Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7091 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

A Powerful Anti-War Drama
I've seen nearly all of Stanley Kubrick's films (except for Killer's Kiss, Fear and Desire and Lolita) and this 1957 effort on behalf of Kirk Douglas's Bryna Productions is one of his most moving and powerful.

The story takes place during the First World War as the French army is about to make a big push to capture a heavily fortified German base called the 'Ant Hill'. The order has been given by the French General Staff that the Ant Hill must be taken at any cost. No retreat. No surrender.
Colonel Dax, played here with conviction and great strength by Kirk Douglas, is ordered to lead the infantry during the attack. Yet it is obvious to anyone but the generals that this is a blatant suicide mission. In a battle that Speilberg would echo in Saving Private Ryan, the infantry collapses under a hail of gun fire and artillery, as they get bogged down between the barbed wire nests. Colonel Dax has no choice but to call a retreat.

His decision leaves the generals furious. They decide that they must make an example of the soldiers, in order to shift blame from themselves. They select three innocent infantrymen from among many hundreds, charge them with cowardice and mutiny, and then order them to be executed. Colonel Dax, who was once a lawyer in civilian life, rises up to their defence and goes head to head with his superiors in the process. Unless he can prove that the generals were to blame for this disaster, then a further three people will be the victims of their incompetence.

Stanley Kubrick and Calder Willingham's script is sharp and full of bitter anger at the injustice of the soldier's treatment. The scenes of Kirk Douglas's monologues to the court are some of the most powerful in cinema history. They were so controversial in fact that the film was banned in France for many years, and it's showing was certainly contested in many other countries. The acting by most of the cast is very well done, although the only weak link is George MacReady as General Mireau, as his acting does go a bit over the top sometimes, but it's nothing too distracting.

Over fifty years have passed since this film was made, and in that time we have seen the likes of Platoon, Johnny Got his Gun, Apocalypse Now, and Kubrick's own Full Metal Jacket. It therefore says a lot about the quality and power of this film that it can still hit you as a great anti-war story despite the fact that so many other great anti-war films have followed in its wake. A tragic and moving film, and a bitter lament to all the lives lost during the First World War.

A masterpiece, never bettered
This is in my view the finest film about men at war ever made. The gritty black and white photography evokes the sombre visuals of every First World war newsreel you have ever seen. Every performance is utterly believable, in spite of the proliferation of west coast and New York American accents.

I defy anyone not to be moved by this tale of sacrifice, waste and injustice. Douglas is fantastic in the role of Colonel Dax, but Stanley Kubrick has wrung the very best performance from each and every actor in this film. Every worthwhile director today has learnt something from his genius and this is, for me, his best movie.

Buy it on DVD because I promise you, you will want to watch this more than once.

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.