Ways to fame

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Movie
German title Ways to fame
Original title Paths of Glory
Country of production United States
original language English ,
German
Publishing year 1957
length 87 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Stanley Kubrick
script Stanley Kubrick,
Calder Willingham ,
Jim Thompson
production James B. Harris ,
Stanley Kubrick
for Bryna Productions
music Gerald Fried
camera Georg Krause
cut Eva Kroll
occupation
synchronization

Paths of Glory (original title: Paths of Glory ) is an in black and white twisted American anti-war - Drama by Stanley Kubrick from the year 1957 . The film set during the First World War is based on the novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb .

The film is considered to be one of the best anti-war films ever, but only marginally addresses the cruelty and senselessness of war. It is also an anti-militarist film, but above all a bitterly angry parable of structures of power and a commitment against the death penalty . With this film Kubrick achieved his final international breakthrough.

action

Two years after the beginning of World War I, a system of trenches between French and German troops stretches from the English Channel to the Swiss border. Both sides try again and again in vain to free themselves from the messed up situation through extremely lossy attacks. These offensives , which often yield only a few hundred meters of ground gain, cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

General Broulard brings his subordinate, the division commander Mireau, the order to launch a surprise attack on a key position previously held by the Germans, the so-called ant hill (in the German version "Height 19"). Mireau declares the project hopeless and refers to the poor condition of his men, who have been exhausted by numerous fights. When Broulard promises him a promotion after successfully completing the order, Mireau quickly changes his mind.

Mireau inspects his troops, which have been decimated and in some cases traumatized by the trench warfare. He informs Colonel Dax, the commander of the 701st Regiment, of the ordered storming and calculates that around half of the regiment have a good chance of reaching the German fortress. This should be taken and held until reinforcements arrive in the evening. Dax sees no prospect of success for the company, but agrees to lead the attack after Mireau threatened Dax with the withdrawal of his command.

Dax sends out a night patrol to scout out the enemy positions. The leader of the three-man squad, Lieutenant Roget, panics and mistakenly kills one of his own men with a hand grenade . After returning, he writes an embellished report to Dax, which is supposed to exonerate him himself. Caporal Paris, who witnessed the incident and believes Roget to be incapable, threatens to uncover the real facts. Roget reminds him that an officer is more likely to be believed than one of his subordinates.

British soldiers in occupied German trenches , Western Front 1916

The attack on the German positions carried out the next morning failed in the beginning. While the first wave of attacks got stuck halfway and with great losses, the second was unable to leave the trench because of the strong defensive fire . Furious, Mireau, seeing his plans for victory fading, orders his own artillery to fire at the soldiers who have remained in the trenches in order to force them to attack. The artillery commander Capitaine Rousseau refuses to fire at his own positions without a written order signed by the general personally.

After the final failure of the attack commands Mireau, as example of 100 randomly selected ordinary soldiers of the 701st regiment because of "cowardice" to execute . Dax stands in front of his people and argues that if an example is to be made, he, Dax, might as well be executed as the regiment commander. Broulard is able to appease Mireau and has only three men charged: one deputy for each company of the first wave of attacks. The three men are selected by their respective superiors. Dax, who is a lawyer in the civil profession , takes on their defense.

The choice for the indictment falls on Caporal Paris and the soldiers Armand and Ferol. Armand is determined by lot, Paris by his superior Roget, who wants to get rid of the unpleasant confidante, and Ferol is also selected on the basis of personal animosity , his superior denounces him as an " anti-social element". In a hurried court martial , they are sentenced to death . Dax can neither obtain the proper reading of the indictment nor the summoning of exonerating witnesses. In vain does he appeal to the court for mercy.

In the evening Dax learns from Rousseau of Mireau's order to shoot. He tries to force Broulard, who is having fun at an officer's ball, to stop the execution because of this hitherto unknown circumstance, but to no avail. The next morning, the three convicts were shot dead in the presence of officers and the press, including Armand, who was injured and temporarily unconscious after falling in the cell. Roget is forced by Dax to lead the firing squad on site. Paris Dax had previously reported why he was selected by Roget.

