Review of Paths of Glory (1957) by Manny C — 05 Aug 2008

A masterpiece of anti-war films. The first film where Kubrick had a big budget and here we see how it uses it with long tracking shots of men dying or about to die. It is a powerful film that shows how inane war is and how inane patriotism really is, as the line in the film "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". Kirk Douglas does an amazing job in the film, as does the whole cast. Kubrick's direction is brilliant (as always).

But the last scene, the scene that is argued over. The scene where a captured german girl sings and the cast of men hum along and begin to cry. This is the most important scene to me, it shows how patriotism truly is meaningless and that all this fighting has no point other than to prove which ruler has the bigger dick (George Carlin is a brilliant man, RIP). This is the scene where Kubrick takes the knife he has been slowly stabbing us with the whole film and decides to turn it and leaves us in pain over the brutality of his subject.