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Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780792835837
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
ISBN: 6304508557
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Release Date: April 04, 2000
Running Time: 87 minutes
Sales Rank: 20154
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: 1957
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
Stanley Kubrick had already made his talent known with the outstanding racetrack heist thriller The Killing, but it was the 1957 antiwar masterpiece Paths of Glory that catapulted Kubrick to international acclaim. Based on the novel by Humphrey Cobb, the film was initiated by Kirk Douglas, who chose the young Kubrick to direct what would become one of the most powerful films about the wasteful insanity of warfare. In one of his finest roles, Douglas plays Colonel Dax, commander of a battle-worn regiment of the French army along the western front during World War I. Held in their trenches under the threat of German artillery, the regiment is ordered on a suicidal mission to capture an enemy stronghold. When the mission inevitably fails, French generals order the selection of three soldiers to be tried and executed on the charge of cowardice. Dax is appointed as defense attorney for the chosen scapegoats, and what follows is a travesty of justice that has remained relevant and powerful for decades. In the wake of some of the most authentic and devastating battle sequences ever filmed, Kubrick brilliantly explores the political machinations and selfish personal ambitions that result in battlefield slaughter and senseless executions. The film is unflinching in its condemnation of war and the self-indulgence of military leaders who orchestrate the deaths of thousands from the comfort of their luxurious headquarters. For many years, Paths of Glory was banned in France as a slanderous attack on French honor, but it's clear that Kubrick's intense drama is aimed at all nations and all men. Though it touches on themes of courage and loyalty in the context of warfare, the film is specifically about the historical realities of World War I, but its impact and artistic achievement remain timeless and universal. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Military injustice
This is an oft-times overlooked film in the Kubrick canon, and that's something that is unfortunate. At the base, the story is a satire on injustice in the military / injustice in war. It takes on a number of themes all at once, and does so gracefully without ending up looking like a rudderless plot.
Kirk Douglas plays a French colonel (Dax) in World War I. He is one of the few officers in the film who has genuine integrity. As such, he finds himself in conflict with the nefarious ... Read More
Rating: - All the Beauty and Monstrosity of Being Human
Okay, I'll just come out and admit my bias now: This is one of my top five favorite movies. And Kubrick is my favorite director.
That being said, this is one hell of a morality tale. Three French soldiers are chosen to be put on trial for cowardice during a suicide raid on the German Ant Hill during World War I. The problem is that the only one who knows of their innocence, Col. Dax, is outnumbered in his opinion of the men on trial. He decides to be their lawyer and defend them. Can Dax ... Read More
Rating: - L'infamie
I'm not a Stanley Kubrick fan, nor do I particularly care for Hollywood films. So I was surprised and delighted to discover what a gem of a film "Paths of Glory" is. Well directed, for the most part well acted, well directed, and conveying a great message: what more could one ask for?
The title is ironic. The plot revolves around a failed because impossible military assault on the German trenches in 1916. An oily, egoistic French general, superbly played by George Macready, orders the ... Read More
Rating: - enough to make you weep...
Kirk Douglas' portrayal of the heartbreakingly courageous Col. Dax is a portrait in heroic futility. Dax is an French officer in the most pointless war, but most portentous war, of the Twentieth Century. His men are ordered to take an impregnable German position. Many men in the front ranks don't even get fully out of their trenches before they are slaughtered by an impenetrable hail of German lead and steel. The surviving rear ranks cower in the trenches rather than face inevitable death. The French ... Read More
Rating:  - Pro-War movie with heart
Just now got to watching this oldie Pro-War movie of the 50s. It wasn't as good as I had heard, but the pro-war stance makes me want to go back to serve. Kirk's colonel Dax makes all officers proud of wartime service. Enlisted soldiers all could do much worse than Dax. You can tell he cares so much for this men, that it almost physically hurts him to follow through with absurd orders from up top. While this movie showcases the sometime ridiculous choices higher ups make in the name of wartime offense, it ... Read More
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