A true anti-war polemic

Rating: 9/10 (12 April 2010)

Too many war films claim to condemn their subject matter with one hand whilst making pornographic use of battlefield bloodshed with the other. Kubrick's second studio picture, banned in France until 1975, was truly controversial, but not because of the violence.
The plot is simple: General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) asks General Mireau (George Macready) to command his division to storm the Ant Hill, an unassailable German target across no-man's land. Sniffing promotion, Mireau agrees. And so it is down to Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) to undertake the impossible mission. When it fails, Mireau blames Dax's soldiers, and three of them are chosen to be tried for cowardice. The trial turns out to be Dax's second impossible mission.
At under 90 minutes, it's remarkable how many themes are explored. And these are the big ones, too: courage, belief, fear and, most significantly, humanity. Dax is a moral man in a war-torn world where humanity does not exist - and not simply on the battlefield, but in the general's headquarters. All hope seems spent when Broulard confronts Dax in one of the final scenes, and is surprised to find that the colonel's actions truly came from a position of morality. But then some light in the darkness: a German singer (Susanne Christian, who would later become Kubrick's wife) touches the souls of his men; observing the scene reminds Dax that hope does still exist - just not in war.