“Paths of Glory” is a wonderful film, a well-acted film that really showcases Kirk Douglas talent as an actor, Kubrick as a writer but most importantly, a film that established a then, new American director, Stanley Kubrick. It’s an important film that deserves being included in your own personal Criterion Collection.
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TITLE: Paths of Glory – THE CRITERION COLLECTION #538
YEAR OF MOVIE: 1957
DURATION: 88 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Black and White, Dolby Digital Monaural, 1:66:1 Aspect Ratio, Subtitles: English SDH
COMPANY: United Artists/MGM/The Criterion Collection
RELEASED: October 26, 2010
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
“Paths of Glory” Novel by Humphrey Cobb
Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Calder Willingham, Jim Thompson
Produced by James B. Harris, Kirk Douglas, Stanley Kubrick
Music by Gerald Fried
Cinematography by Georg Krause
Edited by Eva Kroll
Art Direction by Ludwig Reiber
Costume Design by Ilse Dubois
Starring:
Kirk Douglas as Col. Dax
Ralph Meeker as Cpl. Phillippe Paris
Adolphe Menjou as Gen. George Broulard
George Macready as Gen. Paul Mireau
Wayne Morris as Lt. Roget
Richard Anderson as Maj. Saint-Auban
Joe Turkel as Pvt. Pierre Arnaud
Emil Meyer as Father Dupree
Bert Freed as Sgt. Boulanger
Kem Dibbs as Pvt. Lejeune
Timothy Carey as Pvt. Maurice Ferol
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.
Any war will have its stories of injustice told by people on both sides. For the French, 1915, the year of the very much publicized military injustice during World War I in which French soldiers, exhausted of fighting and were demoralized against their battle against the Germans and when the soldiers were ordered to seize a location held by the Germans, with so many of their men dying, the soldiers in the trenches refused. Knowing they had no chance.
Disgusted by the soldiers disobedience, the General ordered for a trial of six corporals and 18 enlisted men and wanted to use them as an example of what happens when soldiers show cowardice to the enemy. The punishment is death.
This true and controversial story was then made to a novel by Humphrey Cobb in 1935, later adapted for the stage by Sidney Howard and later received a film adaptation in 1957 by filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, who co-wrote the screenplay with Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson.
The fourth film to be directed by Stanley Kubrick, who purchased the rights to the film from Cobb’s widow for $10,000 and was a film that earned Stanley Kubrick critical acclaim and also the film where he would meet his future wife, German actress Susanne Christian.
“Paths of Glory” received did well in America but in France, the film was not shown as active and retired military personnel were offended on how the French military were portrayed and although not banned, the French government put enormous pressure on United Artists to not release distribute the film to Europe and thus, the film would not be shown in France until 1975. The film was also not shown in Germany because of they were working on rebuilding their relationship with France and Spain censored the film due to it being “anti-military” and would not be released in Spain until 1986.
“Paths of Glory” revolves around Col. Dax (played by Kirk Douglas, “The Bad and the Beautiful”, “List for Life”, “Spartacus”, “Champion”) who is responsible for the 701’s Regiment. While he and his men are trying to recuperate from previous battles and having lost many soldiers, behind-the-scenes, General George Broulard (played by Adolphe Menjou) of the French General Staff has asked his subordinate, General Mireau (played by George Macready) that he is being considered for a prime position in upper command. But to get that position, General Mireau must send his division on a suicide mission to “Ant Hill” which is being held by the Germans. They must take it and then defent it until more French troops arrive on position.
General Mireau knows its a lost cause and that the 701’s Regiment is crippled but even so, for that promotion, General Mireau does what General Broulard wants.
So, General Mireau arrives to the 701’s Regiment which is fighting a difficult battle against the Germans. He sees firsthand how the soldiers are demoralized, afraid of dying and want to be with their families but he doesn’t care. General Mireau gives Col. Dax the order for his regiment to seize the “Ant Hill”. Col. Dax tries to explain that he doesn’t have the manpower and that his unit is exhausted and not ready but General Mireau will not take no as an answer and also tells him that they must seize the hill the following day.
