主播大秀

Banned in France for some 18 years after its 1957 release on account of its anti-militarist sentiments, the searing Paths Of Glory continues to impress with its striking blend of formal brilliance, economical storytelling and emotional directness. Kubrick's first major studio film has a dynamic Kirk Douglas playing the idealistic Dax, a World War One French colonel, who's divided by loyalty to his own men and to the commands of his power-hungry superiors (George Macready and Adolphe Menjou).

The defining conflict in Paths Of Glory is more between high-ranking officers and ordinary soldiers than between French and Germans, the latter remaining unseen throughout save for a clearly terrified female singer whose voice reduces Dax's troops to tears. Kubrick establishes a powerfully direct visual contrast between the top-brass' lavishly appointed chateau, with the camera circling around the scheming participants, and the appalling conditions in the trenches, where tracking shots convey the carnage of industrialized warfare. And in a masterfully detailed sequence, which mixes up different perspectives, the director allows us to feel the sheer terror of three scapegoated men making the long walk to the firing squad that will end their lives.

"UNDOUBTEDLY ONE OF KUBRICK'S MOST EMOTIONAL WORKS"

Aided by the gripping ensemble performances, it's undoubtedly one of the late filmmaker's most emotional works, and foreshadows the military madness that pervades Dr Strangelove.