Aug. 01, 2003 - 3:06 pm
after having seen this one about 5 years ago for the first time, Keith finally convinced me to watch it again. he wanted to see a review of it. i'm always willing to go back and take a second look at a Stanley Kubrick film. i really need to work on seeing Barry Lyndon (1975) again.
Paths of Glory is an excellent film, albeit a bit short, about a true incident that took place in the French army during WWI. while trying to earn a name for themselves in battle, two military leaders decided that an already weak military unit should make an attempt to win an impossible objective. when the attack fails because the men in the unit are forced to fall back, the military decides to blame the men for cowardice and make an example of them by randomly selecting 3 of the men and shooting them. it's a film about morality and what it means to be human.
one of the things i really found fascinating this second time through was the closing scene of the film. it doesn't actually directly fit in with the rest of the plot. it's almost like a short film within itself. we see a small bar filled with French troops (not the most attractive ones at that) and the bar owner making an attempt to entertain them. he brings out a German girl who he says was recently acquired from the enemy. there is a mixture of booing and applause. you get the feeling that the men haven't seen a woman in a long time and there are mixed emotions about whether they like this one or not. mostly they do, and it makes you very uncomfortable because the girl does not understand what they're saying or even that she is basically a piece of meat on display for these men. the barman goes on to tell the troops that the little lady doesn't have any talent at all, but she has a voice like an angel. she begins to slowly and very unsurely sing "Soldier Boy" in German. as the men whistle and yell cat calls at her, you can barely hear her voice at all. then one by one the men quiet down and then begin to hum along with her. it's a very moving scene and it's flawlessly done onscreen.
this last scene makes the audience look at the human race with two very different points of view. first, very despicably looking on in horror as we act like complete brutes towards each other. the men at first seem to be acting on instinct in some sort of barbaric group action towards the German girl. then, as the song progresses we see with new eyes that there are indeed uniting factors that can appear that show the more positive aspects of being human that are present within us all, no matter how different we may be from one another.