International Cinema Festival of India

Paths of Glory is a 1957 war film about the fallibility of human judgment and questioning the value of a life. Stanley Kubrick directed the film, prompted by his vivid memories of reading the novel written by Humphrey Cobb for school. The film turned out to be a controversial affair, nationally, and on foreign shores. Coupled with the tale’s moral itself, this cultural prejudice against the movie’s depiction of war proved to be the greatest irony of all.

The plot begins with a proposed addition of another star to a general’s rank, and a suicidal plan for attack against the Germans to attempt to please the public. Without regard to practicality, the French General Staff orders an attack on a highly fortified area to boost public morale after a long stalemate with the enemy. Their brash decision puts a weakened and worn-torn regiment at risk with no back up, and no time to prepare. And so begins a recipe for disaster.

Set in the vicious trench warfare of the First World War, the story takes its cues from the pure humanity of its characters, all of them showing weakness, strength, and the undeniable desire to survive. This leads numerous film critics to credit the movie with encouraging a more realistic approach to telling the story of battle. They also applaud the artistic and technical merits the story delivers through the precise delivery of its actors, and the complex emotional quality each character portrays, even without lengthy back-stories.

The attack is inevitably a failure, as every character besides the delusional generals fueled by arrogance sees coming, and the remaining troops who refuse to leave the trenches for a lost battle are blamed. The entire regiment takes the fall for the loss, and three men are selected at random to punish the entire group of soldiers for their supposed cowardice. Colonel Dax, the man in charge of the regiment, tries to defend his soldiers at any cost against the unfair trial, but has little hope against the united forces against him.

As with all black and white films from the time, use of lighting and color gradient (how dark an object appears when turned into gray instead of color) are the most important aspects to creating the visual experience. Even without the modern use of CGI effects, let alone color, good directing and cinematography can depict a range of emotion just as deep in black and white film as any other medium. Kubrick uses the dense blackness of the trench scene at night to instill fear, and the spotty lighting of Colonel Dax’s bunker to present doubt when the General delivers the order.

One technical issue that many in today’s audience may notice is the tendency of the characters to pace around the room during thoughts and speech, sometimes to an unrealistic extreme. The reason for this is to keep the feeling of motion alive while characters are set in lengthy conversations. With the limited ability to move the camera itself due to the touchy nature of lighting at the time, shot diversity depended on the actors’ theatrical movements and gestures to stay interesting.

By following the story of three soldiers doomed to death by their superiors for unjust causes, the French and many other European countries banned the movie for many years before cultural policies on such material loosened. Film critics acclaim it as the first challenger to the idea that war is completely honorable and glorious. The ironic and emotional journey the plot takes leave audiences with both warnings and questions about those in power, and the motives behind making enemies out of those who should be allies.

Paths of Glory was highly critically acclaimed, though its box office profits were minimal. The moral behind the story lingers on with relevance as questions of human sacrifice for the sake of political war is more heavily disdained as generations pass. The movie is often used today as a critical thinking and discussion tool for English classes and Film classes alike, sharing the universal challenge of fate and orders for a long time to come.

Rap is a mixture of speech and music, actually it is speech laid on music or beat its better to say. Classic Movie Videos Each group gets a guitar, a small amp, and small PA system. As loud as %&^ing possible, I hear you say!