Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4487 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-07-15
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, Dubbed, Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English, German
• Subtitled in: Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 84 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The pity of war has been a much-favoured film topic; the treachery of war much less so, though never more persuasively than in Paths of Glory, Stanley Kubrick's breakthrough feature from 1957. Kirk Douglas gives one of his finest screen performances as Colonel Dax, the idealistic First World War soldier appalled by the arbitrary court-marshal meted out to three of his men after an impossible attempt to storm German lines goes disastrously wrong. George Macready is an utterly believable Gerneral Mireau, obsessed with his own honour and standing, whom Adolphe Majou complements tellingly as the urbane and cynical General Bruler. Those who know Kubrick from his later sprawling epics will be surprised at the tautness and concision shown here, even though the screenplay--which he co-wrote--has a certain theatrical stiffness.

On the DVD: Paths of Glory on disc reproduces well in full-screen format, and Gerald Fried's bitingly ironic score comes through powerfully. There are five dubbed and six subtitled languages. The original trailer is a masterpiece of gritty reportage, well worth reviving. Along with Dr Strangelove and 2001, this is Kubrick's most focussed and durable film. --Richard Whitehouse

Special Features
English
Region 2

Synopsis
PATHS OF GLORY is among the most powerful antiwar films ever made. The story takes place in 1916 France, as the French command orders an exhausted unit to wrest control of an anthill from the Germans--expecting a casualty rate of 60 percent. The battle--during which the Germans are never seen, indicating that the French are their own worst enemy--turns into a bloody massacre. Looking for a scapegoat, General Mireau (George Macready) orders Colonel Dax (a never-more-intense Kirk Douglas) to select three of his men to face a court-martial and possible firing squad for the troops' cowardice. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, PATHS OF GLORY, based on the novel by Humphrey Cobbs, is a gut-wrenching, unforgettable drama. Every scene is awash in grays, covered in doom. Kubrick marvelously contrasts the ornate palace where the generals sip their cognac with the ramshackle trenches where injured men stumble about, demoralized and shellshocked. Douglas gives a tough, gritty performance; his tense sparring with the high command features sharp, biting dialogue. The entire cast is outstanding; watching so many men die for no reason is maddening. Kubrick captured the Vietnam War in FULL METAL JACKET, the cold war in DR. STRANGELOVE, the Seven Years' War in BARRY LYNDON, and a slave uprising in SPARTACUS, but PATHS OF GLORY is his crowning achievement when it comes to depicting the devastation, both physical and psychological, that war wreaks on the individual--as well as the state.

Customer Reviews

An Early Glorious Effort from The Genius
Exciting, enthralling, action-packed and moving, this is one of Kubrick's finest, and a brilliant war film to rankle alongside and even surpass the likes of 'A Bridge Too Far' and 'All Quiet on the Western Front'. The story of an ill-fated French attack on an invulnerable German position during the First World War, where the ordinary soldier is blamed instead of the blundering general may be a cliche by now, but it is so beautifully shot, written and told that it is a timeless classic.
The script and story is excellent, and particularly well delivered by the likes of Douglas, Macready and Meeker, who all fill in excellently. But the star of the show is undoubtably Kubrick, whose direction of the attack with a panning camera following Douglas and his men with shells exploding all around is a just a treat for the eyes. In turn, shots of the trenches, following the general from the front as he marches through the trenches with the military drumbeats in the background as he inspects the weary men, or the close ups of gritty, fearing soldiers are just excellent. If you like Kubrick, or even if you just like great films, then you'll love Paths of Glory.

wonderful film about class conflict and abuse of power
Unarguably one of the finest anti-war diatribes ever to hit the screens. Yet, more than 50 years have passed after its making, it is still powerful and immortal film in its own league. Stanley Kubrick, even at the age of 28, showed that he would be the master of visual creation and ingenious camerawork. Apart from story, what I specially liked here is the trenches which are dark, foreboding and dreadfully real. Also, long close-ups, reverse tracking shots through the trences and lateral shots during attack scenes are absolutely brilliant, courtroom sequences harrowingly poignant.

