"War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing, say it again!" That anti-war anthem sung by Edwin Starr is as true today with Russia's indiscriminately and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine as it was when Starr sang War in the early 1970s, a Motown protest song to the Vietnam War. Growing up, young boys like myself saw war as a fun game, a chance to play soldiers in an imaginary battle. I often played with little green soldiers in my room or backyard. When I watched war movies, it was all explosions and make believe, the Nazis always the bad guys, the Americans and English the victors. But the reality is war is hell, plain and simple. There are no easy winners and losers, just destruction and death and misery.
Hollywood made plenty of patriotic war films during World War II to keep morale in America high. But anti-war films have always been around from the dawn of the sound film beginning with Lewis Milestone's ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1931) and Jean Renoir's GRAND ILLUSION (1937). Like those two films, Stanley Kubrick's PATHS OF GLORY (1957) based on the novel by Humphrey Cobb also takes place during World War I, one of the most futile wars ever fought that caused eight million military deaths. Never had so many men died for so little. Mostly fought through trench warfare, victory was often determined by gaining a few feet of land which would often be lost the next day. PATHS OF GLORY is based on an actual historical event in World War I where five French soldiers were executed by firing squad by their own superiors for cowardice. This absurdity of war appealed to a young wunderkind director by the name of Stanley Kubrick.
Kubick, who began his career as a young photographer for LOOK magazine, would kick off his directorial career alternating between film noir films like KILLER'S KISS (1955) and THE KILLING (1956) and war films like FEAR AND DESIRE (1953) and PATHS OF GLORY, his fourth feature film. PATHS OF GLORY would be Kubrick's first film with a major Hollywood star in Kirk Douglas (LUST FOR LIFE, GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL) and would signal to the cinematic world that a new major talent had emerged.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick with a screenplay by Kubrick, Calder Willingham (THE GRADUATE), and pulp novelist Jim Thompson (who received a Dialogue credit in Kubrick's THE KILLING), PATHS OF GLORY takes place during World War I in France, 1916. The German army has pushed within 15 miles of Paris when the French army rallies and halts the German surge. General George Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) arrives at a sprawling, opulent French chateau to speak with his fellow officer General Paul Mireau (George Macready). Broulard and his superiors want Mireau's division to take the Ant Hill, a German position of high ground a few hundred yards from the French line. Mireau tells Broulard the mission is impossible. Broulard dangles a promotion to Mireau who takes the bait.
Mireau and his sycophantic right hand man Major Saint-Auban (Richard Anderson) inspect the French soldiers in the trenches as they visit Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) a former criminal lawyer turned officer. Mireau orders Dax and his men to take the Ant Hill. Dax like Mireau knows it's a suicide mission. But Dax accepts the mission having no other choice. That night, Dax sends three men out on a reconnaissance patrol into No Man's Land before the morning's raid: the drunken and cowardly Lieutenant Roget (Wayne Morris), the stoic Corporal Philippe Paris (Ralph Meeker), and Private Lejeune (Kem Dibbs). The mission goes awry when Roget panics, accidentally killing Lejeune with Cpl. Paris a witness to it. Before Paris can report Roget's negligence back at camp, Dax walks in and requests Roget's intelligence report. The regiment prepares for the morning assault.
It's supposed to be a surprise attack, but explosions and chaos await the French army. Dax valiantly leads his troops to rush the Ant Hill but it's useless. One division, led by the craven Roget, hasn't even left the trenches. Furious that the troops are either turning back or never left the trenches, Mireau orders Sergeant Boulanger (Bert Freed) to turn artillery on Roget's division to get them to fight. Boulanger refuses without written orders. Back at the chateau after the failed assault, Mireau saves face by requesting a court martial and firing squad for one hundred men for "cowardice in the face of the enemy." Dax defends his regiment and the conditions they faced to no avail. Broulard talks Mireau down to trying three men. One man from each company will be chosen by that company's commanding officer to be tried and if found guilty executed. Dax requests to represent the accused which Broulard allows.
