An incredibly real movie about military injustice declaring that Kubrick is a genius.

Rating: 10/10 (28 July 1999)

This is no normal war movie. It isn't even a common type of movie because it declares the stupidity of a war that wasn't the Vietnam war but the World War I. 12 years after WWII, Kubrick went back to the roots of the previous war and showed the downside of the war which should be the one side everybody should see.
Not having yet established his trademark as the king of rough and dark movies, Kubrick made his mark with "Paths of glory" in 1957 which came to be banned in France for 25 years because of his way of discriminating its army.
Kubrick had Kirk Douglas play the lead role which was perfect for him. the movie centers around the decision Douglas makes to withdraw his men from the attack of the "Ant hill" after having been bombed by his own superior. Douglas remains unfortunately unaware of this fact until the end of the movie. But after having had his men withdrawn from the attack, Douglas's men are accused of cowardice and three of his men are to be executed. A short court martial is held at the demand of Kirk Douglas but he doesn't have the opportunity to defend his men. The three are executed and Douglas is finally informed that his superior had ordered a bombing on his men. His superior is to be removed from his post and the penalty that awaits him is unknown to the audience.
As in all his movies, Kubrick lets you hoping the badguy will be caught until the end but as usual, it's too late to change the bad part when he is finally caught. A very close second to "Dr. Strangelove", this is one Kubrick movie lovers will not want to miss.