Kirk Douglas discovers that war is indeed hell in PATHS OF GLORY (courtesty Photofest)
PATHS OF GLORY (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)
New-York Historical Society
The Robert H. Smith Auditorium
170 Central Park West at 77th St.
Friday, November 22, free, 7:00
212-873-3400
www.nyhistory.org
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). One of the most emotional, powerful stories ever put on celluloid, Paths of Glory is screening for free on November 22 at 7:00 as part of the New-York Historical Society’s Bernard and Irene Schwartz Classic Film Series and will be introduced by author Michael Korda (Ike: An American Hero, With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain) with a focus on “WWI and Its Legacy in Film.”