Paths of Glory
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Movie Reviews of Paths of Glory
Movie Review: Amazing classic war film
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an amazing, classic war film taken from the French perspective. As far as I am concerned this film easily rivals All Quiet on the Western Front in portraying a compelling portrait of the "unseemly side of war". The movie begins by informing the viewer that we are seeing France in 1916. By then, the landscape had been reduced to a pock-marked, naked battlefield, littered with wrecks, both human and machine. The view then changes to an exterior shot of a beautiful European Chateau, where inside the French army officers are apparently living in luxury. The Corps Commander, General Broulard, proposes a plan to take an impregnable position called Ant Hill. The General easily manipulates division General Mireau, depicted as a scar faced evil looking man, into accepting his proposal. Mireau is convinced that he will be considered for a promotion if successful and Ant Hill is taken. "Nothing is beyond those men once their fighting spirit is aroused".
Mireau then goes to Colonel Dax, to inform him of the plan. They meet at Dax's trench shelter for the meeting. Mireau appeals to Dax's patriotism, but Dax is shocked and dazed, knowing that this attack would never succeed. (What we the audience are witnessing is the effect of a bad plan moving its way down the ranks, finally ending up with the end user, the ones who will pay for its folly with their lives) Of course Dax ultimately agrees.
An eerie night recon scene follows with three men moving trench to trench, guided by flares. We stare at some tangled wreckage for a few moments before it is illuminated to become a crashed plane, bodies, and some kind of low bunker. The flare's light makes for a very haunting and memorable scene. The lieutenant then orders one of the men to take a closer look. When he does not return quickly, the lieutenant, panics, throws a grenade in the direction of the wreck, and runs away. We see that he has blown up his own man during his cowardly act of running away. The third man makes it back to the trench where he encounters the lieutenant and says, "You are a booze-guzzling, yellow-bellied rat with a bottle for a brain!"
The next scene takes place the following morning. We see Dax striding confidently down the long trench. His men are standing next to the walls with bayonets fixed in place, preparing to go over the wall. The camera work is fantastic as it follows a grim faced Dax, walking unfazed as bombs and machine-gun fire go off all around him. He reaches his position, a ladder, and amidst all the noise of the bombs and gun fire, blows a very weak sounding whistle. I am sure it was the director's intention to have a barely audible and pathetic sounding whistle signal this fruitless attack. The men follow Dax with a roar.
The attacking force is cut to shreds. The men are stumbling over their fallen comrades only to be killed a few steps later. Chaos rules and the men retreat. One group never makes it out of the trenches due to heavy fire, this is seen by Mireau. An enraged Mireau orders his battery commander to open fire on the French troops still in the trench. Three times the battery commander refuses saying that he must have written proof of the order. The commander is relived of duty and ordered to be under arrest for his failure to follow orders.
Dax runs back to the trench and finds the cowardly lieutenant and commands him to attack. "It's impossible sir, all the men are falling back". With that Dax climbs the ladder only to be hit by a dead soldier falling back into the trench. An angry Mireau announces "if those little sweethearts won't face German bullets, they'll face French ones!"
Mireau calls for a court-martial and wants at least one hundred men to stand trial for "cowardess in the face of the enemy". General Broulard finally haggles Mireau down to three men, selected by each company commander. Mireau corners Dax on a stairway inside the Chateau and says, "Broulard seemed to think you were funny. I don't. I'll break you; I'll ruin you, for showing such little loyalty to your commanding officer."
Dax is selected to be the defense attorney for the selected men. Dax meets the doomed men in prison and commands the men to "act like what you are, soldiers!"
The trial is held in the Chateau without the slightest hint of justice. Dax is incapable of even having the indictment read into the record, and further, no stenographer was present. Each of the three soldiers is hammered by the prosecutor, and each time Dax defends the soldiers he is ignored. The prosecutor sums up by saying that this "attack was a stain on the flag of France." A clearly enraged Dax counters with, "There are times when I am ashamed to be a member of the human race, and this is one such occasion!" Still, ultimately, Dax is ignored.
