FLOYD'S FILMS

"Paths to Glory"

Review of PATHS OF GLORY by Floyd Lawrence

Four Stars ****

Unrated, but would likely receive a PG-13

Mention the names of actor Kirk Douglas and director Stanley Kubrick in the same sentence, and most people will instantly think of “Spartacus,” that brilliant 1960 film about a slave revolt during the decadent Roman Empire .

Three years earlier, however, Douglas and Kubrick teamed up on the lesser known “Paths of Glory,” a war film that deserves to be ranked among such greats as “Platoon” and “Saving Private Ryan.

Many with whom I’ve spoken confess to having never seen “Paths of Glory.” This evening, they—and anyone who doesn’t want to miss a chance to watch a screen classic—can see it in the comfortable confines of the Roadhouse Theatre. I’ll be on hand to introduce the film and, if the audience so desires, to engage in an informal discussion of it afterwards.

I’ll also have few words to say about Humphrey Cobb’s semi-autobiographical 1935 novel, also called “Paths of Glory.” The phrase is taken from a line in Thomas Gray’s “Elegy in a Country Churchyard”: “The paths of glory lead but to the grave.” Like the film, it’s little known today.

Both book and film are set in 1916 when World War I was two years old and French and German troops were senselessly slaughtering each other in 500 miles of trench warfare along the Western Front.

Adapted from Cobb’s book, the screenplay by a then blacklisted Jim Thompson and novelist Calder Willingham, goes beyond the mere sentiment that in war the undeserving die. The writers and Kubrick instead are most critical of the elite, upper-class French officer corps who sends men to die in battle for no apparent good reason.

Only 87 minutes long, the film is terse and blunt, but its black and white photography by George Krause is nothing less than stunning. Long tracking shots follow Col. Dax (Kirk Douglas) through a muddy trench inspecting his troops. Later, Krause’s camera accompanies doomed men as they charge in an impossible mission through bodies, mud, and shell blasts toward a German fortification called the “Ant Hill.”

Contrasted with this is the footage shot inside an opulent actual castle where two generals discuss the potential death count involved in ordering Dax’s troops to take the impregnable German fortification.

Of course, the attack fails, and Dax is ordered to select three innocent men from his regiment to be tried and executed as a way of setting an example for their comrades. Dax is appointed as their legal counsel and a kangaroo court martial arrives at the predictable conclusion. Any officer blunders are to be covered up.

It’s been said that the film is more about power than war, and I cannot argue with that.

Kubrick supplies a coda to the film that initially seems irrelevant. But when its full impact is felt, you’ll marvel at the appropriateness of it. More than anything else in the film, it allows us to see soldiers recovering what little is left of their humanity. 

Even though modern weaponry and shock-and-awe strategies may seem to be far removed from the gritty warfare of World War I soldiers, “Paths of Glory” rings true. Simultaneously, it demonstrates how much—and how little—war has changed in a century.

The opportunity to show this film in a public forum has been made possible by the Great Lakes Film Association. Depending on audience interest, plans are for me to continue hosting some of my favorite—and often neglected—films on the fourth Thursday of every month.

Subject to the film’s availability, I plan to screen “The Innocents,” directed by Jack Clayton and starring Deborah Kerr, on August 23 at the Roadhouse. It’s a psychological and cerebral horror film based on Henry James’s famous novella, “The Turn of the Screw.” If you’re interested, pencil it in.

© Great Lakes Film Association