ridiculous rating

People are voting emotionally.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

...as on the military hierarchy, at least in the French Army during World War One. A high-ranking French general is seeking further promotion, and he sees an opportunity to do so by having his regiment take a German position known as "The Anthill". Trouble is, he normally spends his time way behind the lines, and when he makes a front-line inspection of his troops, it is clear he lack a real understanding of what life is like for them.He orders the attack anyway, despite the warnings from the officers below him, and the enemy repulses the initial attackers so quickly, the remaining infantry mutiny and refuse to press the attack. The frustrated general finds three scapegoat soldiers to court-martial, and though they are represented by an officer who is a real lawyer, he is helpless to save them.We see the emotional damage the incompetent general has put others through-not for the glory of France, but for his own purposes. He might eventually be brought down, but his evil lives after him.

Stanley Kubrick is releasing a film denouncing an injustice during the First World War, two French generals send their troops in a suicide mission to take a point to the Germans, faced with the impossibility of advancing before the enemy bullets, French soldiers don't advance. This film shows the devotion of a simple colonel, Colonel Dax interpreted by Mister Kirk Douglas himself, trying to defend French soldiers who listened to their instincts of survival against French seniors officers thinking only of their careers, Kubrick shows the human (and maybe the French, who knows?) stupidity to want to make examples where those who should be killed are those who send their troops to die without any mercy and not those who are sent as cows to the slaughterhouse. The film is animated by special effects of time, but neither the latter nor the black and white are disturbing, on the contrary, it brings authenticity to this masterpiece of Stanley Kubrick who deserves his 9/10, almost a 10 ! Glory to M. Kubrick for this masterpiece!

Kubrick is definitely one of the greatest movie directors and it also shows us here what he's capable of. As one of the characters is driven by the mad will for promotion he commands an attack that has completely killed the whole squad and then he tries to turn things around and blame it on three guys. It was just outrageous how they got sentenced to death and it all goes down as officers try to do everything what they can to get Staff in sparing those man, but he is just trying to get everyone to believe him. Those man are executed, next morning it all goes down as Mireau finds out about how he was set up and thing starts unravel what every office desired to accomplish. It was shown how everybody wants something in war but also some want what is best for their man and some will do anything when they are offered right thing. Ending scene is absolutely magnificent and you can't help but to start getting overwhelmed and getting sense that everything is going to be all right. 3.5/4

Although "Paths of Glory" certainly makes a powerful statement about the horror, misery, and insanity of war, specifically the hellish conditions of the World War I trenches, its even broader theme concerns the arrogant abuse of power by severely flawed and incompetent individuals who occupy positions of authority. After forty years of working in the government and corporate world, I have painfully learned through much despair and frustration that the abuse of power by total imbeciles is by no means limited to the French Army during World War I.The movie centers on the demand by "the powers that be" for Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) and his men to "take the anthill no later than the day after tomorrow", and the generals don't want to hear any "ifs, ands, or buts" about it. From the response of Dax, who seems able, serious, and reasonable, and from those of other officers on the ground, we soon realize that the demand of the distant and detached generals is all but impossible under the current conditions on the battlefield. The generals have barked their orders but seem to be totally clueless as to the suicidal nature of the mission. They dine and dance in palatial magnificence as far away as possible from the difficult and inhuman conditions of the foul and filthy trenches, and then break for a few minutes to plan for the sure slaughter of their own subordinates without the slightest consideration for the disastrous impact of their decisions upon the very lives of other human beings.Filmed in stark black and white, Kubrick very ably recreates the unbearable and terrifying conditions of the World War I trenches unlike any other film that I have ever seen. As Colonel Dax rushes through his weary and injured troops, who line both sides of the narrow, fortified passages, a constant barrage of enemy explosions and whizzing missiles physically and psychologically overwhelms them from all sides. What could Dax be thinking and feeling as he is about to lead his men beyond the trenches into an even worse hell of the open battlefield and toward the anthill beyond? We observe an undeniable look of terror in his face that is camouflaged by the strength and determination necessary to lead in battle. To me, this sequence is one of those very special moments in cinema, and, as to its intensity of feeling, who could deliver it better than Kirk Douglas? When the predictable outcome of the mission is reported to the distant generals as soon as they can somehow find a moment to break from their perpetual partying, imbibing, and gorging, they decide to scapegoat one individual from each of the three companies for a court martial trial. Corporal Paris (Ralph Meeker) is conveniently selected by his cowardly lieutenant only because he witnessed the same superior officer killing a subordinate in order to escape from a dangerous assignment, therefore conveniently avoiding his own court martial trial. Private Arnaud (Joe Turkel) is selected merely at random. Private Fierol (Timothy Carey) is chosen only because his superior took a personal disliking to him as a "social outcast". "Me a social outcast?" Fierol asks in outrage and disbelief. As in "The Killing", Carey is a special kind of an actor who portrays his characters so realistically that you feel as though you've met this guy somewhere, but you can't recall exactly when or where. It was somewhere though, probably high school homeroom.Rather than revealing the results of the trial, I'll skip to the final scene in which Dax's remaining troops are celebrating their miraculous survival at a local bar. The proprietor introduces a very reluctant, captured German girl (Christina Kubrick), who is forced to perform before the rowdy and raucous group. As she slowly begins to sing her sad and melancholy German folk tune, the camera shifts to the individual faces of some of the men who have suddenly quieted down as they listen to the girl's haunting song. The music of the terrified, tearful girl somehow compels them to stop their noisy celebration and to focus instead on their own inner thoughts, perhaps of the girls they left behind or of the lives which they so precariously still manage to maintain. The men then start humming to the girl's nostalgic song as she finally succeeds in composing herself on the stage. The camera then shifts to Colonel Dax who has paused in front of the bar to listen to the singing men, absorbed in his own most private thoughts. A sergeant arrives to tell Dax that his men must prepare to return to battle. "Give the men a few more minutes," replies Dax. And what a precious few minutes they are.