Stanley Kubrick's Perfect '50s Anti-War Movie Is Streaming For Free

The 1950s were a critical time for photographer-turned-filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. His first two features, the experimental "Fear and Desire" and the underrated noir "Killer's Kiss," demonstrated Kubrick's unique eye for film as a visual medium. 1956's The Killing," a fatalistic heist thriller, was considered his first great movie. But Kubrick truly cemented his place in film history with 1957's "Paths of Glory," his anti-war masterpiece that's now streaming for free on Kanopy, Pluto TV, and Tubi.

Kubrick's compelling story of corruption and cowardice in the trenches of World War I opens with Major General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) issuing orders to General Mireau (George Macready) to carry out the near-impossible task of seizing the German-fortified position known as the Anthill. The mission's failure prompts Mireau, among his other transgressions, to make an example of three soldiers: Private Pierre Arnaud (Joe Turkel), Private Maurice Ferol (Timothy Carey) and Corporal Philippe Paris (Ralph Meeker) are court-martialed for cowardice in spite of their innocence. Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas), Commanding Officer of the 701st Infantry Regiment, is assigned as counsel for the scapegoats, only to learn that his presence is little more than a formality.

"Paths of Glory" hasn't lost an ounce of its staying power in the 69 years since its theatrical release. It's a sharp, infuriating critique of bureaucratic malice whose potency lies in how deeply the film's events are rooted in the annals of history.

In 1915, 24 soldiers of all positions within the 21st Company were court-martialed in the wake of their refusal to attack a German outpost, in spite of being barraged by overwhelming waves of artillery assaults. Of those men, four corporals had their death sentences carried out by firing squad in Sourain. While the men were eventually pardoned, this shameful injustice would become the crux of Humphrey Cobb's 1935 novel "Paths of Glory," which Stanley Kubrick set out to adapt after remembering how much it impacted him reading it in his teenage years. 

The 1957 film was seen as a risk by United Artists, especially with the subject matter, but it ultimately got made on account of Kirk Douglas' interest in the screenplay, which was co-written by Calder Willingham, Jim Thompson and Kubrick. "Paths of Glory" parallels what Kubrick would accomplish later in his career with "Full Metal Jacket," in that the film is split into two distinctive halves. The eventual conflict is set up by awe-inspiring vistas of French soldiers engulfed in the cramped trenches, creating a thin line between them and the muddy graveyards of No Man's Land. 

Kubrick then makes a brilliant juxtaposition with the opulent 18th-century castle that houses the three soldiers' sham trial, in addition to the Major General's lively parties. You can see the throughline of the comically cruel bureaucratic ignorance that Kubrick would later refine in the 1964 satire "Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."

It's no wonder "Paths of Glory" is considered among the best films of Kirk Douglas' career, given that he commands the screen with a simmering contempt towards the central injustice. When it comes time for the execution, not even a head injury prevents the French Army from propping up Joe Turkel's Private Arnaud against the firing squad pole while he's unconscious on a stretcher. Among other things, this fictional depiction of their cruelty led to the film being banned in France, in addition to several other countries. But tensions have fizzled in the decades since, with "Paths of Glory" now being recognized as one of the best anti-war movies ever made.

The most interesting companion piece to Kubrick's masterpiece is the double-length "Tales from the Crypt" episode "Yellow." Based on a tale of the same name published in the 1950s comic magazine "Shock SuspenStories," the Robert Zemeckis-directed episode tells the tale of scared WWI Lieutenant Kalthropp (Eric Douglas) having to face similar accusations of cowardice, with his superior officer and father played by none other than his real-life dad, Kirk Douglas. 

General Kalthropp is a fascinating inversion of the Colonel Dax character, as he's the one who ultimately sentences his son to the firing squad. The tension-laden family war drama angle may not make it immediately jump out as a "Tales from the Crypt" story, but "Yellow" very much plays into the brand of mean-spirited dark humor the horror series excelled at. It's a cleverly-staged homage to "Paths of Glory," while the casting of the elder Douglas adds a great deal of weight and suspense to the proceedings.