Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory

 

"Kubrick's Psychopaths: Society and Human Nature in the Films of Stanley Kubrick"

by Gordon Banks

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0004.html

http://www.gordonbanks.com/gordon/pubs/kubricks.html

[READ for next Wednesday 01.23/08]

 

 

The Kubrick Site @ http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/

Facts from the Authorized Stanley Kubrick website: http://kubrickfilms.warnerbros.com/mainmenu/mainmenu.html

About Stanley Kubrick, from the Authorized Stanley Kubrick website: http://kubrickfilms.warnerbros.com/mainmenu/mainmenu.html

 

 

87 minutes

1957

Main characters:

 

Colonel Dax—Kirk Douglas
(the commander of the 701st regiment— three companies in the 1st battalion of the regiment)

Corporal Phillip Paris—Ralph Meeker
(accompanies Lieutenant Roget on night patrol)

General Paul Mireau— George Macready

(General of a division who wants to be promoted to corp commander; he orders the French artillery to fire on his own men in the trenches during the attack on the Ant Hill)

General George Broulard—Adolphe Menjou

Lieutenant Roget—Wayne Morris
(cowardly alcoholic officer who kills Private Lejeune by accident)

Major Saint-Auban—Richard Anderson

Private Arnaud—Joseph Turkel

Private Ferol—Timonty Carey

Colonel Judge—Peter Capell

The German Girl—Susanne Christian

 

The 28 year old Stanley Kubrick asked Kirk Douglas to star in this movie, and Kirk Douglas said, “Stanley, I don’t think this picture will ever make a nickel, but we have to make it.”

 

Some key Settings—

the chateau behind the lines where the general staff works.

Colonel Dax's dugout

the trenches.

no man’s land, the terrain between the lines of trenches.

 

A definition of Narcissistic Personality Disorder from the Diagnostic Criteria from DSM-IV, published by the American Psychiatric Association, 1994.

 

A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantast or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

 

(1) has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g. exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)

 

(2) is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

 

(3) believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

 

(4) requires excessive admiration

 

(5) has a sense of entitlement, i.e. unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations

 

(6) is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends

 

(7) lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others

 

(8) is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her

 

(9) shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

 

 

 

Counterpoint in the film & other questions/concerns:

 

Long tracking shots of General Paul Mireau & Colonel Dax help characterize the officers. What does Kubrick show us about them?

 

What is the difference between the ways that General Mireau and Colonel Dax react to cowardly subordinates?

 

What is the difference between the representation/appearance of women in the general staff's mansion and the German girl in the final scene of the film? Why is it important that she is the only German character in the film?

 

What are the differences between an officer like Dax and Major Saint-Auban? How do they interact with General Mireau?

 

How are the light and shadow effects used differently in the courtroom scenes where Saint Auban and Dax sum up their cases? (These are long tracking shots, also.)

 

Think of the scenes in which General Broulard turns General Mireau in favor of the attack of the anthill and in which General Mireau turns Colonel Dax to comply with the order to attack the Anthill. What are the differences, and why do they matter?

 

 

Other questions/concerns:

 

From the point of view of Colonel Dax, what error does General Broulard make in the final scene of conflict with Colonel Dax?

 

From the point of view of General Broulard, what is wrong with Colonel Dax? Is there anything wrong with the logic that Broulard applies when he looks down on Colonel Dax?

 

How important is the use of light and darkness in the creation of the film? Where is light/dark symbolism the most important?

 

Imagine that you are a clinical psychiatrist for a few minutes and look at the definition of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, above. Who in this film is most obviously described by a number of these traits? What evidence is there that anyone else is like this?

 

Using the ideas in Banks' essay on "Kubrick's Psychopaths," what evidence is there in this film that some of the officers see the world with a psychopath's frame of reference, or that some of them are outright psychopaths?

 

Do you agree with the director's view of humanity that seems to underlie the characterization of the enlisted men and officers, including the generals, in the film? Do you agree with Banks that the view of humanity in Kubrick's film is essentially pessimistic and cynical?