Released 67 years ago and directed by Stanley Kubrick, “Paths of Glory” is considered one of the greatest war films ever made, carried at arm’s length by an immense Kirk Douglas. To see or review on Amazon.
In 1916, during World War I, French General Broulard ordered General Mireau to launch a suicidal offensive against an impregnable German position, nicknamed “La Fourmilière”. At the time of the attack, soldiers fell by the hundreds.
But some of the troops did not leave the trenches: their officers were killed at the very moment of launching the assault. Ulcerated, General Mireau orders fire on his own troops.
A compromise was finally found: soldiers, chosen by lot, would be shot “as an example”. Colonel Dax, who himself carried out the assault on the Anthill at the head of 8,000 men, a former lawyer in civilian life, ensures the defense of the soldiers who go to war council…
Four years before Spartacus, the first collaboration between Stanley Kubrick and Kirk Douglas already produced an absolute masterpiece, undoubtedly the best film ever dedicated to the First World War: Paths of Glory.
Kubrick relies, among other things, on the affair of the “corporals of Souain” where General Réveilhac allegedly had his own regiment refusing to leave the trenches shot during an impossible assault, before having four corporals executed on March 17, 1915. Which would not be rehabilitated until 1934.
Unlike a classic war film, we never see the enemy. Here, the opposition does not pass between two camps but between the officers and soldiers of the same camp; some playing their promotions, like the cruel General Mireau, others their lives like these unfortunate people who will be shot “for example”.
And in the middle: men like Colonel Dax (powerfully played by Douglas), certainly impetuous and impulsive, but idealistic and deeply human. Without demagoguery or Manichaeism, attacking the implacable and aberrant mechanisms of military justice, Kubrick’s film is also a powerful vector of timeless and universal values such as peace, justice and equity.
67 years after its release, the demonstration remains as brilliant and relentless as ever. Particularly thanks to Kubrick’s work on the front, rear and side tracking shots.
Below, an extract from the incredible sequence of the attack on the Anthill, an extraordinary scene from the film. The Poilus’ faces are closed, serious, the tension and fear are extreme. The assault is imminent…
In the now very abundant production of films based on the Great War of 14-18, Paths of Glory rightly remains unassailable, offering Kirk Douglas one of the greatest roles of his fabulous career. To see or rewatch on Amazon Prime.