Paths of Glory

No motion picture has more effectively dramatized the absurdity of war than Paths of Glory from legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick (Dr. Strangelove, Full Metal Jacket). Safe in a picturesque chateau behind WWI front lines, the French General Staff passes down a direct order to Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas, Lonely Are the Brave): take the Ant Hill at any cost. A blatant suicide mission, the attack is doomed to failure. Covering up their fatal blunder, the generals order the arrest of three innocent soldiers, charging them with cowardice and mutiny. Dax, a lawyer in civilian life, rises to the men’s defense but soon realizes that, unless he can prove that the generals were to blame, nothing less than a miracle will save his clients from the firing squad. Stunningly shot by cinematographer Georg Krause (Man on a Tightrope) and also starring Ralph Meeker (Kiss Me Deadly), Adolphe Menjou (The Front Page), George Macready (Gilda), Wayne Morris (Kid Galahad), Richard Anderson (Seven Days in May), Joe Turkel (The Shining) and Timothy Carey (The Killing), Paths of Glory is a blistering antiwar masterpiece.