Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Paths of Glory / USA / 1957

Europe. World War I. Kirk Douglas is a French army colonel ordered to attack an impenetrable German position. After several futile attempts to dissuade his commanding officer from going through with the attack, the scheduled time arrives, and his men go over the top. No sooner do they reach the fringes of No Man’s Land than the German artillery begins picking them off, one, two, three at a time. And then the machine guns start. It’s a futile effort, and the men turn back. The fighting is so fierce that the second wave never even leaves the trench.

Convinced all the men need is proper motivation, however, the general in charge of the operation, concerned only with his reputation in the press, orders the men in the trenches to be fired upon. When this order is repeatedly refused, he grows irate, and begins to hatch a plan of vengeance. His solution is to accuse the troops of cowardice in the face of the enemy, and to have a select few executed as examples to all those who would shirk their patriotic duty.

Far from a poignant relic championing glorious deeds of The Great War, this is a terse, unflinching, unsentimental, and terrifyingly contemporary tale, relying on a stark, relentless depiction of allegedly true-to-life events to make a simple argument against the madness and futility of war. Never before has a film made me so angry at injustice, so dismayed at the selfishness and cruelty of the human race, or so incensed at the unwarranted devastation of armed conflict. Were it not for the calming presence of Kirk Douglas’s humane and honorable Colonel Dax, Kubrick’s naked portrayal of humanity at its worst—particularly the infuriating kangaroo court martial, in which three men are haphazardly tried and convicted to placate the bruised ego of a sad, inconsequential old man—would have made this a difficult film to endure.

by Thomas Scalzo | Source: Comcast On Demand Feature
24 Aug 2007 12:00 AM | Submit Comment