Paths of Glory

More than 20 years after Mr. Cobb's novel was first published, Mr. Kubrick reminded us that human folly is rarely checked for long. A half-century on, he is still right.

Kirk Douglas gives one of his finest performances as the intelligent and courageous Col. Dax.

The sardonic rhetoric may be laid on a little heavily at times, but the movie is blunt and scornfully brilliant.

While the subject is well handled and enacted in a series of outstanding characterizations, it seems dated and makes for grim screen fare.

This masterpiece still packs a wallop, though nothing in it is as simple as it may first appear; audiences are still arguing about the final sequence, which has been characterized as everything from a sentimental cop-out to the ultimate cynical twist.

The final scene, in which Kubrick presents close-ups of soldiers watching a captured German girl being forced to sing for their pleasure is nothing short of masterful.

High on tension, low on fat and fully deserving of its reputation as one of the finest war films ever made.

Those who are used to 2001: A Space Odyssey or A Clockwork Orange will initially find this black-and-white First World War drama starring Kirk Douglas rather traditional, until its radical content is revealed.

Classic Kubrick film with complex, heavy, anti-war themes.

A reminder both of [Kubrick's] extraordinary formal virtuosity and his powers as a satirist.

Kirk Douglas and Timothy Carey are outstanding among the troops on the front line, while Kubrick's relentlessly probing camera offers constant evidence of a film-maker at the height of his powers.

It is arguably the best film about the first world war, and still has a reasonable claim to being Stanley Kubrick's best film.