Movie Review – Paths of Glory (1957)

One of the negative stereotypes of World War One was that of high-ranking “armchair” officers who would seek further advances by slaughtering their own soldiers in suicidal missions.

Although that has been an issue throughout the history of warfare, it was more of a factor from the stalemates on both the Eastern and Western fronts.  When no army could push forward and gain an advantage, some officers were more prone to taking daring risks and sending their soldiers on perceived suicide missions.  The theory was that the greater the risk, then the bigger the reward.

The 1957 film Paths of Glory deals with a general who orders a suicide attack, all in the name of glory for himself.  When some of the soldiers fail to carry out the attack, they’re put on trial for cowardice, an offense punishable with the death penalty.

Directed by Stanley Kubrick, Paths of Glory stars Kirk Douglas in the role of Colonel Dax, commanding officer of the 701st Infantry Regiment.  Supporting him in the film are George Macready as Brigadier General Paul Mireau, Ralph Meeker as Corporal Philippe Paris, and Wayne Morris as Lieutenant Roget.

Set in France in 1916, Paths of Glory begins with a voiceover describing how Germany and France went to war, and the stalemate that lead to trench warfare.  In a chateau, Major General Georges Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) informs his subordinate, Brigadier General Paul Mireau (George Macready), that the French Army is poised to launch a major offensive in the near future.  To spearhead the attack, General Mireau is assigned to attack and capture a heavily defended German position nicknamed the “Anthill.”  Mireau is hesitant as his forces have already suffered heavy losses in recent fighting, and they’ll surely lose many more attacking the heavily fortified “Anthill.”

General Mireau’s attitude against the attack suddenly changes when General Broulard informs him that a successful attack against the “Anthill” would essentially mean a promotion to a desired position within the army.  Mireau rethinks the attack and now believes that his soldiers can succeed in attacking the “Anthill” and holding it.

The film transitions to the Western Front and shows General Mireau walking through the trenches, asking soldiers if they’re ready to kill more Germans.  One of the French soldiers (Fred Bell) shows signs of shell shock, to which Mireau considers as cowardice.  Mireau slaps the soldier and orders him transferred out of the unit.  He doesn’t want that soldier’s “coward” behavior to influence the others.

In the command bunker, General Mireau assigns Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) the task of planning and carrying out the attack against the “Anthill.”  Mireau’s estimate is that more than half of Colonel Dax’s men will be killed, a large number of casualties that Mireau is perfectly willing to accept.  Dax protests the battle plan as too many French soldiers will be lost, and it’ll be for little or no gain.  Mireau won’t hear any of it, and Colonel Dax is forced to accept the orders to take the “Anthill.”

That night a small reconnaissance patrol heads out to the German wire to identify machine gun posts and dead bodies.  The patrol is lead by Lieutenant Roget (Wayne Morris).  When the three soldiers near the German line, Roget decides to split the night patrol and send one of the men ahead as a scout.  When there’s no sign of the man a short while later, Roget panics, throws a grenade in the direction of the German line, and then makes a quick retreat back to safety.  The third soldier, Corporal Philippe Paris (Ralph Meeker), goes exploring and quickly discovers that the scout is dead.  He was accidentally killed by the grenade that Roget carelessly tossed towards the Germans.

Corporal Paris returns to the French line and confronts Lieutenant Roget about the dead of their fellow soldier.  Roget denies any wrongdoings while on the night patrol.  When Paris threatens to report Roget’s actions, Roget informs him that the court martial will take Roget’s word over that of Paris’s.  Instead of trying to bring charges against each other, Roget offers to file a false report, clearing both of them of any wrongdoings.  Paris doesn’t want to accept the offer, but when he starts to argue again, Colonel Dax arrives in the room.  Roget reports to Dax that the night patrol went well despite losing one of the soldiers to enemy fire.

The next morning is the attack against the “Anthill.”

The attack begins with a short artillery barrage against the Germans.  It has to be a short artillery attack, otherwise the Germans will have more time to prepare for the infantry attack.  As soon as the French shells stop firing, Colonel Dax leads the first wave of soldiers over the top of the trenches and into no man’s land.  The soldiers don’t make it far until they’re pinned down by heavy fire.  When Dax looks back to check on the rest of the soldiers, he’s horrified to discover that the following waves of soldiers are still in the trenches.  Furious, he carefully races back to the trenches to find out why the rest of the men haven’t started their attack.

