Liao Kang
has many old movies like sand and stone, rolling in the river of time, setting off a few blisters, and being washed away soon. However, some classic works are like gold. When they sink into the river of time, they may be silent, but as time goes by, they are washed brighter and brighter. The American movie "Paths of Glory" (1957) directed by Stanley Kubrick is such a gold. Because the film demonstrated the wrong command and wrongdoing of senior French generals, it was not allowed to be staged in France until 1975. The big star Kirk Douglas of the year suffered a lot of criticism and money losses for participating in the performance of such a film, but he persevered and ensured that the film was completed on schedule. The Library of Congress considered the film to have "cultural, historical and aesthetic value" in 1992 and rescued it, which allowed it to survive. It was staged again at the London Film Festival in 2004. Today, this movie has been nominated by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best movies in a century and one of the best ten court movies. Indeed, the most exciting thing about the movie is Douglas defending the three defendants in a military court.
The court tried representatives of three so-called cowardly soldiers. Ancient Rome had a punishment of "kill one every ten" for the timid soldiers. I did not expect that in the First World War, France actually implemented a similar criminal law. This is not a movie, but a historical basis. The three soldiers on trial were not particularly timid, they were randomly selected by their superiors to take their place in the army. The so-called "pass" is entirely because the German firepower is too strong to complete the mission. The so-called "random selection" is not like in ancient Rome, where soldiers line up and kill one person every ten. One of these three people was retaliated because of conflicts with their superiors, the other was appointed by their superiors because they didn't wait to see him, and only the third was decided by drawing lots, even though he had been commended twice for fighting bravery.
Although the movie is black and white, it fully shows the magnificence of the General's Mansion at the beginning and at the end of the movie, contrasting with the hardship in the trenches and the cruelty on the battlefield. This kind of contrast is found in many movies and is not new. What is new is the character and words of the colonel played by Douglas. As the commander of the corps, he charged forward; as the defender of his own soldiers, he should be euphemistic when he should be euphemistic, and when he should be angry when he is angry; as an upright soldier, he categorically refused when the general misunderstood his intentions and promoted his office; As a man of high moral character, when the general ridiculed him as an idealistic hillbilly, he contemptuously scolded the general as "shameless man." The most memorable thing is his defense in the court. Although it is short, it is memorable. The last sentence is the most memorable: "Gentlemen of the court, if you find these people guilty, they will always be haunting you. Sins until you die." I can’t reveal the fate of the three soldiers. I just want to sigh that such an upright officer who doesn't care about his own future no longer exists! Good movies with such wonderful lines no longer exist!
The translated text has lost the taste and power of the original text, and the excerpted one or two sentences cannot reproduce the wonderfulness of the big star Tao Bai. But I believe that everyone will feel its artistic charm when watching this film, because this charm is straightforward, obvious, and naturally displayed in the colonel's behavior and words. The only thing that may be difficult to understand may be the song a German prisoner was forced to sing for the French soldiers at the end of the film. Because the lyrics are in German, they were well-known back then without translation. I found English, and I knew that it was a popular European sentimental folk song "Der treue Husar" (Der treue Husar), to the effect: There was a loyal husar who was passionately in love with a girl. He went to perform military service in a foreign country, and the girl waited for him to stay at home. The girl was seriously ill and she was about to die. The cavalry received the unfortunate news and hurried home to see the girl. He held the girl in his arms, but the girl's body was cold. At least six people who carried the coffin at the funeral must be strong enough to carry my love, but they cannot carry my sorrow.
This song deeply moved the French soldiers who had laughed and whistled before. They calmed down, feeling the same, feeling sad. The colonel was outside the tavern and did not immediately execute the order to open, so as not to interrupt the soldiers for entertainment and mourning. They are going to the battlefield again. The colonel gritted his teeth without saying a word. But the glory of the war praised by poets since ancient times has dimmed in this speechlessness, let us ponder the tragic scene of the unjust war of the First World War. As the name of the movie implies, the so-called "Road to Glory" comes from a categorical truth in the English poet Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard published in 1751: "Glory The road only leads to the grave".
October 25, 2014
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