Riveting and well-acted

Rating: 7/10 (18 January 2018)

If you liked All Quiet on the Western Front, you'll love Paths of Glory. Told in the same anti-war tone, Stanley Kubrick's film conveys a stark, bleak atmosphere in his black-and-white footage, Georg Krause's stoic cinematography, and Malcom Arnold's minimalistic score. It follows the planning and potential execution of a suicide mission in World War One. If you can use your suspension of disbelief and accept the fact that no one in the movie has a French accent, you'll be in for a very riveting, well-acted film.
Adolphe Menjou and George Macready are big-wigs in the French army, and they plan out a mission for their boys in the trenches that has virtually no likelihood of success. Both men are hard-hearted and treat men in uniform like chess pawns. Emotional and physical wounds are often ignored, but when Kirk Douglas hears of the plan, he doesn't want to go through with it. He actually cares about his soldiers and doesn't want to order them to their death.
Keep in mind that this is a war drama, so don't pop this in if you're in the mood for a light afternoon flick. This movie will absolutely get you riled up, and if you're already anti-war, it might become one of your favorites. It had the misfortune to be released the same year as The Bridge on the River Kwai, which swept the Oscars in 1958 and took space in audiences' memories in the years to come. You've probably heard of Paths of Glory, but unless you're a film buff or student, you might not have seen it. If you're up for a very heavy, depressing movie, it's absolutely worth watching.