Paths of Glory (1957)
Country: US
Technical: bw 86m
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready, Ralph Meeker
Synopsis:
A Colonel is ordered to ready his men for an attack on the impregnable 'anthill', and, when the part of the force under the command of a cowardly lieutenant fails to leave its trenches, three soldiers are selected to face a court martial.
Review:
Swingeing condemnation of the callousness of the high command, in which injustice is heaped upon irresponsibility. It is put together with exemplary technical prowess by a master of the camera; the opening scene is a model for the formal precision that characterizes the whole: Macready is brought by Menjou from an honest conviction that the anthill cannot be taken, through uncertainty (via the bait of self-interest) to the self-deception that 'he can do it'. Hence his subsequent refusal to accept failure and the punitive action that follows. In this almost Shakespearian three-act drama the acting strikes a balance between dignity and emotional force.
Country: US
Technical: bw 86m
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready, Ralph Meeker
Synopsis:
A Colonel is ordered to ready his men for an attack on the impregnable 'anthill', and, when the part of the force under the command of a cowardly lieutenant fails to leave its trenches, three soldiers are selected to face a court martial.
Review:
Swingeing condemnation of the callousness of the high command, in which injustice is heaped upon irresponsibility. It is put together with exemplary technical prowess by a master of the camera; the opening scene is a model for the formal precision that characterizes the whole: Macready is brought by Menjou from an honest conviction that the anthill cannot be taken, through uncertainty (via the bait of self-interest) to the self-deception that 'he can do it'. Hence his subsequent refusal to accept failure and the punitive action that follows. In this almost Shakespearian three-act drama the acting strikes a balance between dignity and emotional force.
Country: US
Technical: bw 86m
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready, Ralph Meeker
Synopsis:
A Colonel is ordered to ready his men for an attack on the impregnable 'anthill', and, when the part of the force under the command of a cowardly lieutenant fails to leave its trenches, three soldiers are selected to face a court martial.
Review:
Swingeing condemnation of the callousness of the high command, in which injustice is heaped upon irresponsibility. It is put together with exemplary technical prowess by a master of the camera; the opening scene is a model for the formal precision that characterizes the whole: Macready is brought by Menjou from an honest conviction that the anthill cannot be taken, through uncertainty (via the bait of self-interest) to the self-deception that 'he can do it'. Hence his subsequent refusal to accept failure and the punitive action that follows. In this almost Shakespearian three-act drama the acting strikes a balance between dignity and emotional force.