#112: Paths of Glory
Before “Full Metal Jacket”, Stanley Kubrick tackles a different pointless war
This review was originally posted to Twitter on June 11, 2019
Initial release: November 1, 1957
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Did you know that Stanley Kubrick actually made movies other than A Clockwork Orange? Crazy, right? Apparently he’d been making movies since the 1950s!
Okay, all sarcasm aside, Kubrick was one of the earliest independent filmmakers during the collapse of the Hollywood studio system, and while he’d made a name for himself with film noir hits like The Killers, it was this Great War drama starring Kirk Douglas that put him on the path to superstardom — despite being unofficially banned in France until 1975 because former and active French military figures found it offensive… nevermind that it was based on a real incident in 1915.
It’s 1916 and the battle lines of World War 1 have been stable — stagnant really — for two years. Every attempt to take territory is measured in meters of ground and inches of blood. A French general, vying for promotion, orders his struggling division to attack a heavily fortified position. The attack, as one would expect, goes quite poorly, and the general, throwing a tantrum, demands that heads roll — nevermind that he ordered artillery on his own troops. His only opposition is a lone colonel from his division, seeking desperately to save the lives of his men.
What follows is half courtroom drama, half anti-war film, all with a slick film noir vibe. Battle scenes are less heroic charges for the enemy lines and more of an indiscriminate slaughter as the French troops are forced to retreat amidst an undulating sea of corpses.
George MacReady plays an amazing piece of shit as the villainous General Mireau. Every scene he’s in, you hope a sniper or assassin comes for him — or maybe his own artillery. If this were a Ben Garrison cartoon, hanging over him would be a huge label reading ‘DETACHED MILITARY LEADERSHIP’ as he orders his troops into the mouth of Hell itself.
While this film is from the earlier portion of Stanley Kubrick’s career, his signature style is still quite recognizable here: long takes, tracking shots (he especially enjoys following officers as they move down trenches, giving the film a deeply claustrophobic vibe) and the ever popular Kubrick Stare. He also makes good use of lighting.
French filmmaker François Truffaut once said that you cannot make a truly anti-war film. The point he was making is that war movies, for the sake of keeping the audience engaged, has to play up war as glamorous or even glorious — completely undermining any anti-war sentiment. Paths of Glory, however, makes a strong argument that a truly anti-war movie is possible. There’s no glory in this film, let alone a path to it. All there is, is men thrown into a meat grinder by uncaring aristocratic generals who then blame the men for not surviving it. The war scenes are more harrowing than heroic; the most heroic figure in the movie spends most of his time arguing with his own fellow officers.
If you’re a fan of Kubrick, or war films, and you’re looking for something a little outside the beaten path of endless WW2 movies (there’s seriously like over a thousand), you can’t go wrong with this starkly realized tale of military injustice.
