Paths of Glory

Paths of Glory, one of Stanley Kubrick's earlier films depicts a battle during WWI in the French trenches. This film is widely regarded as one of his better films. Now I may be going out on a limb, but in the first 15 minutes of this film a feeling of immense satire over took my body. Probably because the film opens with a huge palace occupied by one of the commanding generals. The French troops are ordered by their superiors to attack the Ant Hill, a station which the German's have been able to hold for the past year. One of the main incentives of this attack is for General Mireau to get another star. He is willing to kill 65% of the troops to do this. Kubrick clearly was influenced by the cannon-fodder theory of war. Where military personnel are treated as expendable in the face of fire, as seen in the scene where he orders an attack on his on troops who haven't yet ran into the death zone.

I feel he shows the corruptness that power and ranking bring to a person. In the first recon mission. A drunken Lieutenant Paris, becomes confused and kills one of his own men. He then says to Roget, "Have you ever tried to bring charges against an office? It's my word against yours, you know, and whose word do you think they're gonna believe- or, let me put it another way, whose word do you think they're going to accept?" This quote shows the totalitarian form of power held by high ranking officials, with no check or balances they are free to be huge asses.

One of my favorite parts of the film was the final scene, after a bunch of innocent men were sent to a firing squad because they were too weak. Dax played by Kirk, comes in on a conversation between Mireau and Broulard , another high ranking official where Mireau is informed there will be an inquiry on his actions during the attack on the ant hill.




I hope this works, but this is the firing squad scene, it really captures Kubrick's directing style, where the soldiers are shown at high angle signifying their unimportance, and the Colonels are show at a low angle showing power.