Kubrick's Masterful Rescue and True Classic

Rating: 10/10 (10 January 2007)

Not sure if this post has 'spoilers', but here goes---Few realize Kubrick was 'given-a-shot' at 'rescuing' this film from its initial director. I 1st saw it on late-nite TV, as a 'kid', and was quickly 'hooked'---no idea of who Kubrick was---simply captivated by the acting, realism, and sad truths of the politics of war.
Kirk Douglas is superb, as the defender of French soldiers, who wisely refuse to be 'cannon-fodder', later accused of 'desertion', only to be put on trial, for their lives.
The film, for some reason, was handed to Kubrick and this is where he became known as 'Master-of-the-trenches', having several close-calls at being 'blown-up' while directing the many very chancy explosions characteristic of 'trench-warfare'. Unlike his later work, there is no dark humor here---just brutal reportage, as in 'The Killers'.
This film never flinches in its realism. The hapless 'deserters, to spite a brilliant defense, have no chance---it's a 'set-up' from the 'get-go'.
Seeing this work truly informs the viewer of war's injustices, and dispensed any foolish ideas of my youth on its 'glory'. The final scene, (spoiler?), where one to be shot passes-out, only to have the executioner slap him awake haunts me even now. A Must-See.