This movie took a very simple story with a powerful message, didn't complicate it or draw it out, and the result was a great movie. Great execution -- a 90-minute story told in 90 minutes, without a wasted scene to dilute its point.
One of Kubrick's more accessible films, and mostly riveting to watch. Douglas is phenomenal, but the philosophical questions raised about death, brains, power, sentiment, bravery and cowardice in the face of impossibility are the real stand-out stars of this film.
It's like a Kubrick film for people that don't like Kubrick films.
Intense movie showing the egotistical political atmosphere of the military and how the lower class, non-officers suffer for it. This climate has not changed and still exists. If anything, it's gotten more intense and competitive. Kirk Douglas, as always, does a marvelous job.
Seems to have been taken more seriously than it needs to be. Thought it was a clever, irony-soaked satire that ultimately revealed a power to move, and I disagree with people that call for an extra hour. It's a slim, focused, very well acted, bitterly amusing picture -- a minor gem but not the magnificent work that some seem to think of it as.
Ah, so great to see what a genius can do with 88 minutes - a wonderful, if bleak, anti-war film, told with a brutal but not hopeless humanism. Kirk Douglas is great as always, and the sense of moral outrage he conveys makes you wanna reach into the screen and start pummeling!
The final scene left me a little cold, and felt morally ambiguous - in the sense of confused, not the nice sophisticated sense, but overall it is great.
Would make a fine double feature with The Thin Red Line!
Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory is an early film, but it often feels as accomplished as many of his masterpieces. Less enigmatic, perhaps, but there are still some great moments of direction. I like to think the film hangs on three tentpole tracking shots - one walk and talk (or salute and talk) through the French trenches, one tracking through No Man's Land during a doomed attack, and the last, less impressive but no less important, following a general through a fancy ball. In these three shots, we get the full portrait of the soldier. Trench life, warfare, and as an ironic contrast, the cushy life of the top brass. And that contrast, that DISCONNECT, is very much at the heart of the film, what with a general sending troops on an impossible action, then court-martialing the men when they fail. At the upper levels, it's all politics, and the men are pawns. At the lower levels, officers might as well vengeful gods. At the center of the story is Colonel Dax, played by Kirk Douglas, an officer, yes, but a humanist in the face of the dehumanizing war machine.
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Unfortunate Synopsis
This movie took a very simple story with a powerful message, didn't complicate it or draw it out, and the result was a great movie. Great execution -- a 90-minute story told in 90 minutes, without a wasted scene to dilute its point.nishithrs
Perfect length, its focused and uplifting.frankqb
One of Kubrick's more accessible films, and mostly riveting to watch. Douglas is phenomenal, but the philosophical questions raised about death, brains, power, sentiment, bravery and cowardice in the face of impossibility are the real stand-out stars of this film.It's like a Kubrick film for people that don't like Kubrick films.
Paulorsadv
Comedy? WTF.ClassicLady
Intense movie showing the egotistical political atmosphere of the military and how the lower class, non-officers suffer for it. This climate has not changed and still exists. If anything, it's gotten more intense and competitive. Kirk Douglas, as always, does a marvelous job.devilsadvocado
That is how you end a film.Rosenrotta
One of the best anti-war films is now on the Imdb comedy list? What the actual F?evildeadthing
Seems to have been taken more seriously than it needs to be. Thought it was a clever, irony-soaked satire that ultimately revealed a power to move, and I disagree with people that call for an extra hour. It's a slim, focused, very well acted, bitterly amusing picture -- a minor gem but not the magnificent work that some seem to think of it as.JCS
Very good. The military is more brutal than war perhaps.Dieguito
For me it's the first masterpiece from Kubrick, and definitely the best from Kirk DouglasKaramAkerfeldt
100/10 would watch again so hard.Ralf
Powerful and sublime!dchauvin
The futility and injustice felt throughout is wonderfully intense. Sensational performance from Douglas too.In my view Kubrick's best "narrative driven" film.
Kinchski
Ah, so great to see what a genius can do with 88 minutes - a wonderful, if bleak, anti-war film, told with a brutal but not hopeless humanism. Kirk Douglas is great as always, and the sense of moral outrage he conveys makes you wanna reach into the screen and start pummeling!The final scene left me a little cold, and felt morally ambiguous - in the sense of confused, not the nice sophisticated sense, but overall it is great.
Would make a fine double feature with The Thin Red Line!
Siskoid
Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory is an early film, but it often feels as accomplished as many of his masterpieces. Less enigmatic, perhaps, but there are still some great moments of direction. I like to think the film hangs on three tentpole tracking shots - one walk and talk (or salute and talk) through the French trenches, one tracking through No Man's Land during a doomed attack, and the last, less impressive but no less important, following a general through a fancy ball. In these three shots, we get the full portrait of the soldier. Trench life, warfare, and as an ironic contrast, the cushy life of the top brass. And that contrast, that DISCONNECT, is very much at the heart of the film, what with a general sending troops on an impossible action, then court-martialing the men when they fail. At the upper levels, it's all politics, and the men are pawns. At the lower levels, officers might as well vengeful gods. At the center of the story is Colonel Dax, played by Kirk Douglas, an officer, yes, but a humanist in the face of the dehumanizing war machine.Showing items 1 – 15 of 37