Reviewed by Michael Peck
The Military Book Review

Stanley Kubrick is best known for directing 2001: A Space Odyssey. He deserves equal recognition for directing Paths of Glory, one of the most striking antiwar films ever made.

Based on a novel by Humphrey Cobb (Note: The book isn’t as good as the movie.), the film is set in the French army during World War I. Ambitious Gen. Mireau is told that his division must storm a heavily fortified German position known as the "Anthill." He refuses on the grounds that the mission is impossible — until his superior hints that he will get a promotion if he succeeds. Now highly motivated, the general orders regimental commander Col. Dax (played by a steel-jawed Kirk Douglas) to get the job done. Dax knows it’s suicide, but he can’t convince Mireau to change his mind. The French troops barely climb out of their trenches before they are mowed down by German machine guns and artillery. Mireau orders artillery fire on his own troops, but even that isn't an incentive for the soldiers to leap into sure death.

Humiliated, the general demands that a hundred men from the regiment be shot for cowardice ("If those little sweethearts won't face German bullets, they'll face French ones!"). He is persuaded to be “merciful” and reduce that number to three. One soldier is selected because he witnessed his sergeant’s cowardice, another is selected by drawing lot, while the third is chosen by his commander as a social undesirable. Dax, an attorney in civilian life, represents the soldiers at the court-martial. What follows is a pathetic scene where the three soldiers, confused and ill-educated, try to defend their conduct while Dax does his best to win a trial that he knows can only have one outcome.

Kirk Douglas has always been more of a heroic actor than a good one, but he manages to convey the frustration and outrage of an educated man who must conform to a system he knows is cynical and unjust. As for the common soldiers, they are at the mercy of those who would treat them as expendable human resources. One is reminded of the line from Wilfred Owen’s World War I-era poem, "Anthem for Doomed Youth": "What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?"

Paths of Glory reinforces the stereotype of World War I generals cheerfully sending their armies into trench hell while they stayed behind in their luxurious chateau headquarters. That characterization is not entirely fair, but there was a huge reality gap between those at the front and those in the rear. Grim, stark and unblinking, Paths of Glory is a reminder that those who reap the "glory" of war are not the ones who pay its price.