Kubrick's Scathing Indictment Of War And Military Tribunals

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2012)

It is an unfortunate fact of humanity that few things seem to stimulate it more than watching hundreds of thousands die in war, no matter the enemy and no matter the necessity. But it is equally true that war has been commented upon time immemorial on the big screen, sometimes with utter jingoism being involved (as is the case with many a John Wayne film), but usually with a "Man's inhumanity to Man" comment involved. Such is true of director Stanley Kubrick's 1957 film PATHS OF GLORY, set against the horrible backdrop of World War I and involving a criminal court-martial that, by itself, is even more horrible than the war itself.
Based on Humphrey Cobb's classic novel of the same name, PATHS OF GLORY involves a French army regiment's charge against a heavily fortified German ant hill on the Western Front, instigated by an ambitious general (George Macready) who has been promised a promotion by his superior (Adolphe Menjou) should it succeed. Needless to say, despite the efforts of most of the men, the withering mortar fire of the Germans causes the attack to be a crippling disaster; and Macready, looking for someone to blame for an attack that was strategically pointless from the get-go, orders that three men (Timothy Carey; Ralph Meeker; Joe Turkel) who could not advance far out of the trenches be put on trial for cowardice, a charge that carries with it execution by firing squad. Kirk Douglas, who portrays the men's trench commander and who in civilian life is an attorney, is given the unenviable task of defending his men against charges that, just on face value alone, are extremely ludicrous, but he is prevented by the General Staff and the prosecutors (including Richard Anderson) from presenting exculpatory evidence. As a result, not even three days after the Ant Hill attack, the three men are executed. Douglas, however, uncovers evidence of Macready's complicity in the attack and the fact that he ordered other French troops to fire on the psychologically paralyzed men. He also confronts Menjou with Menjou's own complicity in this sick and pointless incident, verbally denouncing the general square in the face.
Having achieved a great early standing with his 1956 crime film THE KILLING, Kubrick became internationally known on the basis of this masterful and scathing combination of war and courtroom drama that, as would be the pattern of many of his films, was also the source of controversy. Its depiction of the behavior of French commanding officers attracted a lot of scorn in France, so much so that PATHS OF GLORY was not shown there until the late 1970s; and several US bases in other countries in Europe weren't allowed to show it either until the early 1970s. As with so many detractors of Kubrick's films, however, the French and American military censors missed the point. The film does not dishonor the men who actually did the fighting in the war, but it does severely scrutinize the commanders who sit behind their desks in sheltered chateaus, prosecute wars and trials as if they were marks of manhood, and destroy those who won't follow the most ludicrous of orders. This can be said not only of World War I, but also of almost every military conflict that has come in its wake, from World War II to Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. What is equally important is how Kubrick, often criticized in his career as a cold director, is able to depict the best of humanity (in Douglas and the three men he has to defend) against both the inhumanity of the kind of trench warfare that World War I was, and the basic inhuman bureaucracy represented by Macready, Menjou, and Anderson. PATHS OF GLORY, much like the similar Lewis Milestone classic ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, is a hard-hitting look at what war does; and unlike so many jingoistic films of the war genre, it shows how it damages soldiers and also how it absolutely corrupts commanders.
Kubrick shot most of this film in the countryside outside of Munich, West Germany, and he gets the most out of his actors, including Douglas (in one of his most powerful and humane performances), while Menjou and Macready accurately depict the toadying commanders who plan and decide with only glory in their minds (but as the old saying goes, "the paths of glory lead but to the grave"). The end result in PATHS OF GLORY was a milestone film for Kubrick as a director, and a signpost for Hollywood that it could no longer depict war as merely a flag-waving, patriotic venture or grist for political propaganda. It is a masterpiece of the highest order, one of many in Kubrick's canon.