Paths of Glory (1957)

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Entertainment grade: A–

History grade: C



Trench warfare in the first world war (1914-18) involved intense hardship for soldiers and a massive toll of casualties (400,000-800,000 at Passchendaele; between 600,000 and a million at Verdun; perhaps more than a million at the Somme.

Strategy

Kirk Douglas in Paths of Glory Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

The film begins on the French front in 1916. (In a rare moment of historical authenticity, Hollywood has resisted making the heroes American. The fact this is set a year before the US entered the war wouldn't necessarily stop them.) General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) tells General Mireau (George Macready) that he must take a German position known as the Anthill. His reward will be a new star. "I'm responsible for the lives of 8,000 men," Mireau says. "What is my ambition against that?" He is tempted, though. After some presumably self-justifying thought, he heads for the trenches to tell Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) to take the Anthill.

Class

Mireau's stroll around the trenches is a splendidly dark snapshot of the class differences between officers and men in the first world war. "Ready to kill more Germans?" he asks the soldiers, all chipper as if he's proposing a Sunday afternoon game of bridge. Then he loses his rag at a shellshocked soldier, because he doesn't believe in shellshock and thinks sufferers are just being wimps.

Amazingly, director Stanley Kubrick was only 29 when this strikingly mature film came out. That made him a few years older than the average soldier in the first world war, but a youthful prodigy as far as film-makers are concerned.

War

Kirk Douglas in Paths of Glory Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

When Dax and his men advance into No Man's Land, the Germans are already shooting and shelling. Witnessing the slaughter that follows, French reinforcements refuse to leave their trenches. Enraged, Mireau orders his artillery to fire on his own trenches to force the men in them to go over the top. Mireau and Dax are fictional characters, but this story (adapted from Humphrey Cobb's novel) is based on real events.

On 7 March 1915, French general Géraud Réveilhac ordered his artillery to fire on his own soldiers when they refused to advance at Souain in the Champagne region. As in the film, the artillerymen refused to fire on their own comrades.

Justice

A scene from Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

Dax calls off the assault. Mireau isn't at all happy with his soldiers. "They've skimmed milk in their veins instead of blood!" he bellows. He wants to shoot 100 of them, but Broulard talks him down to three. In real life, 30 men stood trial, though only four were convicted. They were Théophile Maupas, Louis Lefoulon, Louis Girard and Lucien Lechat. Maupas, who had an exemplary record as a soldier, corresponds vaguely to the character of Pierre Arnaud (Joseph Turkel) in the film. The trial is a sham. The men are sentenced to be shot by firing squad.

Glamour

Meanwhile, there's a party in the general's palace, complete with fine food, fine wine and pretty ladies in satin dresses. Away from the dancing, Dax protests to Broulard about the firing squad. "There are few things more fundamentally encouraging and stimulating than seeing someone else die," Broulard replies cheerfully. (He is echoing the famous quote from Voltaire's Candide about Britain's Admiral John Byng, executed 1757: "Il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres.") Finally, Dax spills the beans about Mireau trying to fire on his own men.

Reputations

Kirk Douglas in Paths of Glory Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

In the film, Broulard is shocked by Mireau's action, and justice comes quickly. In real life, things weren't so neat. After the four men were executed, Réveilhac remained in his post until he was given three months' leave in February 1916 (because, according to a senior officer, he seemed to have "reached the limit of his physical and mental abilities"). He was later made a Grand Officer of the Legion d'honneur. The French authorities repeatedly refused to investigate the case. Eventually, thanks to the efforts of Maupas's widow, Blanche, and Lechat's sister Eulalie, a court cleared the men in 1934. General Réveilhac died peacefully at the age of 86 in 1937.

Verdict

A crisp, efficient and unflinching portrayal of trench warfare and military injustice in the first world war. Unfortunately, the reality was far less satisfying.