Genre: War / Drama
Duration: 88 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker and Adolphe Menjou
IMDb score:
8,4 (239.271)
Releasedate: 25 October 1957
Paths of Glory plot
"It explodes in the no-man's land no picture ever dared cross before!"
Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) is a commander in the French army during the First World War. While hiding in the trenches from a German attack, his soldiers are ordered to embark on a suicide mission. The mission fails, after which the French generals drag three soldiers to court as an example. It's up to Dax to prevent the three from being sentenced to death.
Actors and actresses
Col. Dax
Cpl. Philippe Paris
Gen. George Broulard
Gen. Paul Mireau
Lt. Roget/Singing man
Maj. Saint-Auban
Pvt. Pierre Arnaud
German Singer
Proprietor of Cafe
Narrator of Opening Sequence
Reviews & comments
Shadowed
-
- 11557 messages
- 6803 votes
Good.
Once again a strong film by Kubrick, who this time ventures into a war spectacle in black and white. And he does well, strong and powerful. Even though there is only 1 war scene in the film, Kubrick manages to keep the whole film upright.
Strong camera use. The tracking shots through the trenches remain very atmospheric. The images of the war on the battlefield itself are large-scale and powerfully portrayed. Perhaps a little impactless, but still impressively portrayed on the screen.
Acting is the downside of the film, because on the strongly acted courtroom scene there was nothing memorable. Douglas is fairly boring as the main character and the generals are just a bit too exaggerated to be strong. Just a bit too much actually. Soldiers themselves are sometimes difficult to take seriously. Sometimes I didn't know if they were laughing or crying.
It is mainly the strong atmosphere that keeps the film going. The execution is very exciting and a moment that makes you quite silent. Perfectly portrayed. It shows again how stupidly and brutally mankind has acted in the past.
The ending does have something special, but the impact was not there. Impact came more from other scenes.
So again a nice Kubrick, the best man hasn't disappointed me once so far, although I'm only halfway through his work. But everything has something special, and then you sometimes recognize his perfectionism. Also here.
Translated from Dutch · View original
martijn011
-
- 2034 messages
- 1309 votes
Finally put on another Kubrick movie. In my opinion, we have seen too little of this excellent director, time to change that in the coming months. This film dates from his early days as a filmmaker, but I regularly see it high in the top ten lists of Kubrick's best films.
Kirk Douglas stars and is a moral compass in a movie where underhanded and dirty games are constantly played by senior officers who don't mind a life more or less, as long as it makes them better themselves.
You can split the film into two parts, the first part is set in the trenches, the second part is a lawsuit. Both parts are excellent, although the camera work in the trenches is remarkably good. A major attack is masterfully portrayed, it looked like archive footage from the war, so realistic.
In the second part, as a viewer, you really feel what it is like to be wrongly sentenced to death and the entire agony is fabulously portrayed. That lawsuit makes your blood boil, as it were, that's how unfair the whole process is.
The ending in the cafe is striking, very good film.
4*
Translated from Dutch · View originalLatest News
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