About the evils of men and war

Rating: Null/10 (5 March 2019)

Stanley Kubrick was a very versatile director. His movies differ greatly in subject matter and genre. Yet there are common elements among all of his films. The technical mastery, the tone, and some themes. Of those themes sexuality was a big one, but not as big as war. Or rather the opposition of war.
Paths of Glory takes place in the French trenches during World War One. Desperate and ruthlessly ambitious general orders his men to take a hill held by the Germans. This proves to be an impossible task and the men retreat. Incensed, the general accuses his men of cowardice in the face of the enemy and orders one man from every company to be executed by firing squad.
This doesn't sit well with Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas), the regiment's leader, and he appoints himself as their defense at the court-martial.
It's an early Kubrick film and thus it doesn't have quite as many "But what does it mean?" scenes than his more famous films. There are some of those here as well - the ending for example - but it is a surprisingly straightforward as far as Kubrick films go.
Yet you can still see his touch in almost everything. Especially on the technical side of things. The film has some great long takes of men walking in the trenches or crawling over the no man's land. The characters are rather black-n-white, or at the very least easy to understand motivation-wise. Which is typical for Kubrick, when you think about it. His characters would develop more grey areas in his later films, but they'd always remain rather... Iconic? Archetypical? They're deep despite it, don't get me wrong. Perhaps it would be better to say that his character are cut with broad, wide strokes, to make them easier to understand in the context of the story.
Not the best Kubrick film I've ever seen, but very good nevertheless. If you like this one, you probably should check out The Killing as well.