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This is part 2 of 12 of my retrospective of Stanley Kubrick’s career.

World War I; 1916; the French army. A suicide mission; a court marshall for cowardice; blackmail.

Paths of Glory, based on the book of the same name, has a strong anti-war message done convincingly. The movie presents arguments through both riveting action sequences and displaying the hypocrisy and inhumanity of the French generals. Oh, and Stanley Kubrick was only 28.

Even if the script is mostly dialog and acting driven, you can see Kubrick’s great attention to visual detail, all to support the story. For example, you can clearly feel the difference between the dirtiness of the war and the soldiers baracks compared to the beautiful and lavish castles of the generals. In a way, the sets became almost an additional actor, clearly taking screen time and setting the mood. The camera doesn’t overly move outside of the action scenes, with objects and people carefully choreographed in the foreground and background. The sets and costumes feel incredibly authentic.

Of course, the acting is impeccably directed, and for a movie with such a strong message I was surprised to see that none of it felt “over acted”. Kubrick also kept actors from faking French accents, though in their acting you can clearly feel they are French.

As for the story itself, it was both shocking and moving, with a tight pacing from beginning to end. For a movie with such amount of dialogue and even a trial, it never felt slow, stretched out or boring. Put another way, even though it could have been quite “intellectual” the movie is quite accessible even for today’s audiences.

Overall, this is an amazing movie about World War I, and against war in general. That Kubrick was able to pull it off at such a young age is quite an achievement.