Great premise, bad storytelling

Rating: 3/10 (12 December 2013)

We're still wondering where Stanley Kubrick wanted to go with this Paths of Glory.
Even though the historic facts on which it relies on are far from being uninteresting, the plot is, the dramatic tension is almost non-existent and the story goes from one subject to another from scene to scene with not much coherence.
As for the form, granted the cinematography is beautiful with some excellent tracking shots in the trenches and an exceptional travelling shot in the no man's land, but the mise-en-scène is sometimes almost ridiculous when for example two characters are climbing stairs, then stop halfway through, then separate in opposite directions.
To sum up, it's hard to grasp Kubric's logic, what he wanted to tell, the level of analysis is superficial and even though the movie is barely an 1h30 long, you just want to get to the end of it.