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Paths of Glory (1957) Trivia
Banned in Spain under Gen. Francisco Franco's dictatorship for its anti-military message. It wasn't released until 1986, 11 years after Franco's death.
Winston Churchill said that the film was a highly accurate depiction of trench warfare and the sometimes misguided workings of the military mind.
An early critical test of Stanley Kubrick's obsession with control on the set came during the making of this film, as recalled by Kirk Douglas: "He made the veteran actor Adolphe Menjou do the same scene 17 times. 'That was my best reading,' Menjou announced. 'I think we can break for lunch now.' It was well past the usual lunch time but Kubrick said he wanted another take. Menjou went into an absolute fury. In front of Douglas and the entire crew he blasted off on what he claimed was Kubrick's dubious parentage, and made several other unprintable references to Kubrick's relative greenness in the art of directing actors. Kubrick merely listened calmly, and, after Menjou had spluttered to an uncomplimentary conclusion, said quietly, 'All right, let's try the scene once more.' With utter docility, Menjou went back to work. Stanley instinctively knew what to do".
The title is a quotation from Thomas Gray's 'Elegy written in a country churchyard': "The paths of glory lead but to the grave".
During filming Timothy Carey (Pvt. Maurice Ferol) was disruptive. He also faked his own kidnapping for personal publicity, causing Stanley Kubrick and producer James B. Harris to fire him. Because of this, they were unable to show the three condemned soldiers during the battle scene, and a double was used for the scene when the priest hears Ferol's confession.
This film was banned in France for its negative portrayal of the French army. Switzerland also banned the film (until 1978), accusing it of being "subversive propaganda directed at France." Belgium required that a foreword be added stating that the story represented an isolated case that did not reflect upon the "gallantry of the French soldiers."
In 1969, Kirk Douglas said of the film, "There's a picture that will always be good, years from now. I don't have to wait 50 years to know that; I know it now". NOTE: As of September 2020, it's still in IMDb's 100 top-rated movies.
For box-office reasons, Stanley Kubrick intended to impose a happier ending. After several draft scripts he changed his mind and restored the novel's original ending. Producer James B. Harris then had to inform studio executive Max E. Youngstein and risk rejection of the change. Harris managed by simply having the entire final script delivered without a memo of the changes, on the assumption that nobody in the studio would actually read it. Apparently, he was right.
Shot for under $1 million, $300,000 of which was for Kirk Douglas' salary.
Kirk Douglas was irritated by Timothy Carey's erratic acting, and made his irritation known, loudly. However, Stanley Kubrick seemed to have enjoyed getting Douglas riled up. During the court-martial scene, when Douglas was criticizing Carey's delivery, Kubrick whispered to Carey, "Make this a good one, because Kirk doesn't like it."
Stanley Kubrick approached Kirk Douglas with the script. Douglas instantly fell in love with it, telling Kubrick, "Stanley, I don't think this picture will ever make a nickel, but we have to make it." Douglas' words proved to be prophetic-the film was not a success at the box office.
The prison scene where the men discuss their fates ran overtime on a Saturday. Stanley Kubrick could not get what he wanted, and producer James B. Harris came to the set to tell the director after take 63 that overtime was not allowed in Germany. Kubrick resisted stopping in a rare show of temper. He finally got what he wanted by take 74.
The French troops were played by 600 off-duty German policemen, many from the nearby Munich Police Department. Six cameras tracked the attack, recording their "deaths." Each of the extras--many of whom had fathers who fought in World War I--was assigned "dying zones," the exact locations in the battle area where they were to fall dead after being "killed" by machine-gun fire, shrapnel, or other horrendous demises. Stanley Kubrick had a bit of a problem, though; he had to keep reminding the policemen, who had three years of military training, that they were supposed to act fearful on the battlefield. Only after Kubrick's repeated directions did the extras get the idea of acting scared. He also got them to stop performing foolish feats of physical courage, such as leaping in and out of foxholes that were lined with explosives and were capable of inflicting severe burns.
Special effects supervisor Erwin Lange was forced to appear before a special German government commission before he was permitted to acquire the huge number of explosives needed for the battle scenes. Over a ton of explosives were discharged in the first week of filming alone.
The epic battle sequence was filmed in a 5,000-sq.-yd. pasture rented from a German farmer. After paying for the crops that would have been raised that season, the production team moved in with eight cranes and as many as 60 crew members working around the clock for three weeks to create trenches, shell holes and the rough, muddy terrain of a World War I battleground.
Stanley Kubrick once said of his decision to make a war film, "One of the attractions of a war or crime story is that it provides an almost unique opportunity to contrast an individual or our contemporary society with a solid framework of accepted value, which the audience becomes fully aware of, and which can be used as a counterpoint to a human, individual, emotional situation. Further, war acts as a kind of hothouse for forced, quick breeding of attitudes and feelings. Attitudes crystallize and come out into the open. Conflict is natural, when it would in a less critical situation have to be introduced almost as a contrivance, and would thus appear forced or, even worse, false."
The song performed by Christiane Kubrick (née Christiane Harlan) at the end of the film is a German folk song titled "Der treue Hussar" ("The Faithful Hussar") and dates from 1825. Vera Lynn took the song to #55 in the US record charts.
