World War I -- Kubrick Style

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2006)

"Paths of Glory" is a film about the stupidity of warfare, set in 1916, when the French and the Germans were entrenched opposite one another and a ranking officer of the French General Staff (Adolphe Menjou) persuades a field general (George Macready) that it would be good for his career if he made an attempt to capture the "ant hill," a German strong point opposite the French position. Menjou and (especially) Macready are perfect for their parts. I'm of two minds about Kirk Douglas as the colonel instructed to make the attack which he knows is doomed to failure. Douglas was a star of considerable magnitude at the time but he is no more credible as a French officer than he would have been as Lassie. Nevertheless, Douglas could act, and as the central figure in the film, he carries it off. There are a great many outstanding scenes in this movie -- what else would you expect with Stanley Kubrick as writer and director -- but the most telling is when a frightened German girl (Christiane Kubrick, also known as Suzanne Christian) is escorted on stage in a beer hall filled with French soldiers who despise the Germans and forced to sing a sad song in German which when the catcalls die down leave every one in the audience (on both sides of the screen) misty eyed or crying. My own memory of that scene will last long after every other fades away. This is a great film, worthy of its reputation.