Barnes & Noble

A chilling lucidity illuminates every frame of this World War I drama from the great, Bronx-born director Stanley Kubrick, whose icy, cerebral vision is on stunning display here. Paths of Glory (1957) tells the story of a failed French attack on the Germans during World War I and the ensuing court-martial of three French soldiers charged with cowardice. Kubrick, Calder Willingham, and Jim Thompson co-wrote the screenplay (an adaptation of Humphrey Cobb's novel), and the dialogue is drenched in irony and edged with Kubrick's unique brand of ultra-dark satire. One of the greatest antiwar films ever made, Paths of Glory is not a simple screed. Men and events are viewed from a ruthlessly detached perspective, with Kubrick’s cold-eyed observation of the mind-numbing barrage of hypocrisies eventually thawing in a coda that is as powerfully moving as it is unexpected. It's all captured with Kubrick's unrivaled sense of cinematic composition, his stunning wide-angle tracking shots functioning as visual metaphors in a way previously unexplored in narrative cinema. The cast is brilliant as well: Kirk Douglas stars, anchoring the film with an unbending integrity, while George Macready and Adolphe Menjou create chillingly effective portraits of aristocratic archetypes. It is not subtle filmmaking, but neither is it obvious. It is simply inexorable, making Paths of Glory is one of the truly great American films. Gregory Baird

All Movie Guide

Adapting Humphrey Cobb's novel to the screen, director Stanley Kubrick and his collaborators Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson set out to make a devastating anti-war statement, and they succeeded above and beyond the call of duty. In the third year of World War I, the erudite but morally bankrupt French general Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) orders his troops to seize the heavily fortified "Ant Hill" from the Germans. General Mireau (George MacReady) knows that this action will be suicidal, but he will sacrfice his men to enhance his own reputation. Against his better judgment, Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) leads the charge, and the results are appalling. When, after witnessing the slaughter of their comrades, a handful of the French troops refuse to leave the trenches, Mireau very nearly orders the artillery to fire on his own men. Still smarting from the defeat, Mireau cannot admit to himself that the attack was a bad idea from the outset: he convinces himself that loss of Ant Hill was due to the cowardice of his men. Mireau demands that three soldiers be selected by lot to be executed as an example to rest of the troops. Acting as defense attorney, Colonel Dax pleads eloquently for the lives of the unfortunate three, but their fate is a done deal. Even an eleventh-hour piece of evidence proving Mireau's incompetence is ignored by the smirking Broulard, who is only interested in putting on a show of bravado. A failure when first released (it was banned outright in France for several years), Paths of Glory has since taken its place in the pantheon of classic war movies, its message growing only more pertinent and potent with each passing year (it was especially popular during the Vietnam era). Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 883904127093
• Source: MGM (VIDEO & DVD)
• Sales Rank: 13,629

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Bridge Too Far / Paths of Glory
• United Artists Super Deluxe Gift Set (90 films)