PATHS OF GLORY

Here is the decision. Stanley Kubrick's WWI drama is a four-star film — moving, expertly written, and anchored by an excellent Kirk Douglas performance. It shows the hardships of war honestly, and it draws a sharp line between the men who stay desensitized to death and the ones who hold fast to their beliefs.

The content is mild for the weight of the subject. There are dramatic battle scenes, but with minimal blood; a single obscenity; brief upper male nudity; and alcohol and cigarettes throughout. The film's honesty about how power corrupts is its great strength, but it's also why younger viewers need a parent's guidance here.

So: if you're an adult who loves serious drama and stories of conscience under fire, this one rewards you. Watch it with older children only, and be ready to talk about what you see.

In the trenches of World War I, French General Broulard dangles a promotion, and General Mireau — who knows better — agrees to send his men to take "the Anthill," a heavily defended position the Germans hold.

Colonel Dax, a criminal defense lawyer in civilian life, reluctantly leads the charge, certain it cannot succeed. When the attack fails, his superiors demand someone pay for it — and Dax finds himself defending his own men against a charge that could cost them their lives.

Four stars, and they're earned. This is a moving period drama that showcases the hardships of war — and, more pointedly, how some men become desensitized to the death around them while others refuse to. Kirk Douglas gives an excellent performance as Colonel Dax, and the script is well-written from first scene to last.

Kubrick stages dramatic battle sequences with gunfire and explosions, but the film's real tension lives in a courtroom — a trial with no witnesses, no formal indictment, and a court that refuses to hear evidence that might acquit. That's where the movie's outrage burns hottest, and where its craft is most quietly devastating.

PATHS OF GLORY carries a mixed worldview, and the mix is the point. Colonel Dax is its moral spine: committed to defending his men, arguing against a suicide mission he knows will fail, and finally offering to die in his soldiers' place. Against him stand Generals Broulard and Mireau, whose pagan fixation on rank and reputation leaves them with no regard for human life at all — and, tellingly, no real consequences for their actions.

The film also holds an honest Christian thread. A priest prays with the men condemned to die, telling one self-professed unbeliever that God is always ready to hear our prayers, and he accompanies them to the execution to pray over them. It's a small mercy in a merciless story, and the movie lets it stand.

Around these poles turn smaller betrayals — a soldier who falsifies a report to hide an accidental killing, then sends the one witness to the firing squad to protect himself. The film sees these compromises clearly and names them as the rot they are.

Beneath the whole story runs a question Scripture answers plainly: what does it profit a man to gain status while trading away his soul and the lives entrusted to him? "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?" (Mark 8:36).

Kubrick made a wartime classic with a conscience — expertly acted, well-written, and unflinching about the cost of trading lives for rank. The battle scenes and the drinking mean younger viewers need a parent alongside, but for adults this is a film that repays close attention. Our answer stands: worth watching.