Paths of Glory

A work of powerful impact and unyielding stance, so uncompromising that it was banned for 20 years in France, among other places. Paths of Glory is less a contribution to the ‘anti-war film’ genre (whose liberal-humanist solutions Kubrick sceptically rejects) than a scathing attack on the inhumanity of the military hierarchy per se: from the safety of a magnificent castle, the officers engage in internal power struggles, whilst outside the soldiers are sent to their deaths in senseless waves of attack. The climax is an absurd court-martial of blatant injustice, in which the recruits are finally reduced to mere pawns. Here, Kubrick pairs his masterful command of cinematic time in the preceding film The Killing with a confident mastery of cinematic space. (C.H.)