In Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory” the viewer is bounced between the frontlines and the homefront. In the trenches, we see morally broken men living in a muddy hell living off of the rations they eat and the air they breathe. While back in France we see an elegant well-lit room filled with paintings; pristine men with clean, sharp uniforms… gleaming medals. These men sit discussing if they should send hordes of soldiers to charge the anthill. At this point, the film then slices to a long shot of the entrenched men, going into an infantryman's perspective revealing life inside the trenches. The nice floors are replaced by mud, the well-dressed men replaced by dirty soldiers, the paintings replaced by explosions. The mise-en-scéne show’s the viewer
