Paths of Glory

 

         

         Coming back to Stanley Kubrick's filmography after taking a long or very long cold shower after watching Lolita as well as rethinking my life choices I decided to shift gears and pick an Anti-War film that was in fact Kubrick and Kurt Douglas's first collaboration together for which led to Kurt hiring Kubrick to direct Spartacus. Paths of Glory, like most of Kubrick's films, you most certainly must watch twice to see what Kubrick was preaching and this film no doubt has that special meaning where war is for certainly bad, but using your own foot soldiers has pawns to save your own skin is much worse.

          During World War I, commanding officer General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) orders his subordinate, General Mireau (George Macready), to attack a German trench position, offering a promotion as an incentive. Though the mission is foolhardy to the point of suicide, Mireau commands his own subordinate, Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas), to plan the attack. When it ends in a disaster, General Mireau demands the court-martial of three random soldiers to save face. 

           If you take the idea of Anti-War film out of the equation the film itself is about two men, whose both ideals of leadership are put to the test. And Stanley Kubrick in my opinion puts an interesting spin on the equation, General Mireau is a military man or politician that will do anything in this great war to achieve glory even it it means putting his own soldiers’ lives at risk as well as saving his own, and even when the attack goes disarray he wants to throw his own soldiers under the bus, just to clean his own hands of his own incompetence, for which is something I can relate to in a sense because I worked around people who have more power and yet they'll blame the lower class of co-workers because of their incompetence or egotism. While Colonel Dax on the other hand is a great example of what it means to be a true leader, by means of he's willing to go up in the attack against all odds with his own troops even if it means being gun downed, and even in the face of his own men being put to trial against cowardice he still stands tall in helping his own men, to prove his own innocence. Though through the course of the movie you can see Mireau turns the trial into a kangaroo court or another good word, is a farce, but even in the midst of the trial Douglas's character says the best line in the entire movie "there are times when I'm ashamed to be a member of the human race and this one is such occasion" moreover that line hits home because there are times how where I feel ashamed to be part of the human race as of what's happening in the world today though the difference is I try to look for the hope in humanity, just the same way Dax does with his troops. There are no right answers or theories as to why this movie is truly amazing, but in the way I see this movie, that this great epic really shows that even in the higher ups, you can't look down your troops as undiscipline children or animals that will do anything for that generals glory or expect loyalty for you own troops you have to earn their respect the same way your fellow commander has earned the respect from you as a person, more importantly you have to treat soldiers as human beings and not just cattle for personal sacrifices. Now if you’re telling a movie about higher generals treating foot soldiers like cattle then you need to set this movie in a realistic way as possible and setting this story in World War I is most certainly the best way to tell a story like Paths of Glory, for a gillion reasons the Great War was not a great war in the sense that there were more horrific deaths than World War II, to the certain extent that No Man's Land, when you set foot on that battlefield whether your friend or foe you are gunned down and your body is literally left for the crows and nobody is going to come to give you a proper burial for good reasons, your fellow ally or friend will be gunned down as well, for which explains what the terrain was called No Man's Land because no army could possibly crossed on each other's side of the terrain for which gives the best reason why crossing each other's side was suicidal. Paths of Glory is a great film that shows how men will stop at nothing to achieve their own Glory even if it means sacrificing their own troops to protect their own reputation but more importantly shows what it means to be a true leader as well as even against all odds you have to see the positive sides of humanity no matter how people would treat their fellow man to protect their own ego or treating people as lesser people to tell themselves that their not the problem. Kubrick again shows great themes to all of his movies and this one is defiantly an exception to his greatness as an artist, furthermore this film alone shows that even Kubrick can make a grand epic because without this movie we wouldn't have the second collaboration of him and Kirk Douglas together as well as through the course of his life, both this movie and Spartacus showed that Kubrick can make a great epic for the audience and explore themes of humanity. I would highly recommend watching Paths of Glory moreover will argue and say between this movie and Spartacus that this was Kirk Douglas best performance when it comes to working with Stanley Kubrick. Now, with great luck, this film is available for free on YouTube as well as Pluto TV and the best part is that you can watch the movie on Amazon Prime if you have a subscription. Now and hopefully with great luck, I will be able to continue this month with Barry Lyndon for which will be my final Kubrick movie to watch, and then movie to Kubrick films that I haven't seen in a long time.