Friday, February 1, 2013
Paths of Glory (1957)
“Paths
of Glory” is Stanley Kubrick’s dramatization of a doomed French army attack on
a German-held hill during World War I, and the immoral trial that follows where
three soldiers are accused of cowardice. Or, rather, not sacrificing themselves
for country, God, and their general’s careers. Kirk Douglas plays the defense
attorney turned Army colonel who survives the ill-planned attack and will damn
himself rather than see one of his soldiers die for false pride. This is
pitch-black, dead serious satire, a liberal’s film from the go as it
eviscerates the essence of war and the military brass that strategize in
palaces while their men die in muddy trenches. Kubrick’s direction is tight and
powerful, there’s not a wasted scene in this razor-sharp film. His long
tracking shots along endless trenches are breath-killing claustrophobic, nailing
what must be the true fear of battle, where doomed men debate how they will go
out: bomb, bullet, or knife. A scene where a sociopathic general berates to a
soldier, “there’s no such thing as shell shock,” slices hard. American hero
Patton did that. This film is no fantasy, but depicts a
true, terrible story. A+
Labels:
1957,
anti-war,
black and white,
classic,
cowardice,
execution,
Kirk Douglas,
liberal,
Paths of Glory,
Stanley Kubrick,
suicide,
true story,
World War I
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