At headquarters, General Mireau has also discovered that the rest of the men haven’t climbed out of the trenches.  He thinks that they’re all cowards.  He will not tolerate that behavior in his division.  Mireau orders Captain Rousseau (John Steain), the artillery commander, to fire into the French trenches and kill the cowardly soldiers.  When the artillery commander refuses the order (an order to fire upon friendly troops has to be written and signed by the general), Mireau threatens to remove him from his position.

When Colonel Dax reaches the French trenches, he quickly learns that the major who was supposed to lead the second wave of soldiers was killed in action.  Lieutenant Roget was the next person in command, but he thought that the attack was suicide, so he didn’t order the men to attack.  Colonel Dax takes command of the company of soldiers and tries to rally them to climb out of the trenches and fight.  As he climbs out of the trench to lead them into battle, the body of a dead French soldier knocks him down, signifying the end of the battle.

The soldiers out in no man’s land retreat back to the French lines.  The attack against the German “Anthill” is a miserable failure.

After the battle, General Mireau is still furious that the attack was carried out so poorly.  He wants to court martial 10 men from each company in the division for cowardice, and for the penalty to be death.  Colonel Dax tries to reason with Mireau and claim that many of the men were brave in the face of the enemy, and others were pinned down and unable to leave the trenches.  Mireau maintains that since the men were ordered to attack, they should have fulfilled that obligation and still attacked, regardless of the enemy fire.  General Broulard mediates and suggests that a more effective way of setting an example is to only try one man from each company instead of ten.  The point isn’t to simply slaughter their own army but to maintain discipline and respect for the superior officers.

A total of three soldiers are picked to be tried for cowardice:

• Corporal Paris is chosen because lieutenant Roget wishes to silence him about what really happened on the night patrol.
• Private Maurice Ferol (Timothy Carey) is selected because he’s a “social outcast.”
• Private Pierre Arnaud (Joe Turkel) is chosen at random and has to be tried for cowardice despite his previous citations for bravery.

Colonel Dax was a criminal defense lawyer before the war, and he volunteers to defend the soldiers at the court martial.  Before the court begins, he briefly advises the men to answer the questions directly, to stand defiant, and to not repeat themselves.  Dax will take care of the rest and attempt to sway the judges’ opinions.

Unfortunately, the court martial itself is a farce.  Colonel Dax protests that there is no stenographer recording the statements, there is no formal written indictment, and the court refuses to admit evidence that would support acquittal.  During his closing statement, Colonel Dax challenges the court’s authenticity and requests mercy for the men.  He warns them that finding them guilty of cowardice would be a crime that’ll haunt each of them until the day they die.  Nonetheless, General Mireau wanted the men to be found guilty, and that’s how the judges vote.  All three of the soldiers are found guilty of cowardice and sentenced to death.

The men are held in the stockade under armed guard.  They’re given some food and wine from the guards, but there’s question if the food had been drugged or administered with a poison.  Two of the men argue and get into a fight, and Arnaud is accidentally knocked back against a stone column.  He’s knocked out cold and seriously injured.  There’s no sympathy for his injuries, and he’s still going to be executed in the morning, even if he has to be carried to the courtyard and tied upright to the execution post.

Meanwhile, Captain Rousseau finds Colonel Dax and informs him of General Mireau’s orders to fire into the French trenches.  Dax then finds General Broulard at a ball and confronts him with the evidence against General Mireau ordering to fire upon and kill his own soldiers.  If the soldiers are not spared from execution, then Dax threatens to turn the evidence over to the press, putting both Generals Broulard and Mireau in very negative light.  The blackmail fails and Broulard simply dismisses Dax from the meeting.

Later that night, Colonel Dax meets with Lieutenant Roget.  Knowing that Roget was a liar and coward during the night patrol, and a coward again the next morning during the attack on the “Anthill,” Dax orders Roget to command the execution.  He’ll have to secure the men to the posts, give the order to fire, and then fire an additional round into each dead man’s head to verify that they have been killed.

After spending time with Father Dupree (Emile Meyer), the three condemned soldiers are led into the courtyard the next morning.  Arnaud is carried out to the courtyard on a stretcher.  His unconscious body is then propped up against the execution post and tied into place.  Ferol has broken down and sobbed continually, and he’s given a blindfold to help ease his fear of imminent death.  Paris is offered a blindfold by Roget, to which he refuses.  Roget then quietly apologizes to Paris for what he has done, but Paris doesn’t sound like he accepts the apology.

