#538: KUBRICK, Stanley: Paths Of Glory (1957)
KUBRICK, Stanley (United States)
Commentary
Featuring critic Gary Giddins.
Fantastic commentary!
Audio interview
Television interview
Paths Of Glory [1957]
Spine #538
Blu-ray
Blu-ray
Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory is among the most powerful antiwar films ever made. A fiery Kirk Douglas stars as a World War I French colonel who goes head-to-head with the army's ruthless top brass when his men are accused of cowardice after being unable to carry out an impossible mission. This haunting, exquisitely photographed dissection of the military machine in all its absurdity and capacity for dehumanization (a theme Kubrick would continue to explore throughout his career) is assembled with its legendary director's customary precision, from its tense trench warfare sequences to its gripping courtroom climax to its ravaging final scene.
88 minutes
Black & White
Black & White
Monaural
1:66:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2010
Director/Writers
Based on the novel Paths of Glory by Humphrey Cobb.
Kubrick was 29 when he directed Paths of Glory.
Other Kubrick films in the Collection:
#575: The Killing (1956)
#105: Sparticus (1960)
#821: Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love The Bomb (1964)
#897: Barry Lyndon (1975)
The Film
Other Kubrick films in the Collection:
#575: The Killing (1956)
#105: Sparticus (1960)
#821: Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love The Bomb (1964)
#897: Barry Lyndon (1975)
The Film
Kubrick’s fourth film (1: Fear and Desire [1953] {Kubrick called it “amateurish, like a child’s drawing on the fridge}; 2. Killer’s Kiss [1955] {including as an extra on …}; 3. The Killing [1956] {Spine #575}).
The Killing is excellent, a noir thriller which one can look at and see lots of future Kubrick in it. It got the attention of Kirk Douglas, who was the star and producer of this film — and who gave Kubrick a chance to direct a really fine film.
The title comes from the ninth stanza of a 1751 poem by Thomas Gray, “Elegy Written in A Country Churchyard.”
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow’r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,
Awaits alike th’inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
The Schleissheim Castle was used in Decision Before Dawn (1951) and Last Year at Marienbad (1961) [Spine #478]. The interiors were shot in a Munich studio.
Douglas is certainly due credit for getting the film made. His star power — plus his being the rare actor not attached to a studio — gave him the ability to get United Artists to fork over $1 million, a third of which went to him.
His contract even contained a clause that he had to have a scene where he was seen bare-chested (0:09:05).
But Kubrick gets the credit for his inventive style (the quick cutting and close-ups during the futile advance of the troops), and his ability to cast the perfect actors:
Of course, his Colonel Dax is an impeccably precise representation of the typical Douglas persona — but he acts his butt off in this picture.
Adolphe Menjou (Gen. Broulard) and George Macready (Gen. Mireau) both make incendiary villains, speaking their lines quickly and impassionately.
The scene where Broulard calmly turns on Mireau (1:18:16) is infused with a delightfully calm and controlled performance by Menjou:
“By the way, Paul — it’s been brought to my attention that you ordered your artillery to fire on your own men during the attack on the Anthill.”
Macready’s reaction is only a mild sense of shock, while Kubrick cuts back and forth between his growing astonishment and a two-shot of Broulard and Dax.
The rest of the casting is equally impressive: Ralph Meeker (Paris), Wayne Morris (Roget), Richard Anderson (Saint-Auban, Mireau’s aide), Joe Turkel (Arnaud) and especially the wild Tim Carey (Ferol).
Kubrick, himself, possibly pulled off the best pick of all by choosing a young German girl, Susanne Christian as the German singer in the final scene. He married her a year later, she became Christiane Kubrick, developed her talent as a painter — and a great one — and still carries on, protecting and promoting her husband’s great legacy.
Film Rating (0-60):
Naremore, a Kubrick expert, describes the first interior scene in the palace:
“ … [the scene] was influenced by one of Kubrick’s favorite directors, Max Ophuls, who had died on the day it was staged. The camera dollies around a large room filled with artifacts of empire engaging in a perversely Ophulsian choreography, while Kubrick, with the aid of camerman Georg Krause, draws on his news photographer experience, making good use of natural light, deep-focus compositions and sonic reverberations. In contrast, the trench warfare involves a signature Kubrick effect: wide-angle, almost phallic tracking shots down a sinister corridor or demonic tunnel.”
Commentary
Featuring critic Gary Giddins.
Fantastic commentary!
Paths is frequently cited as the best “anti-war” film of all time. But Giddins disagrees:
“The movie is about power, class, manipulation and the absurdity of war.”
The distinction may be academic — but considering that all of Kubrick’s films are really about war — often the internal and petty wars people fight with and against each other — the comment is appropriate.
Giddins never stops talking, and it’s all good stuff. Lots of references to Kubrick’s growing stylistic filmic attitudes, his generous insistence on the fact that he didn’t know sometimes, and willingly took input from anyone and everyone (Shelly Duvall might disagree) … lots of great anecdotes about the actors and the story of how Tim Carey got fired (hilarious).
And Menjou — a real right-winger: during the HUAC hearings, he declared that “commies should be shot down in the street.”
When asked how he was able to work with so many left-wing professionals in the industry, he said, “because I’m a whore!”
Audio interview
Excerpt with director Kubrick from 1966.
“ … the picture was a moderate success, but it was nothing to create opportunities for us because of big grosses or profits …. the reviews on it were very good; many reviews were superlative and from that point of view, it was an enormous success”
Television interview
From 1979 with Douglas.
Douglas is charming. He sings an English song at the end of the (UK-based) interview, and has the audience in stitches.
Video interviews
Video interviews
With Kubrick’s longtime executive producer Jan Harlan, Paths of Glory producer James B. Harris, and actress Christiane Kubrick.
Harlan’s interview is particularly inspired. One of the things he points out is how the public often comments on how each Kubrick film seems so different from the previous one.
Like Beethoven’s Fourth and Fifth symphony are so different. A new canvas, the same basic ideas.
Not created by a committee.
French television piece
About a real-life World War I execution that partly inspired the film.
The real history behind the story.
Theatrical trailer
Extras Rating (0-40):
Theatrical trailer
Extras Rating (0-40):
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