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Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)
I don't know exactly what else there is to say about Paths of Glory except that it's my vote for the Best War film ever made. I suppose I can say that each time I watch it, I'm amazed at how each scene plays out as its own different mini-movie. Although all the scenes build one-upon-the-other, they all seem to be shot and lit in a different manner and on different locations and sets in order to elicit different emotions. Paths of Glory is so on-target in delivering it's War is Hell and Insane message that it doesn't really seem to be stacking the deck all that much. Even in the opening scene, General Mireau (George Macready) tells General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) that an attack upon the strategic Ant Hill is impossible, but when the carrot of another star on his uniform appears, Mireau quickly changes his mind. The way Mireau walks through the trenches and gives "pep talks" to the men who later play such an important part in the film works as masterful storytelling rather than lazy coincidence. Kirk Douglas gives a superb performance as the humanistic lawyer Colonel Dax who's the only officer in the film who seems to truly care about his men, but all the performances are terrific right down to the smallest ones. At the end of the film, I always cry while the future Mrs. Kubrick sings her song in German to all the French soldiers who have one brief respite of normalcy before being sent out to do more unthinkable acts upon their fellow man.
I don't know exactly what else there is to say about Paths of Glory except that it's my vote for the Best War film ever made. I suppose I can say that each time I watch it, I'm amazed at how each scene plays out as its own different mini-movie. Although all the scenes build one-upon-the-other, they all seem to be shot and lit in a different manner and on different locations and sets in order to elicit different emotions. Paths of Glory is so on-target in delivering it's War is Hell and Insane message that it doesn't really seem to be stacking the deck all that much. Even in the opening scene, General Mireau (George Macready) tells General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) that an attack upon the strategic Ant Hill is impossible, but when the carrot of another star on his uniform appears, Mireau quickly changes his mind. The way Mireau walks through the trenches and gives "pep talks" to the men who later play such an important part in the film works as masterful storytelling rather than lazy coincidence. Kirk Douglas gives a superb performance as the humanistic lawyer Colonel Dax who's the only officer in the film who seems to truly care about his men, but all the performances are terrific right down to the smallest ones. At the end of the film, I always cry while the future Mrs. Kubrick sings her song in German to all the French soldiers who have one brief respite of normalcy before being sent out to do more unthinkable acts upon their fellow man.