Cowardice and Bravery as depicted in the film (spolier inside)

Rating: Null/10 (19 January 2000)

In the movie Paths of Glory soldiers are put on trial and executed for "cowardice in the face of the enemy". The movie is about different kinds of true cowardice and bravery and the effects they have on men. Through the use of World War 1 as a setting, the movie depicts the human virtue of bravery. It also demonstrates the real differences between bravery and cowardice.
Real bravery is shown in the movie through a number of different methods: The way the men stood up to their execution, even though they were picked unfairly and were going to die for no real reason. The very fact that the soldiers came out of the trenches in the first on an obviously impossible mission was another way real bravery was shown. Finally, bravery as shown by Colonel Dax standing up to both of the Generals, even though he knew it probably would mean the end of his chances for promotion and maybe even his career. Another example of real bravery is shown by the artillery commander. He ignores what is a direct command from his superior officer to fire on his own troops. He does this knowing full well what kind of trouble that he could get into, but still denies his orders because he knows that it is the right thing to do.
Real cowardice is also shown in this movie. One of the most obvious is General Miro giving in to personal ambition. He was the key role in the actual pushing forward of the mission, because he though it would get him a promotion. When he saw that all the men were not advancing out of the trenches, he ordered his artillery units to fire on their own trenches. Afterwards he didn't even have enough integrity to face up and say that he had ordered the friendly fire in an attempt to force his men out of their trenches. Instead, he had three men killed for the mistakes that he had made during his command. Another example of cowardice appears in the form of the Lieutenant who leads the scouting mission into the enemy's territory. He takes with him two other soldiers. Before the mission he was caught drinking by the men that were to accompany him. After reaching the enemy lines, he sent one of the other two ahead as an advance scout. Later he began to hear the sounds of fighting and panicked. He threw a grenade toward the enemy side and then fled back to his own trenches. His companion went to go looking for the missing scout, and found him, his smoking corpse was all that was left from the grenade that was thrown at him by the Lieutenant. By this is not where the real cowardice takes place. Later on, after the doomed assault on the ant hill, the Lieutenant is ordered to choose one man from his division to face trial, who was to be picked randomly. Instead he chose the only witness to his cowardly actions and slaying of a friendly soldier. He could not bring himself to even tell Colonel Dax the truth. He had been drinking before a dangerous mission, fled in the face of an enemy that he never even saw, and killed one of his own men in the process. His act of cowardice was to send his only witness to go take the bullet for something that he obviously fully deserved.
Bravery is not just a measure of how much a man is willing to risk his life. Any man can be convinced through drugs or other means to rush head long into a battle. This is not necessarily all bravery is about. It is also a measure of their personal pride and will. It is the ability to be to undeservedly die and to take it with pride and dignity intact. It is the ability to stand in the face of something that you know is wrong, that you know you will be killed for, and that you know if there were any fairness at all in the world, you would not be taking the blame for it. This does not necessarily have to be death, such as the soldiers in the movie faced, but can even apply to unjust punishments in our society. Just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, you can get in trouble even though you did nothing at all. On the same token, cowardice is not just standing down in the face of what seems to be, or is, an impossible task. That is just being sensible or smart. Real cowardice is putting the blame on other people or shrugging responsibility off of you to someone or something else, even though you know what you did was wrong. Just because you can get away with it does not make it the right thing to do. By doing this you usually end up hurting others and maybe even getting them punished for something that you did.