After the men are secured and given their last rites by Father Dupree, Lieutenant Roget gives the order to fire.  All three soldiers are quickly killed.

Just after the executions, Generals Broulard and Mireau have breakfast while discussing how the execution was carried out so well.  When Colonel Dax arrives in the room as ordered, Broulard asks Mireau about whether or not it was true that he ordered the artillery to fire on his own men.  Mireau denies the accusation, of course, even when Dax tells him that the artillery commander made a sworn statement that says otherwise.  Broulard informs Mireau that he’ll have to go through a public investigation regarding the incident.  General Mireau then angrily leaves the room.

General Brouland then offers Colonel Dax Mireau’s position in the army.  He had suspected that Dax’s efforts to stop the executions were part of a ploy to get Mireau’s job.  However, that’s not the case.  When Dax states that he was being sincere in trying to save his men’s lives, Broulard becomes angered and ridicules him for his beliefs.  Dax argues back that Brouland is a degenerate and sadistic old man.

After his meeting with General Brouland, Colonel Dax is returning to his office when he hears a bunch of soldiers in a nearby inn.  The men have been drinking and partying.  Dax watches through a window as the inn’s owner brings forward a captured German girl (Susanne Christian).  The girl is terrified as she’s forced to sing a German folk song.  The mood of the men drastically changes as they get swept away by the song.

Paths of Glory ends as Colonel Dax receives word that the 701st Infantry Regiment is to return to the front immediately.  Dax allows for the men to stay in the inn for a few more moments before having them return to combat.

So is 1957’s Paths of Glory a good movie?

Absolutely.

Instead of focusing solely on the trench warfare or the daring aviators made famous from the Great War, Paths of Glory shows the struggle between poor and cowardly officers and the men who were forced to unfairly pay for those officers’ actions.

In this World War 1 film you have a general who is so hungry for a promotion that he forces his soldiers to fight in a “suicide” mission, knowingly full well that most of them will be killed.  Their deaths are not his concern.  You also have a cowardly lieutenant who accidentally kills one of his own soldiers while on a night patrol.  He then tried to cover his cowardly actions by filing a false report, and then by having the sole witness stand in the phony court martial trial, knowing that he was going to be executed and thus silenced.

It’s also that same cowardly lieutenant who refused to take command and lead the men out of the trenches during the battle.  That action caused the chain of events that lead to the court martial and the execution of three innocent soldiers.

In the middle of that you had Colonel Dax, an honest leader who cares about the men that he leads.  Colonel Dax is the first one out of the trenches during the attack, and he’s up front and leading his men, as ordered, into the slaughter.  It’s Colonel Dax who later fights on behalf of the men who have to stand trial in the court martial.  He fights for them until he exhausts all avenues on the morning of the execution.

Paths of Glory is a fantastic film the way that it showcases the frustration of dealing with selfish and irresponsible leaders.  The film showed how it was the average soldier who had to pay the ultimate price with his life, whether it was following orders on a “suicide” mission, or when being executed after standing in a phony court martial trial.

Paths of Glory (1957) – movie trailer

Paths of Glory is simply a great film from start to finish.  This film moves swiftly, and you’ll be captivated in watching the events and seeing what happens next.  It’s easy to feel the struggle felt by not only the men forced to stand trial, but also Colonel Dax as he tries to save them.

General Mireau – “If those little sweethearts won’t face German bullets, they’ll face French ones!”

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General Broulard – “There are few things more fundamentally encouraging and stimulating than seeing someone else die.”

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[while awaiting their execution]

Corporal Paris – “See that cockroach? Tomorrow morning, we’ll be dead and it’ll be alive. It’ll have more contact with my wife and child than I will. I’ll be nothing, and it’ll be alive.”
[Ferol smashes the roach]
Private Ferol – “Now you got the edge on him.”

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General Broulard – “It would be a pity to lose your promotion before you get it. A promotion you have so very carefully planned for.”
Colonel Dax – “Sir, would you like me to suggest what you can do with that promotion?”
General Broulard – [angry] “Colonel Dax! You will apologize at once or I shall have you placed under arrest!”
Colonel Dax – “I apologize… for not being entirely honest with you. I apologize for not revealing my true feelings. I apologize, sir, for not telling you sooner that you’re a degenerate, sadistic old man. And you can go to HELL before I apologize to you now or ever again!”