Lt. Roget selects his nemesis Cpl. Paris to be one of the accused. The other two men chosen are the decorated Private Pierre Arnaud (Joseph aka Joe Turkel) and the malcontent Private Maurice Ferol (Timothy Carey). The trial takes place at the chateau, presided by an impatient Court Martial Official (Peter Capell). Maj. Saint-Auban leads the prosecution. The trial is Kafka-esque with the three officers obviously not guilty but the court and Mireau's ego are stacked against them. Even with Dax's competent defense, the three soldiers are found guilty. That night, the three men receive their last meal. Father Dupree (Emile Meyer) comes to take their confession. Arnaud attacks the priest and Paris knocks Arnaud unconscious defending Dupree. Dax visits Gen. Broulard at a swanky officer party to tell him he has sworn testimony that Mireau ordered artillery on his own troops. The next morning, Paris, Arnaud, and Ferol are shot by firing squad. In the aftermath, Broulard turns on Mireau, informing him there will be an inquiry about his orders to fire on his own company. Mireau storms out. Dax turns down Broulard's invitation to be promoted to Mireau's position. Dax wanders by a nearby cafe. Inside, a sleazy cafe proprietor (Jerry Hausner) forces a beautiful, naive German singer (Kubrick's future wife Susanne Christian later Christiane Kubrick) to sing in front of a bar full of French soldiers. At first, the soldiers whistle and catcall but her singing bring the war weary soldiers to tears. As Dax listens to the singing, Sgt. Boulanger shows up. They have orders to return to the front.
Prior to 1957, I don't think a film captured the insanity of war like PATHS OF GLORY does. Kubrick shows us the madness right from the very beginning all the way to the end. Old French generals and politicians, far from the battle front, need some good press for their stalled killing machine aka war, so they order a suicide mission that is destined to fail. A drunk officer negligently kills one of his own men on a late-night patrol then sends the only witness to his misdeed to the firing squad. A medal seeking general, furious that his soldiers aren't sacrificing their lives for his glory, orders artillery on his own men to make them fight. When the mission is deemed an absolute failure, the only alternative for Gen. Mireau is to have his own men executed as a deterrent for future soldiers who fail to go to battle.
Kubrick saves the most scathing hypocrisy for the trial and execution. We learn only Pvt. Ferol and one other soldier survived from their company during the attack. Ferol's choice was to go forward to his death or turn back. He retreated yet will now go to his death not by the enemy but his own army for his common sense. Pvt. Arnaud and his company never made it past their own barbed wire, pinned down by gunfire. A decorated soldier, Arnaud's past heroism means nothing to the court. Cpl. Paris was knocked unconscious by a falling comrade and never made it out of the trenches. Despite this fact, Paris is still on trial for cowardice. Col. Dax is never allowed to introduce witnesses or testimony to defend the three soldiers. There is no written record of the trial. Their fate is preordained by the Court. Just before their execution, after Paris has cracked Arnaud's skull defending Father Meyer, there is hope that Arnaud can't possibly be shot due to his injury. But Arnaud is tied to a stretcher, a huge bandage around his head, and propped up before the firing squad. Afterward, Gen. Mireau smugly sums up the execution by stating "the men died wonderfully."
Kubrick would revisit the madness of war a few more times after PATHS OF GLORY. In DR. STRANGELOVE (1964), Kubrick would take a darkly satiric viewpoint to Nuclear War between the U.S. and Russia. In Kubrick's second to last film FULL METAL JACKET (1987), Kubrick explores the dehumanization of the soldier from boot camp to combat in the Vietnam War. PATHS OF GLORY and FULL METAL JACKET have similarities that I will explore momentarily.
With PATHS OF GLORY, Kubrick's visual trademarks begin to materialize that will be repeated throughout his career. In PATHS OF GLORY, Kubrick pulls off long tracking shots in the trenches following Col. Dax and later, following Dax and the soldiers as they try to take the Ant Hill that are breathtaking. Tracking shots and fluid camera movements will become a signature Kubrick style, popping up in BARRY LYNDON (1975) as the camera follows rows of British and Prussian soldiers marching toward each other to tracking the murderous Jack Nicholson chasing his son through a hotel garden maze in THE SHINING (1980) to Tom Cruise walking down the dark streets of London in EYE WIDE SHUT (1999). The recent Sam Mendes World War I film 1917 (2019) is a homage to PATHS OF GLORY taking the tracking shot to a whole new level as the whole film consists of one continuous shot (with some clever editing).