On first viewing "Paths of Glory" appears to be a corrosive anti-war movie about the brutal portrayal of military injustice; but it is far more complicated, delivering some universal social messages. In its very depths, the film is about strong class conflict, indomitability of human spirit, hypocrisy, and how the privilege class cares only about themselves and how their use of power could be so much corrupting. While enjoying the safety and luxury of their chateaux far off enemy lines and sipping their expensive wines, self-righteous as well as Machiavellian generals see no harm in sending their exhausted and underequipped albeit "expendable" soldiers in a suicide mission of taking an impregnable German position where nothing but death is awaiting. Yes, obey your master. Otherwise you'll taste the icy bullets of the firing squad. Yuck...

Thankfully, Kirk Douglas' angry and mighty performance as Colonel Dax, who valiantly defends three French soldiers (who picked arbitrarily and charged unjustly with cowardice because they refused to run to imminent death) perfectly confronts this contradiction. This is one of his finest performances combining his aura of intellectuality and physicality with strong moral idealism.

Last world: Despite having a pretty simple framework and short running time (~89 minutes), its powerful story, great performances, impeccable cinematography and Kubrick's deft directorial touch make "Paths of Glory" an universal and topical film even 50 years after its making.

Indictment of War...Affirmation of Humanity
It has been almost 50 years since this anti-war film appeared, one which was banned in France until 1970. It is based on Humphrey Cobb's novel. Directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk Douglas who also produced it, the film examines a fictional (but nonetheless wholly believable) situation during World War One when French troops are ordered to achieve an impossible military objective: Climb and secure the "Ant Hill," a heavily-fortified German position. Of course the troops are decimated. Whom to blame? General Broulard (Adolph Menjou) who gave the order? The troops' general, General Mireau (George MacReady), whose career ambitions overcame his doubts about the order? The officer (Colonel Dax) who led the attack? General Broulard gives a second order: Select three of the survivors, charge them with cowardice, give them a perfunctory military trial, and then execute them. Their commanding officer is Colonel Dax (Douglas) who had been an attorney in civilian life. He is ordered to be the defense counsel. After the inevitable verdict, the three representatives are executed by a firing squad.

Kubrick presents all this on film as if it were a documentary of actual events. Appropriately, he filmed it in black-and-white, in part to dramatize the obvious juxtapositions of right and wrong, good and evil, justice and injustice, etc. The battlefield carnage is extensive but not gratuitous. For me, the insensitivity, indeed inhumanity of the two generals -- far removed from combat in luxurious comfort -- is far more upsetting than the assault on the "Ant Hill." The men who followed orders and lost their lives or their limbs may have died in vain but at least died with honor, if not glory. Kubrick leaves absolutely no doubt about the generals who sent them into battle. Colonel Dax understands the need for military discipline. Orders must be followed. He eventually realizes that no matter how logical and eloquent his defense, the three men are doomed as were so many of their comrades were while climbing the "Ant Hill." Dax also realizes Broulard and Mireau will never be held accountable for the order nor for denying any responsibility for its tragic consequences. Dante reserved the worst ring in hell for those who, in a moral crisis, preserved their neutrality. Kubrick ensures that Menju and MacReady portray Broulard and Mireau not as neutral accomplices but as agents of evil: a more dangerous adversary than the one their troops face in battle.

Is conscience among war's victims? That is certainly not true of Dax. He did everything he could to save the three men. He leaves absolutely no doubt in the minds of Generals Broulard and Mireau what he thinks of them, both as officers and as human beings. However, they are his military superiors and the war continues after the executions. I mention all this by way of suggesting a context for my opinion that the final scene in the cafe has a very important purpose: to communicate Kubrick's reassurance to those who see his film that even amidst war's death and mutilation, the very best of human instincts somehow prevail. They cannot be defeated by the "Ant Hill," nor by Broulard and Mireau and their obscene abuse of military justice. In my opinion, that is what Dax realizes in the cafe as he and other soldiers listen to a terrified girl sing. And that is the final "message" which Kubrick seems determined to leave with his audience.