The execution scene builds with a crescendo of uniformed men surrounding the gallows. Three posts are standing vertically with three caskets visible nearby. One of the men is unconscious, being carried on a stretcher, while another hangs whimperingly on a priest. I hoped that Dax's last minute effort (with Broulard, to convince him to let the men off due to Mireau's order to open fire on his own troops) would pay off, but the end was inevitable. The men are summarily shot.
The final scene will stay with me for a long time, I hope. The war weary soldiers are in a nearby tavern, getting drunk following the execution. Dax hears the men whistling lecherously inside and looks in the door to see a blonde German girl being paraded on stage. The men are catcalling the innocent girl who is standing on the stage crying. When encouraged to sing by the emcee, she begins in a frightened little voice, barely audible over the din. The soldiers quiet a bit and begin to hear her sing. The hooting soldiers are transformed back into men, some crying, some looking off into space, obviously thinking of home and family and not the war. In a very humanizing way the film brings us back from this grotesque journey of inane battles, deaths, trials, and executions, and reveals that even in the face of ultimate depravity, we have a propensity for kindness.
Movie Review: A brilliant and important film
Summary: 5 Stars
It is very difficult to write about this film and fully do it justice. But I think that simplicity is its greatest singular accomplishment, while depicting military folly, ambition, politics, courage and humanity. They couldn't be more effectively mixed together in this 1957 classic. All the actors gave top-notch performances, where the final soul-touching scene becomes one of cinema history's most moving and unforgettable moments.
Here, in his second feature film, the great director Stanley Kubrick begins a series of brilliant exploration of the dark side of human nature. Set in the trenches of 1916 France, Kirk Douglas as French Colonel Dax, has high principles in the world already gone mad. His unit is ordered to attack and take the heavily fortified Ant Hill by vainglorious Gen. Paul Mireau (George Macready). Col. Dax voices his disapproval of the mission but after being threatened with reassignment, decides to lead the charge himself. But as expected, the hill is very well defended and they come under murderous heavy fire. The situation becomes hopeless.
When they turn around, the crooked and glory-seeking General, angered by his troops' unwillingness to sacrifice themselves, orders the French artillery to fire upon them. When the artillery detachment refuses without a signed authorization from the general, the rest of the film shows military politics at work and reveals the evil and lack of remorse for human life for the sake of glory in the battlefield. The General is embarrassed and orders examples must be made in the form of three innocent French soldiers selected at random for a court martial for cowardice. They are sentenced to death by a kangaroo court.
The movie's pacing is more powerful and ironic than the preceding one, building to a shattering climax. Composer Gerald Fried created two main title themes for the movie. Most prints of the film features his arrangement of the French national anthem, "Marseillaise," while another version opened with an original composition by Fried also. Subsequently, the title 'Paths of Glory' (taken from Thomas Grey's "Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard") was created for select European markets since it might take offense at the anthem's use in a film so critical of France's military leadership during WWl.
Though the battlefield scene is in France, Kubrick chose to shoot the film in and around Munich, Germany. The attention to the meticulous composition of his shots reflects his background as a still photographer and foreshadows his other great films to come. Most interior scenes were filmed at Bavaria's Geiselgasteig Studios, and the court-martial scenes were shot in nearby Schleissheim Castle, an 18th-century structure serving then as a national museum. During WWII the factories near Schleissheim were hit by an air raid. Some bombs fell on the old castle during WWll, causing heavy damage. The ruins surrounding Col. Dax's headquarters were not studio sets since they were actual damage from WWll.
The film is not especially violent and blood splattered compared to the war movies of today, but it still could not diminish the stunningly surrealistic effect of a First World War battlefield night attack. And the complete absence of showing the Germans is thought provoking, since the enemy is truly within! It is said that over a ton of explosives were discharged in the first week of filming alone. Special effects director, Erwin Lange had to appear before a special German government commission to get permission for acquiring the huge number of explosives needed for the battle scenes.
Generally considered Director Stanley Kubrick's ("Dr. Strangelove", "Full Metal Jacket") best work, it does not only deliver a powerful message, where it satirizes war and army politics, but also shows great insight into human nature. It was banned in France for its negative portrayal of the French army until 1975. In turn, the film was not allowed to be shown for a couple of years in Germany after its release...to avoid dislocating the still rickety relations with France. The third country to censor the film was Spain under Franco's dictatorship for its anti-military message. It was not released there until 1986, 11 years after Franco's death.
