- Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory contains one of the most intense cinematic depictions of the first world war. Led by the brave but war-weary Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas), a company of soldiers marches toward a German outpost known as "The Anthill." To say that they are taking fire is an understatement. The troops are blanketed by a barrage of shells that constantly explode around them as they dutifully trudge toward their goal. In an immense, extended tracking shot, Colonel Dax blows a whistle to lead the march as his struggling squadron takes heavy casualties. It's eventually obvious that this is a suicide mission, and the colonel sensibly signals for his men to retreat. Unfortunately, the general who ordered the attack is not nearly so sensible.
- General Mireau (George Macready) is a leader who doesn't let reality dictate his decisions. Once the calculating General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) suggests that the Anthill can be taken, Mireau commits himself fully to accomplishing this impossible task. He is so monomaniacal, in fact, that he even orders troops to fire upon his own retreating French soldiers. Thankfully, that order is not carried out. Faced with the mission's failure, however, Mireau demands a scapegoat. After consulting with Dax and Broulard, he eventually decides to court-martial three soldiers, to be chosen at random by their commanding officers. While Privates Arnoud (Joe Terkel) and Ferol (Timothy Carey) are just unlucky, we assume that Corporal Paris (Ralph Meeker) was selected because he saw the drunken Major Saint-Auban (Richard Anderson) recklessly kill one of his own men. The French Army should be worried about more than just the Germans, it seems.
- Despite Colonel Dax's impassioned speeches, the court-martial itself is a complete miscarriage of justice. The three men are quickly sentenced to death, and, in one of the more interesting parts of the film, we see how each man reacts to the group's shared fate. While a lesser film might have conjured up an implausible last-minute reprieve, Paths of Glory shows no such mercy. In fact, the camera lines up right behind the firing squad and leaves little to the audience's imagination. Although General Mireau eventually loses his command, there is no happy coda to this film. The French army is left in the hands of the "degenerate, sadistic old man" General Broulard, and Colonel Dax is completely disheartened. As a German singer (Christiane Harlan) brings the local troops to tears, the film reminds us that the only guaranteed outcome of war is sorrow.
- Based on a novel by Humphrey Cobb.
- Christiane Harlan would eventually marry Kubrick.
