I watched Paths of Glory last night — another Stanley Kubrick movie. This one is an anti-war movie set in World War I in France. Kirk Douglas plays an idealistic colonel whose troops are ordered on an impossible suicide mission by a general seeking recognition and a promotion. When the troops fall back without achieving their objective, the General orders a court-martial for three randomly selected soldiers to have them executed as an example to the rest of the soldiers. Col. Dax acts as their defense.
Most of the time, I don’t like older movies. Styles have evolved over time, and the acting in older movies from the 50’s and earlier often seems pompous and overdone. This is probably because many actors were trained for the stage and still brought much of that acting style to the cinema, and they didn’t really take advantage of the medium which supports much more subtle performances.
This one didn’t suffer from this “problem” too much (perhaps because it was a war film and everything is amped up to 11 in war), so I found it pretty enjoyable. I think this actually may have been the first time I’ve seen Kirk Douglas act at all, and he was indeed impressive. I liked that there were no simple answers and no sunset ending–which made it that much more to think about.
Not the best Kubrick film, but it was solid. Three stars.
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