You may not like B&W films--but you must make an exception to this one. Astounding visuals from a variety of incisive angles are standard. The mobile wide-angle shots moving through the squalid trenches as the battle begins (without cutting), the suspense and tension prior to a battle, up to the deadly oblivion of no-man's land are top-notch...not to mention the acting (Kubrick must have molded the actors into their roles). And see the final scene...perhaps the most moving and unforgettable moment in cinema history! The only woman in the film, Christiane Kubrick, then Christiane Harlan, the director's future wife (they were married in 1958 and remained so until the director's death in 1999), as a captured German waif forced to sing in front of French troops. When she comes on stage, the soldiers begin to jeer and make charged statements that demean her nationality because she is German. She begins to sing a German song "The Faithful Hussar". Though the soldiers do not know German, they become emotionally touched and absorbed by the song, and overwhelmed by the melancholic and haunting beauty of the melody, they begin to hum along. They realized that humanity is not automatically, by default cruel and ruthless and corrupt all of the time. It is images like these that makes the many imperfections committed by Hollywood and the modern motion picture industry tolerable--even forgiveable.
Movie Review: "The paths of glory lead but to the grave"--Thomas Gray
Summary: 5 Stars
Anyone who has even cursorily studied Stanley Kubrick's career knows that he was one of the most powerful anti-war voices in the history of cinema. Although his total output was actually rather small, he produced three truly great anti-war classics: PATHS OF GLORY, DR. STRANGELOVE, and FULL METAL JACKET. But of these three, it was PATHS OF GLORY that most fully and vividly expressed the horror and stupidity of war. DR. STRANGELOVE distanced itself somewhat from its subject matter by its humor, while FULL METAL JACKET was emotionally detached from its characters. In most of his films, Kubrick preferred to be coolly disconnected, recording the events. But there is no detachment, no distancing of the camera from the action in this film. There is a visceral involvement at every point, whether following the French soldiers out of their trenches or detailing the steps taken by the French military to exonerate the officers by trying three random soldiers for treason or following the three soldiers through their final hours. This is a gut wrenching movie, and one can only watch it with a sense of horror at the multiple tragedies it depicts. So powerful, in fact, is the film that it was banned in several European nations following its release, including France and Spain, and way delayed in Germany out of fear that it would offend France.
But the true target of this film is not France or Germany or Spain or Britain or the United States, but any nation that would deliberately wage war. The theme is intended to be universal, not particular to one nation or one war, but any nation and all wars. Kubrick is criticizing upper class elites who send average men into battle to die for no good reason; aloof elites that value their own reputation more than human life; the fundamental stupidity of the entire enterprise of waging war and the military classes whose job it is to fight. The title of the novel was taken from Thomas Gray's ""Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," the full line of which reads "The paths of glory lead but to the grave." But Kubrick is not merely saying that the problem with war is that the undeserving die: he is wanting to confront the entire war-making machine.
Few directors in the history of film have been so careful with detail as Kubrick, but rarely to so much effect in this one. There is an extraordinary richness to this film that comes out in nearly every aspect of it, from the vividly awful battlefields where the soldiers fight and die, to the sumptuous castles where the remote generals reside. Many scenes required dozens of retakes before they achieved the perfection that Kubrick demanded.
The virtually all-male cast-incredibly rare in the 1950s, where it was always imagined that romantic interests must be injected into every film-is exceptional, not just the major performers, but the group of familiar and unfamiliar supporting performers. This is probably my favorite Kirk Douglas film. In most of his roles he was asked to project brash cynicism, but here he is morally serious from beginning to end. He proves to be both the best intentioned and most naïve individual in the film, striving desperately to see that justice is served, and only reluctantly realizing that the entire trial of the three token deserters is a sham and a joke. Ralph Meeker was a capable actor who rarely found roles equal to his talent, but here, in what was his finest role, he is splendid as the good soldier who is wrongly selected to stand trial for desertion. We feel his plight more than the other soldiers because we know him to be a good man dedicated to doing his duty. George Macready enjoyed a long screen career, but he had only a few truly great roles, the two best known being Rita Hayworth's husband in GILDA and in this film as General Mireau, the true villain in the failed battle and in the tragedy of trying the soldiers for cowardice. Adolph Menjou-who off screen was best known for being one of the best dressed men in the world and for his staunch anti-Communism and brutal verbal attacks on those he imagined to be too sympathetic to leftists (his political stance actually hurt his career-contrary to the understanding of many, attacks on supposed communists hurt the accusers as much as the accused, limiting the careers of folks like Menjou and Robert Taylor)-is exceptional as the smooth, plotting, incredibly cynical and self-preserving General Broulard. Macready and Menjou contrast marvelously in their coldness and cruelty with the humane compassion of Kirk Douglas's Col. Dax.
