"Paths of Glory" (1957)

France cannot afford to have fools guiding her military destiny

Stanley Kubrick was an anti-war person and he found a right way to express his views. He didn’t shoot films with boring explanations of war horrors, he made films about the real war – with filth, cruelty, blood, destruction, suffering and death. All those elements were present in the fourth Stanley Kubrick’s film – «Paths of Glory».

After a German’s army defeat in the First Battle of Marne, the Western Front became entrenched all the way from the Swiss border to the English Channel. There were a lot of battles, where tens and hundreds of lives were sacrificed for a few hundred yards. In 1916, the both sides were looking for a way to get out of this trench warfare.

In the beginning of the film, General Georges Broulard, a member of the French General Staff, orders General Mireau to capture a well-defended German position called the «Anthill». At first, General Mireau, understanding the high casualty rate of his regiment and the suicide character of the attack, refuses, but changes his mind after General Broulard promises him promotion. Colonel Dax is ordered to execute the attack, who also understands it’s suicide character, but order is an order. The attack is a bloody disaster and furious generals are setting up a court-martial in order to execute three soldiers for cowardice.

 During the Battle of Passchendaele (1917) there was a tale about a furious colonel of the British General Staff, who arrived at the field in order to understand, why soldiers are not eager to execute his plans. After witnessing the horrible battle conditions, the colonel… cried. Despite such sentiments, the Allied casualty rate for this battle was about 508 800.

The film depicts staff officers, who are living in the chateaus, drinking cognac and preparing plans for the glorious final battles. For them front-line soldiers and officers are just merely units, who could be sacrificed for the sake of plans. From the other side, the front-line troops are suffering from typhoid, hunger, dehydration and enemy artillery, but they forced to execute suicidal attacks and tolerate the allegation of cowardice from clean-shaven aides of generals.

When new suicidal attack becomes a bloody disaster, the staff officers will never take the blame, they would shift it to executors. In order to punish, they would court-martial three random soldiers. The staff officers don’t care about past accomplishments of the executed soldiers, they just to show their resolve to politicians, newsmen and the French nation in general.

The war is an ideal plant for all low, cruel and mean. Especially for low-lives, who become commanders with ability for death sentences. The incoming trial gives certain officers an opportunity to get rid of the soldiers, who saw their cowardice. Nevertheless, the officer corps includes officers, who care about their soldiers, including Colonel Dax.

Colonel Dax lives in trenches and leads his soldiers in a battle. An ex-criminal attorney Dax is willing to do anything in order to save his soldiers from injustice. He becomes a defender in court martial, but this court is not legal. This court is not fair and it doesn’t have the presumption of innocence; those judges have already sentenced those three soldiers to death.

The real world is not very rich with justice, and there is no justice during the wartime. The determined loner cannot break the military-political system; he could just break one little interchangeable element. After such pyrrhic victory, he, along with the troops, would be sent back to the front lines, where, in the best case, they would be killed, or, in the worst case, they would by gravely injured.

The refrain of «La Marseillaise» urges citizens to arms, to form battalions, and water the furrows with impure blood. In the XVIIIth century, France was invaded by the neighbors, so that war was, at least at the beginning, just. Most of the other wars are made for other people’s interest and the wasted soldiers are forgotten as old cars. If more directors made such films as «Paths of Glory», than the viewers wouldn’t be too receptive for military propaganda.