'War In Paths Of Glory'

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Paths of Glory was a film by famous director, Stanley Kubrick, based off a novel by Humphrey Cobb that was even further somewhat based off a true story. This film was about three French soldiers who were unjustly executed because of selfish Generals. These soldiers were merely picked at random (or to be silenced) in order to have some kind of scape goat for the blunder in failing to take a heavily fortified German position. The article “War and ‘Politics’: The French Army Munities of 1917” by Leonard V. Smith, offers a lot of insight into the history that was used to write the book that would later become the film. Being that this film came out in 1957, it can be said it also reflects a lot of the social and political atmospheres of the time.…show more content…
Paths of Glory establishes that many of the higher ups only care about their promotions and public appeal; seemingly willing to sacrifice soldiers for it, as shown when General Mireau orders an impossible offensive attack that if successful would give him a promotion. The French mutinies of 1917 were a real life example of generals willing to send soldiers to their deaths without so much of a qualm. The Chemin des Dames Offensive was the boiling point for many unhappy soldiers who were angry because they were forced to battle in ineffective offensives one after another, and that each lose would cost too many lives. General Mireau was the personification of such people like General Nivelle, (the one whose actions were responsible for the mutinies) who had no issue with sending many soldiers to their death. Both Paths of Glory and the munities of 1917 also showed the willingness for the top brass to set an example for the soldiers by executing those who would dare show cowardice in the face of impossible odds. While Paths of Glory did represent some of the undesirable attitudes of the military leaders, it was also a film that commented on the political atmosphere of the…show more content…
However, were the French soldiers afraid more of the Germans, or were they more afraid of being killed by their own country? The soldiers in this film had to ask themselves that as they were either pushed into an impossible attack, or were about to be executed because it failed. Fear has always been a common tactic for militaries to use to force soldiers to fight. The real issue that Paths of Glory tries to get into is if it should be considered ok to execute people who saw a hopeless battle, and chose to retreat or not even leave the trench. To me that seems like a rather barbaric practice that should be left to ancient history. McCarthy also used fear and intimidation to force people on to his side. Say or do one wrong thing, and you could be labeled as a communist; friends and family were likely to disown you, and you could even be sent to prison. This film takes a piece of that as part of its narrative, innocent people being tried and either physically or socially executed as a way to teach a lesson to others. The Romans did something called “Decimation”; this was the act of punishing a cohort, about four-hundred and eighty men, for failure. They would split the cohort up into groups of ten and then those men would do a draw. The one who failed was to be killed, thus setting an example to the rest of the men not to fail again. This kind of punishment where random people are used
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