The quotation "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel," used by Col. Dax in describing Gen. Mireau's political manipulations, is attributed to Samuel Johnson, an 18th-century English writer known for his wit and political commentary.
Gen. Paul Mireau and Gen. George Brulard appear to be based loosely on two real French generals, Robert Nivelle and Philippe Pétain. Nivelle was a French army Commander-in-Chief who ordered an unsuccessful assault on German positions that resulted in horrendous French casualties. He was sacked and replaced by Petain, who ordered the execution of dozens of French soldiers who had mutinied when they found out they were to be sent across the same terrain to attack the same target again.
The action of storming the Ant Hill in the film is likely referring to the actual assault on the Chemin Des Dames Ridge during the Second Battle of the Aisne, which was a debacle for the exhausted French troops and led to a widespread mutiny, resulting in several dozen troops being executed in front of their fellow soldiers as reminders of what happens to mutineers.
Ironically, the only soldier in the film who's actually shown to be a coward is the drunken, murderous Lt,.Roget, played by Wayne Morris--an authentic military hero. In World War II he flew over 50 combat missions in the Pacific as a Navy Hellcat pilot, earning recognition as an "ace." He was buried with full honors in Arlington National Cemetery in 1961 at age 45, after dying of a heart attack.
In a 2019 interview, Terry Gilliam described watching this film when he was a teenager as a life-changing experience, and acknowledged that the long tracking shots in Brazil (1985) are his "homage" to this film's trench scenes.
David Simon named the film as an influence on The Wire (2002). The influence of the film comes in its depiction of the tribulations of "middle management", in the form of Dax's unsuccessful attempt to protect his troops against the inhumane ambitions of his superiors, which in turn influenced the series' depiction of various institutions acting against individuals
Several members of the cast and crew were actual military veterans, all of whom served in either World War I or World War II. Actor Adolphe Menjou served as a captain in the U.S. Army Ambulance Service during WWI, while author Humphrey Cobb saw action on the front lines at the Battle of Amiens (France) in 1918 while serving in the Canadian Army. Actors Kirk Douglas, Wayne Morris and Ralph Meeker served in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War; Douglas was a communications officer working in anti-submarine warfare, while Morris served as a fighter pilot. Actors Richard Anderson, Joe Turkel and Bert Freed all served in the Army during WWII, while screenwriter Calder Willingham dropped out of The Citadel to serve with the Office of War Information. Actor Timothy Carey used his brother's birth certificate to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps at age 15 during WWII, but was later discharged when his true age was discovered.
Banned in Spain under Gen. Francisco Franco's dictatorship for its anti-military message. It wasn't released until 1986, 11 years after Franco's death.
Winston Churchill said that the film was a highly accurate depiction of trench warfare and the sometimes misguided workings of the military mind.
An early critical test of Stanley Kubrick's obsession with control on the set came during the making of this film, as recalled by Kirk Douglas: "He made the veteran actor Adolphe Menjou do the same scene 17 times. 'That was my best reading,' Menjou announced. 'I think we can break for lunch now.' It was well past the usual lunch time but Kubrick said he wanted another take. Menjou went into an absolute fury. In front of Douglas and the entire crew he blasted off on what he claimed was Kubrick's dubious parentage, and made several other unprintable references to Kubrick's relative greenness in the art of directing actors. Kubrick merely listened calmly, and, after Menjou had spluttered to an uncomplimentary conclusion, said quietly, 'All right, let's try the scene once more.' With utter docility, Menjou went back to work. Stanley instinctively knew what to do".
The title is a quotation from Thomas Gray's 'Elegy written in a country churchyard': "The paths of glory lead but to the grave".
During filming Timothy Carey (Pvt. Maurice Ferol) was disruptive. He also faked his own kidnapping for personal publicity, causing Stanley Kubrick and producer James B. Harris to fire him. Because of this, they were unable to show the three condemned soldiers during the battle scene, and a double was used for the scene when the priest hears Ferol's confession.
This film was banned in France for its negative portrayal of the French army. Switzerland also banned the film (until 1978), accusing it of being "subversive propaganda directed at France." Belgium required that a foreword be added stating that the story represented an isolated case that did not reflect upon the "gallantry of the French soldiers."
In 1969, Kirk Douglas said of the film, "There's a picture that will always be good, years from now. I don't have to wait 50 years to know that; I know it now". NOTE: As of September 2020, it's still in IMDb's 100 top-rated movies.
For box-office reasons, Stanley Kubrick intended to impose a happier ending. After several draft scripts he changed his mind and restored the novel's original ending. Producer James B. Harris then had to inform studio executive Max E. Youngstein and risk rejection of the change. Harris managed by simply having the entire final script delivered without a memo of the changes, on the assumption that nobody in the studio would actually read it. Apparently, he was right.
Shot for under $1 million, $300,000 of which was for Kirk Douglas' salary.
Kirk Douglas was irritated by Timothy Carey's erratic acting, and made his irritation known, loudly. However, Stanley Kubrick seemed to have enjoyed getting Douglas riled up. During the court-martial scene, when Douglas was criticizing Carey's delivery, Kubrick whispered to Carey, "Make this a good one, because Kirk doesn't like it."
