the greatest film ever made

Rating: 10/10 (20 September 2008)

Now that "The Dark Knight" has toppled "The Godfather" from the #1 spot in the IMDb Top 250, only to be toppled in turn by "The Shawshank Redemption," might I be permitted to nominate this shamefully overlooked Stanley Kubrick classic from 1957? Made before he had perfected his unique signature, it has a raw, semidocumentary, almost cinema verite quality that distinguishes it from the more distant, formal films of Kubrick's maturity. Just compare it to "Full Metal Jacket," made exactly thirty years later. The film is short (less than an hour and a half) and there's no soundtrack aside from the relentless drum rolls. Kirk Douglas, whom I have often found hammy in other films, is perfect here as Colonel Dax, the sole voice of moral rectitude in a tale of double dealing, casual cruelty and Machiavellian intrigue. He's well-matched by his opponents: the deceptively suave Adolphe Menjou (the only Frenchman in the film) and the deranged Charles Macready. Interestingly, Menjou was one of Hollywood's premiere red-baiters, and played a key role in driving Chaplin from America. He plays a similar character here, and one wonders if he appreciated the irony. The black-and-white photography adds to the film's no-frills atmosphere. This film was considered so inflammatory that Kubrick was forbidden to shoot in France, and instead it was filmed in Germany, with German policemen doubling as French soldiers. "Paths of Glory" was a commercial failure, but it led to Kubrick's second collaboration with Douglas, 1960's "Spartacus," which gave Kubrick the box-office clout he needed to make his later masterpieces. Without this film there might never have been a "2001: A Space Odyssey" or "The Shining."