In PATHS OF GLORY, Kubrick films the courtroom trial inside the baroque French chateau like it's a cosmic game of chess, the parquet floor the chess board, the accused chess pieces, pawns about to be sacrificed by their superiors. This scene showcases another Kubrick visual trademark: symmetry. The accused soldiers are perfectly spaced out, dividing the screen into three sections, the guards watching over them also positioned in perfect symmetry. Visual symmetry will appear again and again in Kubrick films from SPARTACUS (1960) to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) to A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971), a byproduct of Kubrick's photography background and understanding of composition.
Then, there is the tight Close Up, slightly at a low angle, known as the "Kubrick Stare", depicting the characters descent into some form of madness and dehumanization. In PATHS OF GLORY, the close up is on Kirk Douglas trying to comprehend the unattainable goal of taking the Ant Hill. More memorable "Kubrick Stare" close ups include Sterling Hayden as General Jack D. Ripper in DR. STRANGELOVE discussing the takeover of his bodily fluids as he initiates World War III or Malcolm McDowell as Alex in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE contemplating his gang's next violent act or Jack Nicholson dealing with writer's block in THE SHINING as the Overlook Hotel he's caretaking for during the winter begins to drive him insane. Or the dehumanization of Private Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio) during boot camp in FULL METAL JACKET (1987).
I didn't realize it until this latest viewing how much PATHS OF GLORY has in common with FULL METAL JACKET. Different wars but the same scathing indictment of inhumane treatment of soldiers and recruits by superiors who follow military rules and codes of justice over rationality and human decency. Kubrick likes the symmetry of soldiers. Both films have Kubrick's tracking shots as the camera floats by soldiers at attention whether at a firing squad in PATHS OF GLORY or in their barracks in FULL METAL JACKET (where Kubrick takes full advantage of a new invention called the Steadicam). Kubrick's camera tracks Dax from in front and behind as he wanders through the trenches before the big battle. In FULL METAL JACKET, the camera tracks a company through the burnt-out buildings of Hue as they hunt for a sniper.
In PATHS OF GLORY, Gen. Mireau and Maj. Saint-Auban come across a shell-shocked soldier in the trenches. The soldier begins crying when Mireau asks if he's married. Mireau strikes the private (a similar scene occurs between General George Patton and a wounded soldier in 1970's PATTON) and orders him removed from the regiment, calling him a "baby." This belittling of soldiers will progress to the dehumanization of recruits in FULL METAL JACKET as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) turns a group of young men at boot camp into cold-blooded killers headed to Vietnam.
Kirk Douglas as Col. Dax is really the only sympathetic character in PATHS OF GLORY (besides the three accused soldiers). Sympathetic characters are hard to find in Kubrick films. Dax is keenly aware of the ludicrousness of the mission and helpless at the court martial (despite his legal expertise) to prevent the execution of three innocent men as basic human rights are trampled by a prejudiced military jury. Douglas has many of the best lines in the film in the trial scene. "... this Court Martial is such a stain, and such a disgrace. The case made against these men is a mockery of all human justice." Dax does manage to get General Mireau removed as commanding officer but in the end, Dax is recalled to the front lines to lead another charge to secure a few feet of French soil. Douglas is the first big movie star Kubrick would work with and his clout got the film made. PATHS OF GLORY would kick off Kubrick's incredible career. Douglas would ask Kubrick to return the favor when Douglas fired director Anthony Mann after a few weeks of shooting the Roman epic SPARTACUS (1960) and replaced him with Kubrick. SPARTACUS is Kubrick's only big Hollywood studio film.
