A film that spits in the face of authority

Rating: 8/10 (12 May 2011)

Rated number 50 in the IMDb.com greatest movies of all time , Paths of Glory is not a film that i was particularly familiar with. I'm a fan of Stanley Kubrik and i love Kirk Douglas so it should come as no surprise that i really enjoyed this movie. When a group of soldiers in WW1 refuse to continue with an impossible attack, their superiors decide to make an example of them. I love the look of this film. You can pretty much tell this has Stanley Kubrick's fingerprints all over it. It asks uncomfortable political and social questions and you can't help but be angry at authority which is a thread that runs through a lot of Kubrik's movies. The acting is superb , especially from a super confident Kirk Douglas and like the fact that this does not have a sickly sweet outcome to it which was so common with war films made in the 40's and 50's. It's a film that spits in the face of authority while the common man suffers and i loved it.