Customer Reviews
A Powerful Anti-War Drama - By: D. Evans, 27 Jul 2008 
I've seen nearly alll of Stanley Kubrick's films (except for Killer's Kiss, Fear & Desire & Lolita) & this 1957 effort on behalf of Kirk Douglas's Bryna Productions is one of his most moving & powerful.
The story takes place during the First World War as the French army is about to make a big push to capture a heavily fortified German base callled the 'Ant Hill'. The order has been given by the French General Staff that the Ant Hill must be taken at any cost. No retreat. No surrender.
Colonel Dax, played here with conviction & great strength by Kirk Douglas, is ordered to lead the infantry during the attack. Yet it is obvious to anyone but the generals that this is a blatant suicide mission. In a battle that Speilberg would echo in Saving Private Ryan, the infantry collapses under a hail of gun fire & artillery, as they get bogged down between the barbed wire nests. Colonel Dax has no choice but to calll a retreat.
His decision leaves the generals furious. They decide that they must make an example of the soldiers, in order to shift blame from themselves. They select three innocent infantrymen from among many hundreds, charge them with cowardice & mutiny, & then order them to be executed. Colonel Dax, who was once a lawyer in civilian life, rises up to their defence & goes head to head with his superiors in the process. Unless he can prove that the generals were to blame for this disaster, then a further three people will be the victims of their incompetence.
Stanley Kubrick & Calder Willingham's script is sharp & full of bitter anger at the injustice of the soldier's treatment. The scenes of Kirk Douglas's monologues to the court are some of the most powerful in cinema history. They were so controversial in fact that the film was banned in France for many years, & it's showing was certainly contested in many other countries. The acting by most of the cast is very well done, although the only weak link is George MacReady as General Mireau, as his acting does go a bit over the top sometimes, but it's nothing too distracting.
Over fifty years have passed since this film was made, & in that time we have seen the likes of Platoon, Johnny Got his Gun, Apocalypse Now, & Kubrick's own Full Metal Jacket. It therefore says a lot about the quality & power of this film that it can still hit you as a great anti-war story despite the fact that so many other great anti-war films have followed in its wake. A tragic & moving film, & a bitter lament to alll the lives lost during the First World War.
A masterpiece, never bettered - By: Hood1941, 10 Jul 2008 This is in my view the finest film about men at war ever made. The gritty black & white photography evokes the sombre visuals of every First World war newsreel you have ever seen. Every performance is utterly believable, in spite of the proliferation of west coast & New York American accents.
I defy anyone not to be moved by this tale of sacrifice, waste & injustice. Douglas is fantastic in the role of Colonel Dax, but Stanley Kubrick has wrung the very best performance from each & every actor in this film. Every worthwhile director today has learnt something from his genius & this is, for me, his best movie.
Buy it on DVD because I promise you, you will want to watch this more than once.
wonderful film about class conflict and abuse of power - By: H. Serkan SILAHSOR, 08 Jan 2008 Unarguably one of the finest anti-war diatribes ever to hit the screens. Yet, more than 50 years have passed after its making, it is still powerful & immortal film in its own league. Stanley Kubrick, even at the age of 28, showed that he would be the master of visual creation & ingenious camerawork. Apart from story, what I speciallly liked here is the trenches which are dark, foreboding & dreadfully real. Also, long close-ups, reverse tracking shots through the trences & lateral shots during attack scenes are absolutely brilliant, courtroom sequences harrowingly poignant.
On first viewing "Paths of Glory" appears to be a corrosive anti-war movie about the brutal portrayal of military injustice; but it is far more complicated, delivering some universal social messages. In its very depths, the film is about strong class conflict, indomitability of human spirit, hypocrisy, & how the privilege class cares only about themselves & how their use of power could be so much corrupting. While enjoying the safety & luxury of their chateaux far off enemy lines & sipping their expensive wines, self-righteous as well as Machiavellian generals see no harm in sending their exhausted & underequipped albeit "expendable" soldiers in a suicide mission of taking an impregnable German position where nothing but death is awaiting. Yes, obey your master. Otherwise you'll taste the icy bullets of the firing squad. Yuck...
Thankfully, Kirk Douglas' angry & mighty performance as Colonel Dax, who valiantly defends three French soldiers (who picked arbitrarily & charged unjustly with cowardice because they refused to run to imminent death) perfectly confronts this contradiction. This is one of his finest performances combining his aura of intellectuality & physicality with strong moral idealism.
Last world: Despite having a pretty simple framework & short running time (~89 minutes), its powerful story, great performances, impeccable cinematography & Kubrick's deft directorial touch make "Paths of Glory" an universal & topical film even 50 years after its making.
great - By: Jazz4, 27 Dec 2007 Such a great film with impeccable camera movement & general direction, the whole look of the film is amazing & has a tremendous story, this is why Kubrick will always be one of the greatest film-makers in the world.
