Paths of Glory
I’ve been trying to sort out my feelings (or rather: my non-feeling for that matter) about this movie. People on Netflix who gave this film a bad rating (there aren’t so many of them) do so for rather petty reasons in my book, which none of them I agree with: Bad acting, slow, Kubrick’s a a communist who wants to make ideals like patriotism and nationalism look bad (LOL)… This is all not what I’m thinking about. Perhaps my impression can be summed up with the last scene: I don’t buy it, because, unlike for the whole rest of the movie, it sounds extremely unbelievable that soldiers would start crying at a repetitive song by some German girl.
In the end, something always felt off to me: Somehow I expected something like “Full Metal Jacket”, but this movie is pretty much its exact opposite. You don’t learn very much about people’s character except for whether they are a coward or not, the main character is more a hero than a person and finally, the whole movie does not seem to attempt at making you feel. This is so unusual for a war movie, and it makes the film extremely great, yet offputt-ish for me. Weird, isn’t it?
The strength of the movie definitely lies in the story and the visual execution. The dialogue is absolutely brilliant and quite a few things that are being said there make you want to tear your hair out. Wonderful. “Full Metal Jacket” might be my favorite Kubrick movie, but most of his other films have greater visuals, “Paths of Glory” included – I love the contrast between the huge palaces displaying the absurdity of war and the very realistic looking trenches, where not so much blood is shown, but instead we see soldiers shivering while hearing the sounds of the fire. I am very much in love with the way “Paths of Glory” is made, I even love the fact that it leaves me very confused.
I am still one movie away from seeing all the relevant Kubrick movies (okay I am actually also interested in “The Killing”), but I already have a feeling that “Paths of Glory” will rank quite highly among them.
Well, I do buy the last scene. There have always been melodies in European culture, that are known in different countries, most of the time with different lyrics. I guess this is either a real case of that, or one fabricated by Kubrick to get the desired effect. Because, after all, how could all of them be able to hum the melody perfectly? Surely not after hearing it once; they’re soldiers, not musicians.
Also, Kirk Douglas is concentrated manliness! GAR!