Stanley
Kubrick's 'Paths of Glory' is at once a masterful anti-war epic and an
expression of true patriotism and duty.
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| "Due to this collar, I will never have children." |
In only two hours it manages to encapsulate the full spectrum of horror
regarding combat battle and the ruthless, counterproductive politics behind the
war machine. Set during WWI surrounding trench
warfare between France and Germany, the film is loosely based on the true story
of a Regiment Colonel's (Kirk Douglas, in arguably his greatest role) efforts
to defend three soldiers wrongfully indicted with charges of cowardice, picked
at random as an example to the regiment for failing to seize a German position
known as 'the Anthill' in order to deflect attention from the court marshall's
own order to the regimen to fire upon his own squad. While filled with sweeping vistas of warfare
set deep in the trenches, the real battles are fought in court concerning
innocent soldiers needlessly sent to death for the reckless egos of their
superiors.
An
early indication of the impeccable technical quality of Kubrick, 'Paths of
Glory' contains some of the cleanest, most beautifully photographed sequences
of combat ever lensed. Films like
Spielberg's 'Saving Private Ryan' and its D-Day sequences clearly took note of
the intercutting between wide shots of armies charging ahead into a barrage of
bullets and explosions and close-ups of grimy faces of men huddled together in
the trenches.
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| "Ok. When I blow this whistle, you idiots run in to oncoming fire so I don't have to. Got it?" |
Kubrick's symmetrical use
of perspective, medium shots and his sharp, clinical editing is as fully
developed and pristine as the footage of his later world-famous efforts such as
'2001: A Space Odyssey', 'Clockwork Orange', and his 2nd anti-war
epic, “Full Metal Jacket”. Kubrick's
perfectionism also began to bloom with 'Paths of Glory', as stories of veteran
actor Adolphe Menjou losing his temper over being asked for repeat takes by the
director, albeit a precursor to Kubrick's request that Scatman Crothers explain
the process of 'shining' to actor Danny Lloyd 148 times for 'The Shining'.
The
anger Kubrick's tragedy fills his viewers with is palpable, with its obvious
hypocrisy regarding the unfair trial of innocent men's lives as convenient
coverage for their superior's own infractions.
Less about war itself than the personified images of those purporting to
fight it, it's an indictment of the war machine sacrificing the lives of the
innocent in order to fulfill their own reputation. For years, due to its portrait of the French
General command, the film was withheld from release in France until the mid
1970s. Only during the film's symbolic
finale when a German woman (Kubrick's future wife, Christiane Kubrick) sings a
children's folk song to a drunk and rowdy regimen after the execution does the
film's anti-war language become universal and clear. While war is a ruthless meat grinder
devouring nearly all who participate in it, it's the battles fought behind
closed doors that are the most vicious and deeply haunting.
