Paths of Glory

I’ve just been watching Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory (1957) again on TCM, and I was reminded of just how good a film it is. 2001 may be the better known, more philosophically sophisticated film, and Dr. Strangelove is (justly) lauded for its savage satire, but Paths of Glory strikes me as Kubrick’s most moral (and morally outraged) film.

It is certainly a bleak one. Set in WWI France, the film focuses on a disastrous assault by French troops, and on the French generals’ subsequent efforts to find scapegoats to blame for their own mistakes. Kirk Douglas plays Col. Dax, the man charged with leading the assault and with defending the scapegoats at trial. He has little faith in the attack as he leads it, and is fully aware of (and outraged by) the sham of a trial that follows. Douglas is quite good in this role, giving a tightly controlled performance. It would have been easy for him to take Dax over the top – to overplay the character’s outrage. He doesn’t, instead playing the part close to his vest. When he does explode, it thus has a greater impact.

There is no happy ending here, so be prepared. If ever a film title was meant to be ironic, it is this one. The film's message about the brutality of war is by now old hat, but it is brought home here with such unsparing economy of focus that many other anti-war films look overwrought and preachy. The film is quite worth the time it takes to watch (and at less than 90 minutes, that’s not much). A brilliant film, but devastating.