Paths of Glory, the book on which the movie is based, is a very fine book - more moving in many ways than the movie - but stumbles a bit in some heavy-handed scenes.
If you don't have that, go out and get it. Watch it on a nice large screen TV, in Blu-ray. Paths of Glory is one of the most perfect movies ever made.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave. This book is a masterpiece and a classic,one which deserves to be as well known as All Quiet on the Western Front. The condemned men are given a sham trial,there is no hope for them.The account of their last moments is poignant as they rail against the sheer injustice of it all.Both the film and the book are masterful in their depiction of their hopelessness and their execution.But the film,in particular,gave me goosebumps. One is chosen by drawing lots,one for being a social undesirable and one because of his troubles with a lieutenant. The commanding general is not satisfied,and orders his own artillery to fire at their positions to get them to move forward.The artillery commander refuses in the absence of a written order.Īs the attack fails,the general wants a section from each company to be executed for cowardice.It finally comes down to the selection of one man from each company to be executed. The ambitions and vanities of generals must be satisfied and the common soldier must pay the price.Soldiers were led to their deaths by men they barely knew.Shooting by armies of their own soldiers for cowardice was often resorted to,during World War I.The battle depicted in the book resembles Verdun,with its wholesale slaughter.Ī regiment is ordered to charge through a barrage of machine gun fire.The fire is so intense that they cannot advance and are mowed down near their own trenches.
To the author,a great antiwar novel is one which depicts bodies,the more butchered and mutilated,the better.He focuses on the dehumanising effects of modern warfare,where a million deaths become merely a statistic. It ruffled some feathers,it did not endear them to the French army.But it is an awe inspiring film,and it is an unforgettable book. A young Stanley Kubrick read this book and was impressed enough to return to it years later,and to turn it into one of the best antiwar films ever made.Kirk Douglas fought to bring it to the screen,putting up his own money.
0 kommentar(er)