For many years PATHS OF GLORY was rarely shown even in the United States, in particular during the sixties and the Vietnamese War. In the decades that have followed, however, the film has rightfully gained a larger audience, and it is now acknowledge for the masterpiece that it is. In my own opinion, this is one of Kubrick's greatest films, the equal of such films as 2001 and DR. STRANGELOVE and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, and better than any of his others. It is also arguably the most powerful expression of the idiocy of war in the history of cinema.
Movie Review: Stanley Kubrick's film on the futility and madness of war
Summary: 5 Stars
In 1916 France Commander Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) wants General Mireau (George Macready) to have his battered division take the "Ant Hill", an impregnable German fortress, promising Mireau a promotion and another story if he succeeds. Mireau orders Dax (Kirk Douglas) to lead the charge, which is a complete failure. When soldiers are pinned down by German artillery and machine gun fire Mireau orders his own artillery to fire on their own trenches, screaming, "If those sweethearts won't face German bullets, they'll take French ones!"
"Paths of Glory" has a deserved reputation as a great anti-war film but I think that director Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Humphrey Cobb's 1935 semi-fictional novel is a rather specific indictment of both a particular military and a particular war. The suicidal attack in the first act of the film was loosely based upon the battle for Fort Douamont during the Battle of Verdun, where over 300,000 French soldiers lost their lives. The assault, doomed to fail before it began, is ordered by French generals more concerned with prestige and promotions than the lives of their troops or the actual prospects for success. In the wake of the disaster three men are selected to be tried and then executed for cowardice. They are defended in court by their commander, Colonel Dax, the lone voice of reason speaking out against the insanity of what has happened.
This film was banned for almost twenty years in France and it is an indictment of the French military on a par with those films that have touched on the infamous Dreyfus case. I have trouble extending this indictment beyond these French generals, not only because in cinematic history there is this sense of this being standard practice for the French military but also because hypocritically sending troops to such senseless death is rare in American military history. John Bell Hood sending Confederate troops in a series of useless charges to teach them a lesson at the Battle of Franklin comes to mind, but I remember most American generals as taking blame and responsibility for such slaughters (e.g., Ambrose Burnside at Fredericksburg, Robert E. Lee after Pickett's Charge, Ulysses S. Grant with regard to the final assault at Cold Harbor).
But there is also a sense in which we identify this sort of waste of young soldiers with World War I. In cinematic terms the obvious comparison is to "Gallipoli," where British troops are having tea on the beaches while Australian troops are gunned down in a needless charge ordered by stubborn British generals (another category of military leaders easy treat with disdain given how they are portrayed in the movies). The Civil War has provided amble evidence that troops charging entrenched or fortified positions was horribly futile and yet fifty years later European armies were still sending thousands of men against machine guns (the iconic weapon of the first World War). As the opening narration explains, "Successful attacks were measured in hundreds of yards - and paid for in lives by hundreds of thousands."
The title of the book/film comes from a line in Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," where the poet writes, "The paths of glory lead but to the grave." This might be an anti-war film but it still shows the heroism of the troops as Kubrick uses a tracking shot to follow the Dax and his soldiers across No Man's Land against the German fort. After all, these men are fighting an army that has invaded their country, so there is a sense in which the title is inappropriate simply because these men are not involved in a quest for glory.
The film was shot in Germany and cinematographer Georg Krause provides one of the sharpest black & white films you have ever seen. The clarity is almost daunting and it is impossible not to think that it is not but another part of Kubrick's grand design. As for the performance by Douglas I would agree with the general consensus that this is his finest performance, even over what he would provide for Kubrick three years later in "Spartacus."