During the day of the 701’s movement to take the “Ant Hill”, immediately, the soldiers are mowed down by gunfire and bombing. While the first wave has made their run and not many survive, let alone able to reach the German trenches, the soldiers of the 701’st B Company refuse to leave their trench. Col. Dax heads back to the trenches and tries to see why the men are not fighting and learns that many of them have seen the first wave killed in battle and having lost their commanding offier, they stayed in the trenches.
As the men refuse to leave the trenches, General Mireau sees this and is disgusted and immediately orders the artillery officer to bomb their own soldiers. The officer remains firm that he will not do such a thing unless he receives an official word by writing. Mireau is disgusted by the disobedience and knowing that by not taking the “Ant Hill” is an embarrassment, to show soldiers that the French will not tolerate cowardice, he wants 100 of the men executed.
Fortunately, Col. Dax was a criminal defense lawyer and through negotiations, he is able to convince General Broulard to reduce the number and thus, one man from each of the three different company’s of the 701st Regiment will be tried and will be used as an example by the French military and will be executed. Selected are Corporal Paris (played by Ralph Meeker), Private Ferol (played by Timothy Carey) and Private Arnaud (played by Joel Turkel).
Will Col. Dax find a way to prevent the three men from getting executed?
VIDEO:
“Paths of Glory” is presented in black and white (1:66:1 aspect ratio). Previous to watching the Criterion Collection version of “Paths of Glory”, I had a chance to do some screen comparisons with the previous 1999 MGM version that was presented in standard definition. With that being said, the Criterion Collection of “Paths of Glory” is the better looking version. You can see the detail of the clothing, the detail on the clothing and the skin and I’m sure on Blu-ray the detail is even more well-defined. While the previous version by MGM seemed as if it went through digital noise reduction and looks a bit blurry compared to this Criterion version because not only is there no grain, detail was subdued and picture quality was blurry.
So, you’re definitely getting a much better looking version of the film from the Criterion Collection and granted, the MGM DVD release was 12-years ago and released during the infancy of DVD.
According to the Criterion Collection, Stanley Kubrick’s technical assistant Leon Vitali supervised this new high-definition digital transfer, which was created on an HD Spirit 2K from a 35mm fine-grain master positive from UCLA film archivist Robert Gitt’s collection. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter and flicker were manually removed using MTI’s DRS system and Pixel Farm’s PFClean system.
AUDIO:
“Paths of Glory – THE CRITERION COLLECTION #538” is presented in monaural. According to the Criterion Collection, the monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from Robert Gitt’s 35mm monaural magnetic track. Clicks, thumps, hiss and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated audio workstation.
Dialogue and every sound effect was quite clear and the musical score by Gerald Fried sounds good on DVD as well. Granted, I’m sure the lossless soundtrack for the Blu-ray version is the best audio out there for the film but the DVD still sounds great and I detected no audio anomalies whatsoever.
Subtitles are presented in English SDH (optional). For those who are wondering if there is a French soundtrack, while the MGM version did come with a French soundtrack, the Criterion Collection release only has the English monaural soundtrack.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Paths of Glory – THE CRITERION COLLECTION #538” comes with the following special features:
- Audio Commentary – Featuring a 2010 exclusive Criterion Collection audio commentary by critic Gary Giddins. Giddins gives a thorough commentary of the film.
- Stanley Kubrick – (2:18) A 1966 audio interview with director Stanley Kubrick by author Keremy Bernstein in regards to “Paths of Glory”.
- Kirk Douglas – (29:30) A 1979 interview from “Parkinson”, Kirk Douglas talks about his career and working on “Paths of Glory”.
- James B. Harris – (21:09) Producer James B. Harris talks about making “Paths of Glory and working with director Stanley Kubrick and the challenges that took place on the set.
- Christiane Kubrick – (6:59) Christiane talks about meeting Kubrick and playing the part of the singing German woman (at the end of the film) and memories of working with Stanley Kubrick and her role for the film.
- Jan Harlan – (9:09) Stanley Kubrick’s longtime executive producer Jan Harlan (“Barry Lyndon”, “Eyes Wide Shut”) talks about working with Kubrick and also Kubrick’s films.
