The Mutinies of 1917 - a fictional variant

Rating: 10/10 (3 July 2006)

Although he did the wonderful crime film THE KILLING before he did this, it was PATHS OF GLORY that brought Stanley Kubrick's talents forward. After PATHS OF GLORY he would make all types of films, but he would basically make them as he wanted to (although when working with his star here, Kirk Douglas, on SPARTACUS he would have such friction with Douglas that they never made any other films together afterward). So if it had not been for PATHS OF GLORY there would not have been LOLITA, DR. STRANGELOVE, 2001, BARRY LYNDON, and the other films. The Kubrick stamp of film artistry was born here.
The plot of the story is simple. Due to the system of trenches on the Western Front (that have France and Britain on one side and Germany on the other) the war has bogged down to a mutual bloodletting. It shouldn't been this way, but nobody that was sent to the Western Front through 1917 was a good commander. Von Falkenheyn, the German Commander at Verdun, was unable to hold onto early gains in that long, long battle. The best French General was Joseph Gallieni, who won the First Battle of the Marne by commissioning the famous "taxicab" army that drove the French troops to the front. But he retired. The actual Commander, "Papa" Joffre was popular with the men, but had a tendency of falling asleep at military strategy sessions. As for the British, Douglas Haig was saddled with planning global strategy for British forces in Africa, the Middle East, and India. His acceptance of the stalemate on the Western Front bordered on the criminal - he reduced the monstrous casualty rate to a simple war of attrition. With Commanders like Von Falkenheyn, Haig, and Joffre the war was hopeless. The suggestion of one more push "over the top" was repeated endlessly - and bloodily.
In 1917 units of the French Army had enough. The French Mutinies were long known, because of the trials and executions of hundreds of mutineers. One good result was the arrival at headquarters of General Henri Petain. His reputation is besmirched by his treason in leading the Vichy Government in World War II, but Petain was a senile old man when made a figure-head (a fact his old friend General Charles DeGaulle knew, so that he reduced the death sentence against the old man to life imprisonment). One generation earlier, Petain saved the army and France - a debt that really should not be forgotten. Yes he tried the ringleaders, but he also improved the lot of the poilu (common soldiers) so that they were not living like moles or rats all the time. The regeneration of the French armies that Ferdinand Foch would lead (with Haig and Pershing and their men) to eventual victory began when Petain took charge.
SPOILERS AHEAD:
PATHS OF GLORY looks at the situation that led to those mutinies, and to one of the drumhead courts. Adolph Menjou is a leading general, who realizes that a victory is required for appearance sake (i.e., the politicians are breathing down the back of the French High Command). He invites his old friend George Macready to lunch and drops a hint that if they could find a nice victory Macready may get promoted (Menjou says this very carefully - no fool he if he has to deny it). Macready can just taste the promotion. He promises the men will do the job.
They don't. The job is to capture a well protected salient called "the ant hill", because whenever men are fighting over it they look like ants fighting each other from a distance. The leader of the men who are to charge is Kirk Douglas. In peacetime he is an attorney, so he has enough brains to question the intelligence of the so-called army brains.
Macready is watching the attack from a bomb shelter, and notices the men will not leave the trench. He orders an artillery barrage on his own men, forcing them to face the Germans. This will turn out to be a disastrous mistake on his part.
After the disaster Macready picks three soldiers to be representative of the troops. One of them is selected by a Sergeant who is a real coward, and who is aware the enlisted man knows he is a coward. Douglas defends them, but the court is controlled by Macready and his flacks. The three are convicted. We watch their last night , with one (Timothy Carey) certain that a pardon will come for him at least. Another gets badly injured in a mishap. When the time for the three to be shot occurs (they are set up like Christ and the two robbers at Calvary), the wounded man is slapped out of unconsciousness to see the firing squad getting ready to fire.
Douglas has been discovering what Macready did - and reveals this to Menjou. He hopes to do this to force Menjou to overturn the death sentences. But Menjou holds back, and lets the executions go on. We see him dancing at a dinner party while this is going on. The next day, when Macready is having breakfast with Menjou (and Douglas shows up), Menjou brings up the illegal act of firing on his own men. Instead of a promotion, Macready is being thrown out of his command, and probably prevented from getting further ones. Pulling his shredded dignity together as best he could, he pointedly states that at least he was a soldier (unlike the courtier - general Menjou). After he leaves, Menjou offers Macready's command to Douglas. And Douglas tells him off very memorably.
PATHS OF GLORY is a fantastically good look at military incompetence, corruption, and those shafts of decency that the common soldiers and Douglas represent. Although set in time and place in 1917 France, it's message is universal. It is a great movie.