A GENUINE CLASSIC - By: stuart, 11 Dec 2007 What to say that hasn't already been said. This astonishing cinematic work of art (no kidding) unquestionably is the GREATEST FILM EVER - bar none. I deeply & passionately LOVE this brilliant early Kubrick production. Congratulations to expert screenwriters (and unique pulp writers of the 5O's) Calder Willingham (who also penned his own excellent adaptation of "The Strange One"; highly recommended) & Jim Thompson ("The Grifters" "The Killer Inside Me"; which strongly influenced Tarantino), who both present a superbly incisive script with powerfully effective dialogue that reallly rings more than true. If only we had more real writers & scripts like this remarkable achievement, we'd be writing far more favorable reviews. "Paths of Glory", alone, would serve as anyone's lifetime achievement award.
I don't care how much you HATE B&W films - put this one on your MUST-SEE. Compelling cinema-verite photography creates astounding visuals from a varity of incisive angles; like the famous mobile wide-angle tracking shot of Dax (probably Kirk Douglas's most stirring & important performance) moving through the squalid & horrifying trenches as the battle begins with explosions breaking out alll over. The suspense & tension is frightening, but almost beautifully eerie in the most compelling ways as Kubrick takes us through the deadly limbo of no-man's land - the 'paths of glory' which finallly leads to the grave. The action, skillfully combined with powerful moral & existential themes are amazingly conveyed through the bleak yet articulately stunning visuals. THIS IS A FILMMAKER'S FILM!
The moral outrage of the sadistic injustice of the military courtmartial never fails to make my blood fully boil. The hypocrisy & corruption is degradingly infuriating. If anything will make a cynic out of you, it's this appropriately pessimistic & depressing cinema chronical based on a true stupid incident in WWI. What's even worse is how POG, in many perceptive ways, serves as an alllegory for alll the B.S. in real life: Pig-headed leadership in the parasitic hands of the superior greed freaks, two-faced deceptive manipulations, double-standards, backstabbings, social bigotry, arm-chair warriors, egotism, corrupt politics, the militaries's abuse of too much power - & it's destructive desire at satisfying it's lust for vainglory (sounds a little like Hollywood) - Did I leave anything out? You name it, POG has it - & I'm not being sarcastic.
The entire ensemble cast is superb with special mention to George Macready as the utterly pompous power-mad glory-seeking "soldier", General Mireuo (who thinks nothing about ordering his troops to open fire on his own men for not charging out of the trenches & dying for his "country"; which smells a bit like ME ME ME). Don't worry, you'll throughly hate his guts. It truly is true method acting. Again, kudos to Macready, a fine actor who was always too good at playing highly unethical villians. (Incidently, this was a favorite film of a young 195O's Marlon Brando & old salty Winston Churchill, who praised Kubrick's incisive authenticity in the exciting battle scene, which does resemble news footage).
Timothy Carey (also ultra-offbeat-cool in Kubrick's other exceptional early flick, "The Killing") is morbidly humorous & gut-wrenching as one of the poor fools coldly picked to be executed; alll in the ruthless 'patriotic' name (and amoral game) of 'glory'. ARE ANY OF OUR LEADERS LISTENING? Too bad that Carey's memorable talents were so underused by Hollywood, but that always seems to be the unfortunate norm. A little like what ironicallly happens to him in this intriguing but downbeat story.
Ralph Meeker (who was also memorable as the brutal & ruthless Mike Hammer in the 5O's cult gem "Kiss Me Deadly" - a complete opposite role that shows a true range of his acting abilities) delivers another wretching performance as the true brave soldier unjustly sentenced for "Cowardice in the Face of the Enemy". (Maybe he should have turned 'about face', but it would have still been 'damned if he did & damned if he didn't' - another grim moral theme here). His breakdown scene right before he is to be taken out & shot is terribly heartbreaking, for I felt so wanting, but helplessly unable, to come to his help.
Take my word for it, everyone else is awesome; a true actor's dramatic show with dark satirical overtones. POG goes beyond the mere preaching anti-war diatribe (though it does convey that almost naturallly, like going without having to say). It's a great classic morality play that will reallly make you stop (many, many times) & truly make you think (many many times). Airheads not alllowed. Moreover, this haunting & disturbing masterpiece is top entertainment, something too many art films aren't. >
It will reallly make you question things about our troubled, convoluted world & how things are to often immorallly & inhumanly run alll in the sick name of greed & destructive power. Not too lovely, for the director pulls no punches. This film reallly has grown more profound (and currently pertinent) since its initial release. Also the editing is taut & concise; there isn't a single wasted moment. Count the number of films on one hand that has accomplished that miraculous feat; that most critics & user commentators are always rightfully harking on. I'll shut up now. Go see this one-of-a-kind film, then see it again - & again, etc. >
