Paths of Glory

Saw Paths of Glory, a chilly little war film by Kubrick. Set in WW1, it opens with a pair of generals intricately waltzing through a decision to mount an impossible attack on a fort. One of the generals is pudgy and fatherly, the other growling and scarred (and even has a goatee. Oh dear, oh dear.) The scarred general quickly reveals himself to be the bad guy. He is hopelessly out of touch with the common soldier. He declares that shell-shock is imaginary and when he hears one soldier's wistful desire for a desk job, he assumes it must be a joke. He is the face of deluded military corruption.

The film establishes the wine which the soldiers drink as a symbol for this corruption and then reveals that the evil general drinks cognac. His corruption is that much more refined and sophisticated. His character is excellently written and acted. His self-delusion is both obvious and believable. You get the sense that he is beyond compassion or reasoning. His worldview is consistent, self-sustaining, and utterly cruel. He's an excellent villain.

Up against him is the noble Kirk Douglas who never drinks. He defends his men from the aggression of the general and from other petty tyrants. He eventually works his way up to an ur-general who seems to be the source of the institutional evil. This general however seems yet more refined than the evil goatee-ed general. His is a world of acceptable losses and greater goods. The soldiers, he points out, are there to die. If their death gains headlines instead of a few yards of trench, what difference? Kirk gives him a satisfying what-for. Then, because Kubric likes complexity, we get a closing scene of soldiers in a tavern, ugly and drunk, bullying a poor German girl to tears. Are these men's lives really worth Kirk's sacrifices?

A lot of war films are anti-war. This one, I think, is almost anti-military. Ultimately this one is fundamentally about the clash between compassion and progress. Kirk would argue that the soldiers' lives are more important than any paper ideal, but the generals would argue back that the paper ideals which the soldiers die for will improve the lives of untold millions. Both camps heavily entrenched, there is no end to this war, only skirmishes back and forth, muddled by wine and ulterior motives.