3) John Huston (“The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”), (4) Frank Capra (“It’s a Wonderful Life”).

(1&2) “Shane” (1953) is considered one of the quintessential westerns of American cinema. Stevens pushed film violence to a new level of realism when gunfighter Wilson (Jack Palance) kills a farmer who’s thrown back 10 feet into a muddy street from the blast.

(1&2) “Giant” (1956), a Texas-based tale about the Benedict family, stars James Dean (Jett Rink), Elizabeth Taylor (Leslie Lynnton), and Rock Hudson (Bick Benedict). (3) “The Diary of Anne Frank” (1959) Stevens spent six months on Fox’s largest soundstage for his adaptation of the courageous Jewish teenager who lived in hiding with her family and the Van Daan family during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. (4&5) “The Greatest Story Ever Told” (1965) was filmed in the Ultra Panavision 70 format, with a 2.76:1 aspect ratio, and recently restored in 4K Ultra HD (4K release has not been announced). Swedish actor Max von Sydow plays Jesus of Nazareth.

SPECS:

• 100GB disc

• TRUE 4K mastering

• Captured on 16mm film stock (1.37:1 aspect) for the 1980s interviews.

• Film clips sourced from the latest 4K and 2K masters (1.37:1, 1.66:1, 2.35:1 & 2.76:1)

• Video bitrate: Averages nearly 80 Megabits per second, with a running time of 112 minutes.

• HDR10 maximum light level: 251 nits

• Max frame average light level: 123 nits

• Roger Ebert gave “George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey” 3.5 stars out of four in 1984.

Director Christopher Nolan speaks during the Stevens lecture series at the Academy Museum.