Cinefile

Paths of Glory embodies so much of the Stanley Kubrick canon (a searing dialogue that is largely mortified by human vanity and fallacy), it's a wonder that so many cinephiles revel in it for its technical feats instead. Then again, much of the visual scheme--single take tracking shots--in Paths became both a landmark achievement and eventual Kubrick trademark. But for an American anti-war film--especially one whose principal characters are either French or German--Kubrick's Paths of Glory oddly works more as a warning against the values of war as opposed to reflecting on the psychological strain that war births to young souls. It's a strange film, with much of the action taking place between closed rooms. The centerpiece of Paths, a large attack on a German "Anthill," is the only "action sequence"; one that functions as a lyrical nightmare and not as a patriotic hymn to glory. Thus the ironic title.

Kirk Douglas stars as Colonel Dax, who is in charge of a French division that is embedded deep in the trenches of the German front. Although these are the beginning chapters to World War I, Kubrick opens to the film to cold narration and a key political war transaction: French General George Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) promises General Mireau (George Macready) a staff promotion should he organize an attack on the German "Anthill." Though Mireau understands that countless men will die in this endeavor, he begins to seek out both the desired division and its leader. Kubrick inserts a cynical humor that is icy to the touch during these opening scenes. "Ready to kill more Germans?" Mireau asks the French soldiers in the trenches. Topical war items like the state of "shellshock" are just glossed over here. Kubrick is more interested in the quietly sinister red tape which goes on behind the scenes of war.

Suffice it to say that Dax's division is indeed chosen to storm the German front, to expected failure. Innumerable men are killed and the tactical execution is so sloppy that Mireau opts to cover his own tracks by publicly executing three (random) soldiers in order to condemn cowardice. The scenes involving the three poor death row soldiers are brief and blunt. Kubrick, never much the sap, handles the pacing of Paths with an almost militaristic control--a trait that matured to great heights in his later Full Metal Jacket. By the end of Paths of Glory, men die needlessly, innocent men are wrongly executed and the bureaucracy of the top commanding war officials stay intact. It's all so eerily disheartening, yet no doubt true. Kubrick understands these dramatic ironies and is a cunning enough artist to make us face these facts without flinching.

DVD Special Features:

This Criterion disc has a substantial amount of supplemental material but unfortunately is rather vacant of Kubrick himself. Video interviews (both old and new) with key players like Douglas and executive producer Jan Harlan are at hand but only an audio interview with a young Kubrick is at the viewer's disposal. An interesting feature comes in a new video interview with Kubrick's widow, Christiane Kubrick. Mrs. Kubrick was cast as the German singer in Paths of Glory's famous last scene and she explains how she came into both the film and the great director's life.