Somewhat overrated film that manipulates it's audience

Rating: 6/10 (25 March 2009)

Paths of glory is an entertaining enough work of drama, but it appears that the filmmakers started out with a viewpoint and pulled out all the stops to steer the viewer towards their own conclusions. They should have let the viewer make up his or her own mind about war and arrogance. Their is no mystery as to what the outcome will be, as it is telegraphed way in advance.
Another scenario would be to have the men on trial be accused of real cowardice in the face of the enemy, instead of trumped up charges. The Colonial could have then argued for a more lenient punishment using a psychological defense, for example, "Should primal fear and being mentally unable to kill a man, be worthy of a death sentence,"
We should have then been allowed a glimpse of the tribunal's deliberations as they weighed the pros and cons of sparing their lives. Instead we're given a simplistic story of good guy vs. bad guys, which provokes no thought and runs on sheer emotion.