thomasthoughts

Wikipedia – Paths of Glory (1957) is a war film by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb.

The book had no title when it was finished, so the publisher held a contest.

The winning entry came from the ninth stanza of the famous Thomas Gray poem “Elegy Written in a Country Church-yard.”

— The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow’r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,
Awaits alike th’inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

For anyone who has seen the more famous Kubrick films like “Full Metal Jacket” , “2001: A Space Odyssey”, I don’t think this will be unfamiliar to anyone watching. The way Kubrick does things is really his own way as far as the direction! This one is about World War I trench warfare. I’ve seen a lot of war movies and I can’t say I’ve seen any that were about trench fighting. Like his other films about war what he shows you is a harsh reality, lunacy, that is terrifying and somehow sometimes hilarious at the same time. I caught this because it’s on netflix live stream. Definitely will watch again. It’s only 94 minutes long. It’s nothing like the epic ‘Saving Private Ryan’ of modern times… it’s like stepping into that world for a short chaotic time rather than seeing an overall good/bad moral-of-the-story situation. I’ve never been a soldier but I feel like this is an honest representation of what war might be like. Why watch it? Maybe it’ll make you feel empowered or inspired to stop more war? IT’s history either way.