The fourth film in legendary director Stanley Kubrick‘s filmography, Paths of Glory is a scathing condemnation of man’s inhumanity towards man, as seen through the lens of the insanity of the first world war. Based on the novel by Humphrey Cobb, which was itself based on real events from the war, it tells the story of French soldiers who are charged with cowardice in the face of the enemy.
It’s 1916, the war has been grinding on for two years, and hundreds of thousands are dead or wounded. In an effort to gain glory and a promotion for himself, General Paul Mireau (George Macready) orders a near suicidal attack on a heavily fortified German position they call The Anthill. His exhausted men protest, but he threatens them with cries of cowardice and questions their loyalty to him and to their country. So the men mount their attack, many are slaughtered, and when they’re forced to retreat Mireau demands his pound of flesh for their failure.
READ MORE: Monolith – Film Review
And so three men are picked, one from each company, and placed on trial for their failures and cowardice in front of the enemy. Appointed to defend them is one of the company commanders, Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas), who swiftly finds that this is little more than a show trial. These men are already condemned and this is nothing more than a kangaroo court to make it appear that “justice” has been served for the greater glory of France.
Plenty of other war films focus on man’s cruelty to their fellow man. Films such as Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, Come and See and many many more. They tell stories of men becoming little more than monsters, hopelessly damaged by the things they’ve seen and done. Paths of Glory, on the other hand, focuses specifically on the greed, corruption and mendacity of the Generals as they sit, comfortable and safe, miles away from the actual war.
Mireau is all about looking after his men until the offer of more power is dangled in front of him and then he’s equally as enthusiastic about throwing their lives away. While his men slog through the trenches, knee-deep in mud, surrounded by the crash of bombs and the rattle of machine gun fire, he spends his time in a palatial French chateau, eating croissants served on silver platters. It’s as powerful a film now as it ever was, and Kirk Douglas is a delight to watch as the still idealistic, war-weary Dax while George Macready imbues Mireau with a shallow, oily, self-serving patriotism that’s only there to fuel his own self-interests, and his performance in this film really should get more plaudits.
This new release comes to us courtesy of Eureka Entertainment’s Masters of Cinema series, in a shiny new 4K UHD release that looks just lovely for a film that’s over sixty years old. It’s never going to be as crisp and clean as a more recent film, but they’ve done an admirable job with the available media. Included with the film is a commentary track with film scholar Adrian Martin, which adds some really useful information around its production and release and is well worth a listen.
There are also interviews with a selection of folks. There’s Richard Ayoade, who turns out to be a huge Kubrick fan. Peter Kramer, an expert on Kubrick’s works, and author/critic Richard Combs. All of these are short, and reasonably interesting, but none of them offer anything massively insightful or as useful as the commentary track.
READ MORE: The Bad Ones (Melissa Albert) – Book Review
While this movie does look good in 2160p Ultra High-Definition, there’s no getting away from the fact that this is another half-hearted effort from Eureka. If you already own their 2016 Masters of Cinema release, there is really nothing to recommend this as an upgrade. How much better is a sixty year old film going to look in UHD as opposed to “just” HD? There are no new features to be found here, all the additional content and the commentary recycled from the previous release. Even the included booklet is the same. Okay, there’s the somewhat hideous new art on the slipcase, but your mileage will vary on how important these things are to you.
This movie deserves better than Eureka have given it here, and if you already own the previous Blu-ray version then there is simply no reason to purchase this.
Paths of Glory is out on 4K UHD Blu-ray on 26th February from Eureka Entertainment.
