"Glory" part of Kubrick's path to greatness.

Rating: 10/10 (8 August 2008)

With the exception of Lewis Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front (29), Paths of Glory is probably the most powerful anti-war film ever made, clearly laying the blame for such obscene waste of life at the feet of vainglorious officers in ruthless pursuit of advancement.
By 1916 of World War 1 the armies of France and Germany find themselves battling to a standoff in a quagmire decorated in barbed wire known as "No Man's Land". The 107th infantry stationed in the trenches on the front line is overextended and undermanned from casualties. The battalion commander, General Mireau (George Mac Cready) at first begs off an attack on "The Ant Hill", a near impregnable position, for these reasons. But when General Broulard (Adolfe Menjou) offers him promotion Mireau quickly does an about face and agrees to the suicidal attack. When it fails miserably, Mireau attempting to deflect blame demands that enlisted men be chosen as examples and tried for cowardice, the penalty of which is death in front of a firing squad.
From the beautifully choreographed dance for death between the cold hearted generals in the lavish country mansion to the grippingly taut tracking shots through the trenches and the attack across No Man's Land director Stanley Kubrick's visual artistry is well in evidence as he draws striking contrast between those who make war and those who fight it. The generals live in lavish spacious quarters while in filthy squalor the infantry hug trench walls under constant shelling. The trial itself is a mockery, with the impeccably dressed General Mireau lounging in an 18th Century love seat interrupting the proceedings as he sees fit while the accused look awkward and out of place in rumpled uniforms. Kubrick skillfully gives the proceedings a chess board look with these three pawns surrounded by knights and kings.
As the ruthlessly ambitious generals, Menjou and Mac Cready look very much at home festooned in beautifully tailored uniforms, billeted in palaces. The war is a game to them as well as an opportunity for advancement. If it takes massive loss of life to achieve objective then so be it. As the bridge between officer and enlisted man Kirk Douglas as Colonel Dax is omniscient witness to the cold inhumanity being practiced on the battle field as well as in the drawing room. Douglas gives one of his finest performances restrained in part by the fact he must be an officer and maintain control and not give vent to emotion. In the court room he fights passionately for his men, but on the battle field he must lead by example and his stoic demeanor as he moves through the trenches before going over the top in the attack scene solidifies his perfect fit as Dax.
This is the first in what I consider Kubrick's run of superb films between 1957 and 1970. The topic is controversial (it was banned in France, Germany and Spain),the telling sardonic. Jump cutting gives the film a rapid rush to judgment pace and those incredible tracking shots evident in so many of his films are powerfully employed throughout Paths. The music score other than percussion and military drumming is confined to two scenes but used to maximum effect, especially in the film's finale.
Paths of Glory is a rare combination of form and content flawlessly carried off by a cinema icon presenting a message that resonates just as powerfully today as it did back then.