2008 Woodie Awards
Paths of Glory
By: Erin Duley
Issue date: 3/8/07 Section: Reviews
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3 stars out of 5
War is hell. Movies have taught us this lesson time and again through various stories and settings. Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" is no different, but it also reveals the hellishness of mankind itself when authority is given precedence over reason.
Based on Humphrey Cobb's novel of the same title, "Paths of Glory" was a controversial box office failure in 1957. The film's blunt exploration of power abuse in the French army during World War I was not a topic America wanted to explore following its World War II victory. However, viewed within today's political context, the film has startling resonance.
The film begins with French generals Mireau (George Macready) and Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) deciding whether to attack a German fortress known as the "Ant Hill." Promenading arm in arm around a regal sitting room, the generals talk of the expected casualties without care. Once their decision is made, the film quickly cuts to a bunker on the front lines where weary and dirty soldiers go about their business amid occasional explosions and gunfire.
General Mireau strolls through the disheartened men, telling them they'll get to kill some Germans today before he delivers orders to their battalion leader, Colonel Dax. Against the attack because of its expectation of heavy casualties, Dax (Kirk Douglas) is the idealist to Mireau's realist. After the attack fails and three random soldiers are court-martialed for cowardice in order to set an example, Dax is the only man to show compassion for the rank-and-file troops. Acting as their defense lawyer, Dax is the soldiers' one hope of escaping the firing squad.
The highlight of "Paths of Glory" is the scene of the attempted capture of the Ant Hill. Kubrick's future as an innovator is indicated in long, vivid tracking shots that follow the troops through the unprotected No Man's Land between the trenches. Armed with merely a whistle and a pistol, Dax awkwardly leads the charge through muddy shell holes and over barbed wire, capturing the madness of World War I's trench warfare.
War is hell. Movies have taught us this lesson time and again through various stories and settings. Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" is no different, but it also reveals the hellishness of mankind itself when authority is given precedence over reason.
Based on Humphrey Cobb's novel of the same title, "Paths of Glory" was a controversial box office failure in 1957. The film's blunt exploration of power abuse in the French army during World War I was not a topic America wanted to explore following its World War II victory. However, viewed within today's political context, the film has startling resonance.
The film begins with French generals Mireau (George Macready) and Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) deciding whether to attack a German fortress known as the "Ant Hill." Promenading arm in arm around a regal sitting room, the generals talk of the expected casualties without care. Once their decision is made, the film quickly cuts to a bunker on the front lines where weary and dirty soldiers go about their business amid occasional explosions and gunfire.
General Mireau strolls through the disheartened men, telling them they'll get to kill some Germans today before he delivers orders to their battalion leader, Colonel Dax. Against the attack because of its expectation of heavy casualties, Dax (Kirk Douglas) is the idealist to Mireau's realist. After the attack fails and three random soldiers are court-martialed for cowardice in order to set an example, Dax is the only man to show compassion for the rank-and-file troops. Acting as their defense lawyer, Dax is the soldiers' one hope of escaping the firing squad.
The highlight of "Paths of Glory" is the scene of the attempted capture of the Ant Hill. Kubrick's future as an innovator is indicated in long, vivid tracking shots that follow the troops through the unprotected No Man's Land between the trenches. Armed with merely a whistle and a pistol, Dax awkwardly leads the charge through muddy shell holes and over barbed wire, capturing the madness of World War I's trench warfare.
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