Paths of glory

Genre: Drama/War/Crime/Anti-War
Year of release: 1957
Director: Stanley Kubrick (my personal favorite)

"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!"

This is Stanley Kubrick at his best, does not come close to 2001 but I would rank it 4th above full metal jacket and below clockwork, strangelove and obviously 2001. Paths of Glory really astounded me Kirk Douglas was an awesome actor much better than in Spartacus the way he delivered the quote above was absolutely amazing.

Paths of Glory is a movie about a group of french soldiers commanded take on a impossible task of capturing a German held point called the ant hill after attempting this the army of men fall back into their trenches with out orders, to prove a point 3 men are taken to be executed for cowardliness in the face of the enemy. The story is really quite good it makes you get quite angry at the motherfuckers that trying killing their own men just because they gave them a mission that is impossible. You could watch this movie simply for the acting as it is very much up there with some of the best of all time. The entire cast performs amazingly and convinces you of both their opinions and how strongly they stand for them. It's the type of movie were you know whats right but you can see why the bad guys do what they do although in my opinion I strongly stand for Kirk Douglas in that they should not shoot the men.

The acting was great from Kirk and I look forward to seeing some of his others maybe however some of the other characters were surprisingly good as well for instance both the major officers, the man about to be executed and who's religion was wine, the shell shocked victim even the singing German girl. The little part were played so well it was amazing.

I expected this movie to be a war movie, however this movie is more drama than it is war there are some alright war scenes that look quite cool however this movie is no saving private Ryan it is more about these soldiers picked to go on jury for cowardliness and Kirk Douglas trying to save them.

In conclusion a great classic with some wonderful acting by everyone and amazing performances from the little characters that maybe only had one line for 20-30 secs but those 20-30 seconds will always be remembered, a story that shocked me how inhuman some people can be, I was thinking nice and simple shooting movie but it is more than that and I enjoyed the ending of this movie being very symbolic and sad.

9/10