Paths of Glory

Paths of Glory (1957)

a film by Stanley Kubrick

Paths of Glory has some of the most memorable images in war films: the camera travels next to the soldiers over no-man's land or shows their faces in the foggy trench right before the charge. But this movie features more than the great technical genius of Stanley Kubrick. It is also the portrait of a bitter story, one where the ambition and contempt for human life contrast with the sense of honor and decency.

I watched Paths of Glory and with every scene I was feeling a larger and larger hole in my stomach. It is not easy to see the story of Colonel Dax and his men, in the shameful frame of the First World War. It is the great success of this film to deprive the battle scenes from any heroism or epic and present the hell of war as it was created by the men who pushed the regiment without any consideration for human life.

It is a big contrast to watch Paths of Glory after The Great Dictator, but I found in both of them the same feeling of hope despite the darkness of the times. The Colonel Dax is greatly incarnated by Kirk Douglas. He drives the story and provides the spirit of confrontation between the shameful reality of war and the search for decency and honesty that is so moving about this film.

This is one of the best war (anti-war) films I have ever watched and it is hard not to feel something and take many ideas home after watching it. The technical mastership of Kubrick make many of the scenes linger in my pupil and the story still feels like a knot in my heart.