In the end Kubrick makes a final argument for the universality of human experience when a German singer (Susanne Christian, who was Christiane Kubrick wife of the director) is forced to sing a song for the French troops whose jeers turn to tears. There are, relatively speaking compared to other wars, relatively few films about the First World War. But it is rather impressive when you start listing the ones that immediately come to mind ("Wings," "All Quiet on the Western Front," "Sgt. York," "Gallipoli") how good they tend to be and how many of them are, at their essence, anti-war films. For that, I think the credit for linking that particular war with the idea of the futility of war clearly belongs to Erich Maria Remarque, author of "All Quiet on the Western Front."
Movie Review: Stunning film, one of the greatest war films ever made, still moving and profound today...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is not only of Stanley Kubrick's greatest films, it's also one of the greatest war films ever made, still startlingly in its depiction of war and the stupidity of war. Even though I have seen it numerous times, it still has the same impact as the first time.
The film was Kubrick's fourth feature (counting two independent films, neither of which were very good), but this was his 2nd "professional" picture, and he shows his mastery of the medium. All the Kubrick trademarks are there. Long, fluid tracking shots, bleak surroundings, memorable performances and dialogue, and a dark viewpoint of the folly of man. The film was based on a real case in WWI whereas 3 French soldiers were executed for cowardice in a time of war. The 3 soldiers were scapegoats for the fools running the war. It's a true story, and the film was banned in France for many years because the soldiers were French. The film could have been made about any group of soldiers, any country. Eventually, the ban was lifted in 1974 (or around there).
The film is so tight and perfectly edited and shot that you couldn't cut a frame out of it without damaging its flow and substance. It's a remarkable piece of work, especially for a young director, and it's a film with a grim, sad, depressing message about war.
Kirk Douglas gives a towering performance as Colonel Dax, the colonel who has to fight in a battle that he knows he'll lose, but he fights anyway. He then tries to defend the three men who are eventually executed, but the trial is a kangaroo court, and the men's fate had been decided before the trial began. All of the performances here are fabulous, especially Adolph Menjou (in one of his last films) as a general who orders the attack and the killing of the three soldiers.
If it wasn't for Kirk Douglas, this film would have never been made. Kirk was a huge star at the time, and when Kubrick (and his producer James B. Harris) went to Douglas with the script, he famously said "the film won't make a nickel. But we have to make it.". Douglas got the film made under his production company. Douglas also kept the original ending of the script. One day Kubrick wrote a new ending for the film, a happy ending where the 3 men are reprieved from their execution. He showed it to Douglas, who was flabbergasted by this, and he asked Stanley why in God's name would he want to do this. Kubrick replied "to make it commercial. I want to make money.". Luckily, Douglas said no (he was, after all, the star and producer), and the film went on as originally scripted. Granted, Kubrick was still young, and he was also living on loans from his partner Harris. A little known fact about Kubrick is that he didn't make a dime from The Killing or Paths of Glory. He worked on deferred salary until the films came into profit. James B. Harris loaned him money to live on. Kubrick may have been growing tired of this arrangement. Regardless, the decision was Kirk's, and it was the best one. Kirk also offered Kubrick the job to direct Spartacus. Kubrick hadn't directed a film in nearly 3 years, and Kirk came to his rescue. It was also a real paying gig. Kubrick and Kirk had a falling out over Spartacus, but Douglas helped Kubrick a lot in his early career, and he deserves full credit for that.
Another point of debate about this film is the ending. Some say it's a copout, and others say it's incredibly moving. I go with the latter. After the mock trial and real execution, the film goes to a pub where the soldiers are being entertained by a frightened singer (played by Susanne Christian, who went on to be the 3rd Mrs. Stanley Kubrick, and the woman he spent the rest of his life with). The soldiers are screaming and hollering at her, scaring her even more. When she finally starts singing, the men quiet down and are stunned by her beauty and her golden voice. They start singing along with her, and most of them tear up as the song goes on. It's arguably the most moving scene in any of Kubrick's work, one that makes me tear up as well. Even though I've seen that scene over and over again, I am always moved by it. It's one of the most touching, beautiful endings I've ever seen on a film.
Paths of Glory is a brilliant, complex film, one of Kubrick's greatest achievements, and one of the most shattering war films ever made. Miss it at your peril.