Review of Paths of Glory

It is World War One. France is fighting Germany. The Germans occupy a certain hill. Higher command ordered Mireau to take the hill, Mireau obeys, devises a plan to take the hill, knowing that casualties will be high, and gives the order to move out. Some soldiers move out, then (without orders) retreat and some stay in the trenches. To get the soldiers to obey, Mireau even orders French artillery to deliberately shell the troops. What a mess. Of course, the attack fails. Mireau refuses to accept responsibility for the failed attack and blames the failure on the troops for refusing to obey orders. Mireau orders one hundred soldiers to be immediately executed for cowardice, but is persuaded to reduce that number to three. Three soldiers, each one an enlisted man, are selected. A court martial is quickly convened, finds the three soldiers guilty of cowardice in the face of the enemy. and sentence them to execution by firing squad. The next day the order os carried out. the movie attempts to depict the three soldiers as victims of an nasty and incompetent general who uses the court martial to cover his own incompetency. The movie tries to depict Mireau as the villain and the three soldiers as his hapless victims. Kirk Douglas stars as Colonel Dax, Mireau's chief of staff and the person responsible for leading the attack, who is the personification of righteous indignation. The movie fails to make a case against Mireau. At the court martial, one soldier admits that he never left the trench, another that he moved out only to the French barbed wire, and the third that he retreated without being ordered. The movie makes a case that the the three soldiers were afforded less than adequate due process but fails to make a case that Mireau was a villain. First, the troops refused to obey his orders. Second, selecting individual solders for collective punishment was standard practice at the time. Third. higher command knew that the attack would result in lots of casualties. Fourth, Colonel Dax, who was the officer placed in charge of the actual attack, failed to rally the troops. Fifth, Mireau was doing his job. Sixth, it was war. Seventh, Mireau's orders were lawful. Eighth, if anyone should have been assigned blame, it was Colonel Dax whoi harbored personal animus toward General Mireau. Kirk Douglas received top billing, but the principal character was General Mireau, played by George Macready. The movie was about injustice - against a General who was set up to fail and then take the blame. UNFAIR.