Brief Summary Of The Movie 'Paths Of Glory'

The movie Paths of Glory is an epic saga of a leaders struggle between accomplishing the mission and the welfare of his men. Kirk Douglas plays a Colonel in the French Army during World War One. He is a fierce fighter and has the respect of the men and the Generals as well. The year is 1916. The war has been stuck in a stalemate for the past two years. The gains are measured in feet not miles. There seems to be no end in sight at this point. The movie opens up to General Mireau getting a visit from his superior officer General Broulard. He came to inform General Mireau that he wanted to launch a mission to take a piece of land held by the Germans called the Ant Hill. This is a sizeable hill in front of the French lines that are held by Colonel …show more content…
Immediately Colonel Dax objects and says it would be a suicide mission. But Colonel Dax is a military man and follows the orders of his superiors. Colonel Dax arranges for a three-man Reconnaissance team to go and make nots as to where the German lines are. This was all in preparation for the attack the next day. at this point only, Colonel Dax knows that they will be attacking the next day. The patrol consisted of Lieutenant Roget, Corporal Paris, and Private Lejeune. During this patrol the Lieutenant saw something that he wanted checked out. He sent Private Lejeune to do that. Private Lejeune was gone for a little while and Lieutenant Roget started getting scared and losing it. He kept professing that they were discovered and the Private was dead. Then all of a sudden, he hears something stands up throws a grenade and runs back towards the French lines. What he heard was Private Lejeune coming back. But the grenade thrown by Lieutenant Roget killed Private Lejeune. Corporal Paris makes it back to the French lines and confronts Lieutenant Roget about it and is told to shut up and he will not be charges with disrespect to a superior officer. This just one more time that the officers use their rank as power and dominance over the …show more content…
He suggests that one hundred men be selected and shot at a firing squad. This was eventually brought down to only three men to stand a Courts Martial. All of this was after Colonel Dax offered himself up to stand trial and was refused. So, Colonel Dax requested to be counsel for the men standing trial. Even with the trial everyone knew that they were going to be found guilty. The Generals said it was good for moral to shoot cowards every occasionally. It gives the men reason to fight. So, in the end the three men were found guilty and executed for showing cowardice in the face of the