Kirk Douglas discovers that war is indeed hell in PATHS OF GLORY (courtesty Photofest)
PATHS OF GLORY (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Saturday, January 1, 4:30
Sunday, January 2, 8:30
Series runs December 26 – January 2
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com
Stanley Kubrick’s harrowing PATHS OF GLORY, based on the novel by Humphrey Cobb, is quite simply the best English-language antiwar film ever made. Kirk Douglas stars as Colonel Dax, a French military man who disagrees with his superiors’ insistence on sending his men into certain annihilation in order to take a worthless hill during World War I. Dax’s verbal battles with Generals Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) and Mireau (George Macready) are unforgettable, as are the final scenes, in which three random men are chosen to pay the price for what the generals call cowardice. Filmed in stunning black and white, PATHS OF GLORY puts you right on the front lines of the folly of war. Kubrick, who wrote the unrelenting script with Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson, also made the best film about the cold war (DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB), the Roman slave revolt (SPARTACUS), and, arguably, the Vietnam War (FULL METAL JACKET). PATHS OF GLORY is one of the most emotional, powerful stories ever put on celluloid. It’s screening as part of “20 Years of Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation,” an eighteen-film salute to Scorsese’s ongoing work preserving and restoring more than five hundred films so far. The series runs through January 2 with such highlights as Alfred Hitchcock’s SABOTEUR, Luchino Visconti’s SENSO, Albert Lewin’s PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, Charles Laughton’s THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, John Ford’s HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY, and William Wyler’s THE BIG COUNTRY.