Medals of Honor Lead to Hell

Rating: 10/10 (21 October 2005)

In the military there are those, Corporals in this case, who falsely want Medals of Honor, and there are those falsely want to give them the medals of honor, higher generals in this case. Both of these things come crashing into each other like a train in this film. This is hailed as the only anti-war war movie ever made. That is quite an accomplishment. And who else but Stanley Kubrick could have thought to do such a project and not give it any kind of structure?
First, you see a meeting between the two men in question. One says they must do a doomed mission and there is another star medal in it for him if he behind his desk has a general go through with it. He, the corporal, at first says no until the higher up says that he'll just get someone else do it and ouch, without a medal if "deserves". So, he agrees to go through with the doomed mission and thats when Kirk Douglas as the general has no choice but to go through with it...or get discharged from his men and have someone else that is 100% unqualified. Unqualified, you ask? Well, Kirk's character understands that you have to know your men to lead them and so some stranger can't just come in and try to lead men to their doom. He has honor that the corporal is just shy of and wants to appear to have. The corporal tries to tell him of Patriotism and that's when Kirk fires back with a quotation from Samuel Johnson: "Patriotism is the refuge of a scoundrel". double ouch.
Of course, the mission is a failure and to cover his own back, the general that assigned the mission backs out of responsibility and gives it to the deluded corporal because after all, in military law, it's 90% true if you are higher up. So, its always the higher ups word against the lower. So, some men are executed even though Kirk's character was a polished criminal lawyer in the name of killing men every now and then sets good examples to the other soldiers. But what? It was an impossible mission and now they have to be killed in the name of setting examples? Hey, its their word. Who's going to believe who.
Then comes to the ending of this movie that you sense is an an ending but just can't believe it. It cuts to Kirk's character hearing some men sing along with a German women who is crying and forced to sing. To him on the outside it sounds like all is fun and innocent on the inside. But the girl is crying and even guys are crying singing along. This is not a happy ending.