NFR Project: “Paths of Glory”
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Scr: Stanley Kubrick, Calder Willingham, Jim Thompson
Pho: Georg Krause
Ed: Eva Kroll
Premiere: Dec. 20, 1957
88 min.
Director Stanley Kubrick made only 13 feature films, of which this is the fourth. Nearly every one of them is a masterpiece. Though his film previous to this, The Killing (1956), is considered his first mature movie, Paths of Glory is a remarkable step forward.
This anti-war film concerns World War I. The story is based on the true-life incident of the Souain corporals affair of 1915, in which four men were executed for cowardice when a company of men in the French army failed to leave the trenches and attack a German position. Four corporals were chosen randomly from the company for death, with the intent of motivating other soldiers to obey orders. The extralegal incident sparked a huge popular backlash.
Here, the powers that be insist on an impossible attack on the “Anthill,” a major German position. Major General Broulard (Adolph Menjo) instructs his subordinate, Brigadier General Mireau (George Macready) to implement the order. Mireau in turn commands the protagonist, Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas), to carry out the orders. Dax is a tough but fair officer who doubts that his men can take the position, but he leads a doomed assault anyway.
During the attack, some of the company refuse to advance. An enraged Mireau orders his artillery to shell his own men, but his order is refused. Mireau then insists that 100 men should be executed for cowardice. Broulard talks him down into executing only three men, one of whom is chosen randomly (Joe Turkel), another who is tagged in an act of revenge (Ralph Meeker), and an “undesirable” eccentric (Timothy Carey). The men are court-martialed, but they are not given the opportunity of a fair defense (Dax is their defense attorney) and are summarily sentenced.
The men agonize over their fate, but nothing can be done to save them. After a brutal night of waiting, the three are trotted out and shot. Dax protests vociferously to Broulard, letting him know that Mireau ordered an attack on his own men. Broulard throws Mireau under the bus, then offers Dax his command. Dax tells him to go to hell.
After this, Dax walks past a café in which his men are carousing. The café’s owner pushes a young German girl onto his stage, and she sings a plaintive song. The men initially hoot and whistle at her, but as she continues, the men grow silent and begin to weep and sing along with her. Dax is ordered to send his men back into the front lines, which he does reluctantly.
Kubrick gives us two primary locations: the elaborate mansion in which the generals live, eat well, and from which they issue their orders, and the trenches – muddy, shell-ravaged, covered with barbed wire and dead bodies. The gap between the rulers and ruled has rarely been so obvious. Kubrick’s camera tracks along with Dax as he stalks the trench, trying to lift his men’s morale. The filthy and despairing atmosphere of the battle front contrasts sharply with the generals’ mode of living.
The generals toy casually with the lives of their men. They reach out to destroy those who will not obey them. The infantrymen under them can do nothing but obey – or die. Dax’s outrage is our own.
The film was banned in many European countries for many years, supposedly for casting aspersions on the French army. Though it did not do well at the box office, it is considered a successful film and set Kubrick up for his net project with actor Douglas, 1960’s Spartacus.
The movie remains one of the most eloquent anti-war films ever made.
The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Sweet Smell of Success.