Stanley Kubrick approached Kirk Douglas with the script. Douglas instantly fell in love with it, telling Kubrick, "Stanley, I don't think this picture will ever make a nickel, but we have to make it." Douglas' words proved to be prophetic-the film was not a success at the box office.
The prison scene where the men discuss their fates ran overtime on a Saturday. Stanley Kubrick could not get what he wanted, and producer James B. Harris came to the set to tell the director after take 63 that overtime was not allowed in Germany. Kubrick resisted stopping in a rare show of temper. He finally got what he wanted by take 74.
The French troops were played by 600 off-duty German policemen, many from the nearby Munich Police Department. Six cameras tracked the attack, recording their "deaths." Each of the extras--many of whom had fathers who fought in World War I--was assigned "dying zones," the exact locations in the battle area where they were to fall dead after being "killed" by machine-gun fire, shrapnel, or other horrendous demises. Stanley Kubrick had a bit of a problem, though; he had to keep reminding the policemen, who had three years of military training, that they were supposed to act fearful on the battlefield. Only after Kubrick's repeated directions did the extras get the idea of acting scared. He also got them to stop performing foolish feats of physical courage, such as leaping in and out of foxholes that were lined with explosives and were capable of inflicting severe burns.
Special effects supervisor Erwin Lange was forced to appear before a special German government commission before he was permitted to acquire the huge number of explosives needed for the battle scenes. Over a ton of explosives were discharged in the first week of filming alone.
The epic battle sequence was filmed in a 5,000-sq.-yd. pasture rented from a German farmer. After paying for the crops that would have been raised that season, the production team moved in with eight cranes and as many as 60 crew members working around the clock for three weeks to create trenches, shell holes and the rough, muddy terrain of a World War I battleground.
Stanley Kubrick once said of his decision to make a war film, "One of the attractions of a war or crime story is that it provides an almost unique opportunity to contrast an individual or our contemporary society with a solid framework of accepted value, which the audience becomes fully aware of, and which can be used as a counterpoint to a human, individual, emotional situation. Further, war acts as a kind of hothouse for forced, quick breeding of attitudes and feelings. Attitudes crystallize and come out into the open. Conflict is natural, when it would in a less critical situation have to be introduced almost as a contrivance, and would thus appear forced or, even worse, false."
The song performed by Christiane Kubrick (née Christiane Harlan) at the end of the film is a German folk song titled "Der treue Hussar" ("The Faithful Hussar") and dates from 1825. Vera Lynn took the song to #55 in the US record charts.
The quotation "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel," used by Col. Dax in describing Gen. Mireau's political manipulations, is attributed to Samuel Johnson, an 18th-century English writer known for his wit and political commentary.
Gen. Paul Mireau and Gen. George Brulard appear to be based loosely on two real French generals, Robert Nivelle and Philippe Pétain. Nivelle was a French army Commander-in-Chief who ordered an unsuccessful assault on German positions that resulted in horrendous French casualties. He was sacked and replaced by Petain, who ordered the execution of dozens of French soldiers who had mutinied when they found out they were to be sent across the same terrain to attack the same target again.
The action of storming the Ant Hill in the film is likely referring to the actual assault on the Chemin Des Dames Ridge during the Second Battle of the Aisne, which was a debacle for the exhausted French troops and led to a widespread mutiny, resulting in several dozen troops being executed in front of their fellow soldiers as reminders of what happens to mutineers.
Ironically, the only soldier in the film who's actually shown to be a coward is the drunken, murderous Lt,.Roget, played by Wayne Morris--an authentic military hero. In World War II he flew over 50 combat missions in the Pacific as a Navy Hellcat pilot, earning recognition as an "ace." He was buried with full honors in Arlington National Cemetery in 1961 at age 45, after dying of a heart attack.
In a 2019 interview, Terry Gilliam described watching this film when he was a teenager as a life-changing experience, and acknowledged that the long tracking shots in Brazil (1985) are his "homage" to this film's trench scenes.
David Simon named the film as an influence on The Wire (2002). The influence of the film comes in its depiction of the tribulations of "middle management", in the form of Dax's unsuccessful attempt to protect his troops against the inhumane ambitions of his superiors, which in turn influenced the series' depiction of various institutions acting against individuals
Several members of the cast and crew were actual military veterans, all of whom served in either World War I or World War II. Actor Adolphe Menjou served as a captain in the U.S. Army Ambulance Service during WWI, while author Humphrey Cobb saw action on the front lines at the Battle of Amiens (France) in 1918 while serving in the Canadian Army. Actors Kirk Douglas, Wayne Morris and Ralph Meeker served in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War; Douglas was a communications officer working in anti-submarine warfare, while Morris served as a fighter pilot. Actors Richard Anderson, Joe Turkel and Bert Freed all served in the Army during WWII, while screenwriter Calder Willingham dropped out of The Citadel to serve with the Office of War Information. Actor Timothy Carey used his brother's birth certificate to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps at age 15 during WWII, but was later discharged when his true age was discovered.
