Paths of Glory - a very unsubtle message

The march towards completing the IMDB top-100 began last Sunday evening by watching Paths of Glory.  This courtroom drama set in the middle of the First World War is particularly relevant at the moment given that the 100th anniversary of the start of that conflict has recently been upon us.  Here, Kirk Douglas plays a Colonel in the French army, tasked with planning and leading an attack on a fortified hill.  The hill is near-impregnable though, yet with thoughts of personal glory and promotions in his mind, Douglas' commanding general orders the command against his own instincts.  When the attack fails terribly, the French army demands that men from Douglas' regiment be punished for cowardice, and men are selected randomly for courts martial and execution.

With this movie, Stanley Kubrick is making a big statement about the class war that was implicit in everything that happened in the first world war.  It was a period in history where the elites and the upper classes of Europe ordered the working classes to their deaths in unprecedented numbers.  Admittedly war has always been about poor people killing each other for the benefit of rich people, but in the first world war it was done with hitherto unknown efficiency and on an unbelievable scale.  The generals of the day showed unbelievable callousness, which is depicted here in the way that the generals order men to their deaths for personal glory, then when it doesn't come they seek to kill even more men to 'restore morale'.  The generals cannot comprehend a world in which one would want to save an ordinary man for his humanity, and when Douglas' character tries to do this, they assume he must be acting out of desire for personal gain too.  It's a world where the rift between social classes is laid starkly out for all to see, and despite being armed to the teeth, the poor are unable to do anything about it.

A major problem I have with this film is that it lacks any subtlety.  Kirk Douglas's character is introduced with an offhand comment when his commanding officer says something to the effect of "let of not forget he is one of France's leading criminal lawyers".  He'll probably be involved in some sort of court case then?  Hardly subtle, and hardly the face of the ordinary man on the street.  Maybe it comes down to the thing that people always say about Kubrick, which is that he wasn't an actor's director - i.e. he's not a people person, he's more interested in sets, cameras and cinematography.  Paths of Glory is certainly outstanding in that respect, Kubrick does a fantastic job of letting the camera tell a story here, and allowing his cameramen to move around the amazing sets and demonstrate the enormous futility of this conflict.  The personal aspect of the story-telling seems a little bit like an afterthought.

The film's message is certainly an important one to remember just now as some parts of the media think that the centenary of the first world war is an excuse to wave flags and 'thank' the working class British men who were herded to a pointless horrific death.  The real lesson to learn from the first world war is that how little the ruling classes care for the rest of us, and this film sums it up - albeit in a somewhat heavy-handed way.  Overall, from a technical point of view, Paths of Glory is an outstanding film achievement.  From a story-telling point of view it's a bit unsubtle, though perhaps that was Kubrick's intention - to make it accessible enough for everyone to understand, regardless of education or background.

Either way, not Kubrick's best, but worth checking out for both its place in the context of film history and the message it's overtly pushing on to its audience.