"Paths of Glory" Review

 

by Daniel White

Watching George Macready give such a masterful performance in Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory (1957), I became curious. Who actually won the Oscar for best supporting actor in 1957? An award that the unnominated Macready easily could have received. This was only Kubrick's third feature film, and it's very, very good. Perhaps not quite on the level of his film noir masterpiece, The Killing, which was released the year previous, but still extremely well-made.

It stars Kirk Douglas as Colonel Dax, an embittered yet loyal French soldier. Appointed the near impossible task of storming an impregnable German position, he reluctantly accepts the assignment. When the doomed attack proves disastrous, blame is quickly shifted to the enlisted men who attempted the assault, away from the officers who conceived it. Accused of cowardice, three soldiers are chosen and court-martialed, with former lawyer Dax as their counsel. They are scapegoats, representing the three companies that failed in their mission. It's a foregone conclusion they will be found guilty, one more example of the lunacy, not to mention the horror, of war.

Filmed in stark, stunning B&W, the movie provides us with a graphic illustration that sometimes color is not the most desirable choice when executing a film. Cinematographer George Krause's work is exemplary. Again, why wasn't he even nominated for an Academy Award? Was this flick's strong anti-war message too controversial for Hollywood's elite? Visually magnificent, with intrepid camera-work by Kubrick, the movie stumbles near its conclusion. Condemned to execution, Timothy Carey and Ralph Meeker awkwardly attempt to portray their fear at dying but the faulty screenplay by Kubrick, Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson fails them. Only fellow trenchmate Joseph Turkel is spared any unconvincing emoting. He has been rendered unconscious during a scuffle and will meet his maker comatose. The final scene also feels contrived. While Dax watches unnoticed, a frightened German fraulein (the future Mrs. Stanley Kubrick) is howled and jeered at while struggling to sing to a barroom full of French soldiers. Suddenly transfixed by her plaintive warbling, they become silent and subdued. Are we brutal savages or noble beasts? Of course the answer is an uneasy mixture of both, but no need to state the obvious, well, so obviously.

Despite its few missteps, Paths of Glory is a potent piece of work, a peek at what the brilliant and imaginative Stanley Kubrick has in store for us. Co-starring Adolphe Menjou and Wayne Morris, both delivering strong work, and distributed by United Artists, Paths of Glory is currently streaming on Tubi.

Who were the actual winners that year for best supporting actor and best cinematography in a B&W film? Red Buttons captured the acting award, appearing in Sayonara, while, interestingly enough, 1957 was the only year between 1939 and 1967, there was no separate B&W category (The Bridge on the River Kwai's Jack Hildyard won the golden statue).