Paths of Glory (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

This review is for Paths of Glory (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Paths of Glory (The Criterion Collection Spine #538) [Blu-ray] obtained April 2013.

A really good film showing Kirk Douglas at a younger age than I have seen him before. He was an excellent actor even back then. The film is gripping and suspenseful.

I highly recommend this film for anyone over the age of 16, because it is not a straight forward war film. I worry WWI battlefield office politics (to put it plainly) would confuse many boys under that age (and bore most girls).

The restoration is excellent.

To me, the reason to buy a blu-ray is to get the full length film (even theatres run cut versions, so they can get more showings in) and to get the commentary, interviews and extras -- and this is something that Criterion Collection normally excels at.

This version of this film is like that. Lots of extras. You'll be able to watch the film over and over again over the year with new insights and new appreciation.

(If you watch the extras, there is a secret about the guy who sobs and how much he affected production. I had to chuckle at the hoops Kubrick and team had to jump through after him -- and you would never guess watching the film what happened and what needed to be done. It makes the film double the accomplishment.)

From the Criterion Collection product information:

New high definition digital transfer made from 35 mm film elements restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with MGM Studios, with funding provided by the Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
New audio commentary featuring critic Gary Giddins
Excerpt from a 1966 audio interview with director Stanley Kubrick
Television interview from 1979 with star Kirk Douglas
New video interviews with Kubrick’s longtime executive producer Jan Harlan, Paths of Glory producer James B. Harris, and actress Christiane Kubrick
French television piece about a real-life World War I execution that partly inspired the film
Theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar James Naremore

I highly recommend buying this film.

It is the First World War. The French have dug into trenches, 500 miles long, from the English Channel to the border of Switzerland. As the film's intro eloquently states, victories are counted in hundreds of yards gained, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of men. This is the setting of Paths of Glory, certainly and easily one of the greatest war movies of all time.

Paths of Glory, Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, contains some of the most realistic First World War battle scenes ever put to film. The landscape is a cratered no man's land of mud, wire and bodies. The desperation is captured beautifully. The references to "shell shock" are historically accurate (it was considered to be a mythical condition by the generals of the day.) The only film that comes close for realism is the Australian classic, Galipoli.

Kirk Douglas is Col. Dax, once a lawyer in his old life, now being ordered to take the "Anthill": A fortfied position that the Germans have held for a year. Now the French intend to take it and keep it, but with tired worn out men. Dax doesn't think it can be done, but agrees to it anyway. The alternative for him would have been to be relieved of duty, and Dax won't abandon his men when they need him.

General Mireaux, his ambition for promotion clouding his judgement, has set up an impossible task. The men of course fail, not being able to clear their own wire before being turned back in the face of machine gun fire and shells. A humiliated and embarassed Mireaux orders his artillery to fire on his own men, and when that order is refused he decides to try them for cowardice in the face of enemy. After all, someone must take the blame for failure, and why should it be an officer? Col. Dax returns to his role of a lawyer and defends the three token men chosen to face the charges of cowardice. The ending is as inspirational and tear jerking as they can get.

Paths of Glory paints a picture of the way it was, based loosely on the French practice of executing men for cowardice before they "infect" the rest of the men with that defect. The trenches in the film are perhaps drier than the real trenches but the landscapes look very real indeed. Kubricks style at this point was still that of an observer, which came from his years as a newspaper photographer. He places his lenses where an observer would sit, and you can watch the events unfold like a fly on the wall.

Kirk Douglas is joined by Kubrick regulars Timothy Carey (two Kubrick films to his name), Joe Turkel (three Kubrick films) as well as Adolphe Menjou and a very young Christiane Kubrick.

The film itself is a heartwrenching look at the realities of First World War Europe, and also the human spirit. It attacks our prejudices and practices while reminding us that we are all the same regardless of our station in life. Kubrick seems to have been both fascinated by war while being repulsed by its necessity.

This being such an historically important film, I am glad that it has finally received the Criterion treatment, but why is this only the second Kubrick film to be treated as such? (Spartacus is the other.) The restoration is very well done compared to the original DVD edition. The audio is in mono just as the original film was. I appreciate that nobody tried to tinker with the audio to make it multi-channel. This is the way Kubrick made it. Supplimental features are here including audio commentary, an essay, and a fun interview with Kirk Douglad from the 70's, among numerous others.

This is absolutely nessecary for any fans of real war films and Stanley Kubrick. Hopefully this ushers in a set of brand new Kubrick Criterion editions. I bought two copies, one for me and one for my dad.

5 stars.

I saw this film in a college course on film and I realize why. It is one of the best directed films ever made. The black and white works to perfection.

This is my favorite Kirk Douglas film about the French military during WWI. A group of French soldiers are sent on an impossible mission. When they obviously fail, the General afraid of losing face for a stupid decision, decides to court martial some of the soldiers as a punishment. Three soldiers are singled out. One obviously fought very bravely and another was hit on the head and knocked unconcious during the battle. Their stories are futile against the kangaroo French military court. Douglas tries valiently to act as their legal council and present their defense in vain.

From what I understand this film is still banned in France! I guess the humiliating loss during WWII did nothing to sway the French military from its self-conceived notion of being a great military power!