Interestingly, Kubrick cast many of the supporting characters in PATHS OF GLORY with film noir actors, some he had worked with previously (even lead Douglas appeared in Jacques Tourneur's film noir classic OUT OF THE PAST). Having played complicated, dark anti-heroes and villains in noir, these actors were well suited to evoke the horror and dark side of World War I in PATHS. Ralph Meeker who plays the doomed soldier Cpl. Paris was fresh off his searing role as tough private eye Mickey Spillane in Robert Aldrich's KISS ME DEADLY (1955). The tall and manic Timothy Carey as Pvt. Furol made noteworthy appearances in Andre De Toth's CRIME WAVE (1953) and as a racist sniper in Kubrick's THE KILLING. Joseph (Joe) Turkel, the third convicted soldier, also has a brief appearance in THE KILLING. Kubrick would bring Turkel back later in their careers as the ghostly bartender serving Jack Nicholson drinks in THE SHINING. Turkel also had a memorable role as the creator of replicants Dr. Eldon Tyrell in Ridley Scott's BLADE RUNNER (1982). Even Emile Meyer who plays the French priest Father Dupree appeared the same year of PATHS OF GLORY as a nasty cop in SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (also 1957).
Rounding out the film noir connection is actor George Macready who plays the ambitious General Mireau. Best known as the rich, mysterious smuggler/night club owner Ballin Mundson in Charles Vidor's GILDA (1946) co-starring Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth, Macready is chilling in PATHS OF GLORY as Mireau's lust for power leads to hundreds of senseless deaths in battle. Macready had a real life crescent scar on his right cheek from a car accident that adds to his menace. Film fans my age will recognize Richard Anderson who played Oscar Goldman on ABC's THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN (1974-78) as Major Saint-Auban, Mireau's obsequious right hand man and the prosecutor at the military trial in PATHS. Anderson was a fine supporting actor in films like John Sturges ESCAPE FROM FORT BRAVO (1953) and FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956) before moving on to television later in his career.
Lastly, we cannot forget the performance of the diminutive, suave Adolphe Menjou as the callous, manipulative General George Broulard, who puts in motion the disastrous events that unfold in PATHS OF GLORY. Menjou had quite a career spanning silent films with Douglas Fairbanks in THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1921) and with Rudolph Valentino THE SHEIK (also 1921) to classics in the 30s like THE FRONT PAGE (1931) and A STAR IS BORN (1937). All you need to know about Menjou's Gen. Broulard is when Col. Dax spews at him "you're a degenerate, sadistic old man!"
With PATHS OF GLORY, Kubrick shows not only his visual and storytelling expertise but also how to get more production value out of limited resources. Yes, PATHS OF GLORY was financed by MGM but it's not a gigantic production. Kubrick (and his producing partner James B. Harris) utilize a German castle (standing in for a French chateau) for both expansive outdoor sequences like the military procession leading up to the execution while filming the court martial trial inside the castle with its long staircases and ornate interiors. The assault on Ant Hill is not a very long sequence but with smoke, sound effects, and enough extras, the battle rivals bigger war epics in the 60's like THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE (1965). PATHS OF GLORY is an economically well made film that moves at a good clip and does not waste one scene to get its message across.
Watching Stanley Kubrick films is a joyous occasion like watching Alfred Hitchcock films. Both men were auteurs. Each of their films have themes, patterns, and visual motifs that movie fans will recognize over and over again but in different settings and plots. Kubrick would delve into science fiction with 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, historical drama in BARRY LYNDON, and the horror genre in THE SHINING but his unique cinematic signature shows up in each film. PATHS OF GLORY (and even THE KILLING before) is where the brilliance of Stanley Kubrick began.
Every country has committed disgraceful atrocities and behavior in the name of war: the United States, England, Germany, Japan, Turkey, Russia, and in PATHS OF GLORY, the French. I began with lyrics from Edwin Starr's anti-war song War and it seems appropriate to end with his agonizingly truthful words again.
War, I despise
'Cause it means the destruction of innocent lives
War means tears to thousands of mother's eyes
When their sons go off to fight
And lose their lives
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