Paths of Glory

The saying goes that 10,000 men lost is a statistic while a single death is a tragedy. So in Paths of Glory, a single failed mission, where many died due to enemy and friendly fire, the tragedy is the three executions following. Three men were scarified to the ambition the greed and the pride of their superiors. While the soldiers went that it wasn't death that was to be feared, but the pain of dying, the agony of the slow wound rather then the quick death of gunfire. Ironic, considering the execution by firing squad, a quicker death, a preferred . The irony of the firing squad continues with the idea none of the firing squad got far enough to shoot at the German troops, but they could fire at their own 'solider brothers'!

Irony is a continuing theme, with the dignitary ball held before the executions, where all have a grand time before and during the death of the three men. The press putting on the pressure that the three men needed to die, the idea that the masses truly control the world, that public opinion is what drives the leaders. The flow of blame down the chain of command, where each General's choice was filtered down into the massive casualties on the failed Ant Hill Mission.

But why did the mission fail? In the beginning, Kirk Douglas' character stated he and his troops couldn't take 'The Ant Hill', that it was as impossible as would be found out. Then his commander bribes him with the promotion if they can take "the Hill". Then the statistics are laid out so callously, ironically, because it was stated that 1/3 of the men would be lost due to French friendly fire (ironic because of the number 3 and the death by firing squad). Then the General wanted artillery to fire at their own location, to scare his troops out of the trenches, which would later come back to bite him.

The irony is in the caricatures of intimacy, the brotherly bonds that supposedly are born due to the military, but so easily broken to even the slightest betrayal. The Sargent delivering his solider to the firing squad, the betrayals for power and survival. The impossible choice of the group leaders in the sacrifice of their single solider, each leader picking their sacrifice for unpure reasons.

The tight shots show the claustrophobias of war, the intimacy and betrayal echoed in the shots.

At the end of the film, it is shown the commander will be tried in a similar trial for his ordering of attack on his own men. The singing German women at the end echoing this idea, that all the solider are as far away from home as she is.