Paths of Glory

Madness and Patsies Crash Together In Kubrick's Explosive Thunderbolt.

Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory is holding up rather well these days, in fact it's as pertinent and relevant as ever.

It's 1916 and the French and German armies are in opposing mud trenches, when the French are ordered to undertake a suicidal assault on a German held hill, many of the soldiers are quick to realise it's an impossible order to see through to its conclusion and retreat, something which brings charges of cowardice from the military hierarchy. Someone must take the fall...

Withdrawn from circulation in France at one time, unreleased in Spain as well, Paths of Glory is a shattering indictment on military hierarchy. On those General types who watch f...

"Col. Dax" (Kirk Dougas) is cajoled by "Gen. Broulard" (Adolphe Menjou) into taking his Great War weary regiment on one last mission in occupied France. Frankly, it's little better than a suicide one, but his operational commander "Gen. Mireau" (George Macready) is determined at all costs that they succeed. Let battle commence! Only the French soldiers quickly realise that they are facing a well armed, immovable, German opponent and are either killed or driven back. Desperate to motivate his men, "Mireau" gives an order that is luckily not acted upon and with the mission deemed a failure and many of the men now in the relative safety of their trenches, the general orders a court martial for cowardice of three of the survivors. "Dax" is appa...

A short and objective film, with a clear and still relevant message, as well as a huge performance by Kirk Douglas.

There are several films about World War I, but it is far from being seen by the public as one of the best. In fact, it seems to me a little forgotten today. It is, however, timely and current in its pacifist message in which the greatest absurdity of war is emphasized in a partially true story, in which a group of three French soldiers is shot by cowardice after joining an inglorious attack to a much stronger and prepared German position.

Stanley Kubrick is a director to which no one gets indifferent: either if he loves or hates. He seems to have enjoyed fostering this by choosing hard themes, uncomfortable and debat...