- Theophile Maupas – (3:12) A segment from the French news program “Jt Basse Normandie” (which was broadcast back in Jan. 1997) involving the World War I tragedy involving French Corporal Theophile Maupas, in which “Paths of Glory” was inspired form.
- Theatrical Trailer – (3:01) The original theatrical trailer for “Paths of Glory”.
EXTRAS:
“Paths of Glory – THE CRITERION COLLECTION #538″ comes with a 20-page booklet which includes an essay by author James Naremore titled “We Have Met the Enemy…”.
“Path of Glory” was definitely a bold film at its time. While many war films were seen as patriotic, this independently produced American film was anything but.
But this was a film that was the synergy that director Stanley Kubrick needed and definitely led to him directing even larger films (after “Paths of Glory”, Kubrick followed up with “Spartacus” (1960), “Lolita” (1962), “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” (1964), “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), “A Clockwork Orange” (1971) and many more films).
As a filmmaker, “Paths of Glory” showcased wonderful cinematography from Georg Krause, especially the film’s longer shots and soldiers dying at war and how it was wonderfully directed by Kubrick. The chaos on the battlefield required a smooth, orchestral fluidity and it was captured amazingly well on screen.
As for the film, it was enjoyable from beginning to end, but I often remember the criticism that filmmaker Francois Truffaut had with “Paths of Glory” and that was a technical error of Col. Dax saluting without his hat on and his main focus was General Mireau was not believable as a “villain”.
And the more I thought about this, I think back on other war/anti-war films such as Oliver Stone’s 1986 film “Platoon” and how the character of Sgt. Barnes (played by Tom Berenger) was a very cold man, fighting on the side of the American military but also a man willing to have his own soldiers killed. Sgt. Barnes was seen as evil because he had no compassion for anyone. You can’t help but dislike him.
With “Paths of Glory”, I can see what Truffaut was saying about a lack of psychological credibility in General Mireau’s behavior. Although there was personal ambition involved, the fact was that was how the upper staff was as well as we see with General George Broulard and eventually the confrontation between Col. Dax and General Broulard. There is no “villain” but the military was corrupt in the fact that they valued nothing about the soldier’s below them but their own success.
Would we be enjoying “Paths of Glory” much more if Mireau’s order to kill his own troops moved forward? Would our feelings have changed if 100 men were to be executed? I didn’t see Mireau as evil but just an extension of politics and its corruption. Call it “evil” or just how things are with politics/military tied to politicians, I do feel that “Paths of Glory” had no need for a psychological villain because it was business as usual for the higher up in command and doing whatever they can to please whoever they kowtow to…and those I see as corrupt. Of course, modern sensibilities by general public is much different now than it was back in the beginning of the Century, especially with World War I, as many of these military leaders were considered as national heroes and respected by their countrymen and were literally seen like how rock/pop stars are today.
If anything, “Paths of Glory” was a film that probably opened up an old wound of soldiers that never healed back in 1957. The fact is that war brings out the worse in everyone and in this case, innocents being tried for a crime despite how much they served the military and their country and being executed by the luck of the draw.
As for the DVD, this is the best version of the film out on DVD today. Compared to the 1999 MGM release, the Criterion Collection looks absolutely wonderful. There is no DNR and you can see the detail and grain much more in this release. Also, what I love about this DVD Release are its special features. The inclusion of the 1979 interview with Kirk Douglas, the 1997 featurette on Theophile Maupas (one of the real-life corporals that was executed) and other lengthy and enjoyable special features that the Criterion Collection is known for. Once again, magnificent additions to this already wonderful DVD release. Of course, if you have a Blu-ray player and want the definitive version, then definitely get the Blu-ray version of this film.
Overall, “Paths of Glory” is a wonderful film, a well-acted film that really showcases Kirk Douglas talent as an actor, Kubrick as a writer but most importantly, a film that established a then, new American director, Stanley Kubrick. It’s an important film that deserves being included in your own personal Criterion Collection.
Definitely recommended!
