7. Paths Of Glory
Kubrick makes another appearance with one of his finest films. While not as subtle as earlier anti-war films like Grand Illusion, Paths of Glory is a film every bit as powerful and in my eyes it has aged slightly better than other war films of the time. One of the few Hollywood films set during World War One, Paths of Glory deals with a French Army Colonel named Dax (played by Kirk Douglas) who is ordered to lead an impossible attack on a German outpost. The attack fails and it is discovered that an entire company never left the trenches because of overwhelming enemy fire. To save face, the French general in charge of the attack decides to court martial three randomly selected soldiers for cowardice in the face of the enemy. Dax, who was a lawyer before the war, serves as defense attorney for the soldiers but he never has a chance as the heads of the committee are not about to blame the general instead of three lowly soldiers no one cares about. The three men are shot by a firing squad and a forlorn Dax returns to his unit moments before receiving orders to report to the front once again. Paths of Glory contains very little battlefield violence, only a few minutes at the beginning of the film even take place at the front, what concerns Kubrick is not the actual battlefield but rather the political exchanges that lead to hundreds of men being sacrificed in exchange for a chance promotion or a reassignment for one higher ranking office. Paths of Glory shows us the callous indifference war breeds in men and that sometimes the horror doesn't even come from the front but rather from the mind of a few corrupt individuals.