At breakfast, Broulard confronts Mireau in the presence of Dax with the allegation that he wanted to fire at his own soldiers. Mireau denies the accusation, and when he learns that he is being dragged in front of the press and presented as a scapegoat for the failed attack, he leaves the room indignant. In private, Broulard offers Dax Mireau's post, assuming Dax to have targeted Mireau's command from the start. His furious reaction and incorruptibility thwart Broulard's strategy. He can now assume that Dax actually had nothing else in mind than the rescue of his men. In view of the war and a public that wants to see success, he shows no understanding for this attitude.

Dax returns to his quarters. In the inn next door, the soldiers of the regiment get drunk and cheerfully comment on the appearance of a German singer, which the landlord performs to entertain the men. When the young woman sings the song The Faithful Hussar , the soldiers join in, moved. Sergent Boulanger brings Dax the order for his regiment to march immediately to the front. Dax instructs Boulanger to give his men a few more minutes before they leave.

Historical reference of the novel

Memorial in Sartilly

Cobb's novel is based on a historical event. On March 10, 1915, the soldiers of an already severely decimated company refused to climb out of their trenches again in a militarily hopeless situation and attack a heavily fortified German position in Souain in the Marne department . The commanding French general Géraud François Gustave Réveilhac had then ordered his artillery to open fire on its own positions, but the responsible artillery commander Colonel Bérubéden refused. A week later, on March 16, 1915 four randomly selected were corporals (later known as Caporaux de Souain ) convicted in a one-day court martial for insubordination to death and the following day shot to statuieren them an example.

On the cemetery of Sartilly a monument stands for one of them, Théophile Maupas. This memorial was erected in 1925, before the executed people were officially rehabilitated on March 3, 1934.

The mutinies in the French army in 1917 also form the historical and moral background for the novel.

Origin of the film title

The English original title Paths of Glory is taken from the poem Elegy Written in a Country Church-yard by Thomas Gray , in which it says: “The paths of glory lead but to the grave.” (For example: “The paths of glory only lead into Dig.").

Paths of Glory is also the title of a painting by Christopher Nevinson about the horrors of World War I.

History of origin

The Schleissheim Palace in Oberschleißheim served as the backdrop for the shooting scene
Shooting schedule at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

James B. Harris had for 10,000 dollars acquired the film rights to Cobbs novel. Kubrick and Harris initially struggled to find a production company for their project until Kirk Douglas agreed to take on the lead role and produce the film with his own company, Bryna. United Artists took over the distribution .

The film was made between March and May 1957 in the Bavaria film studios Geiselgasteig and in Schleißheim Palace . The battle scenes were filmed in a field near Puchheim . During the filming, Kubrick met his future third wife, Susanne Christiane Harlan , who sings the German folk song Der Treue Husar in the final scene . Initially, screenwriter Jim Thompson had developed a positive ending, in which General Broulard lets Dax soften himself at the last second and punishes the three soldiers with only 30 days imprisonment instead of execution. Kirk Douglas and the third screenwriter Calder Willingham convinced Kubrick, however, to give the film a negative and thus commercially less promising, but more credible ending.

About a hundred extras were ordered from the Munich police, especially for the battle scenes . Although they could handle weapons, they jumped out of the trenches at first much too ignorantly and heroically.

The film premiered in Munich on September 18, 1957, and the American premiere took place in Los Angeles on December 20 of the same year .

analysis

New Palace, Schleissheim, Great Gallery, floor with checkerboard pattern

Kubrick often takes a tough cut from misery at the front to luxury baroque castles. The narrowness of the trenches is contrasted with the spaciousness of the old palace complex.

When shooting in the courtroom, Kubrick uses high-key technology , in which the lighting is surprisingly bright. On the chessboard-like floor of the ballroom, in which the court martial is held, the actors act like pawns. In contrast, there is the dark prison location, the stable of the castle, which was recorded using low-key technology : There the few bright hatches create sharp backlight contrasts .

The judgment of the judges in the proceedings is left out, instead a black screen appears . For a short time the viewer can cherish the hope that the drama can still be stopped. After the trial and redecoration, the ballroom of the palace becomes the place where General Broulard and other high-ranking people celebrate a glittering ball night .

The executioner's meal separates the first part of the film, which is more critical of the war, military and domination, from the second part, which deals with the events surrounding and during the execution . Not only the arbitrariness in the selection of the accused, but this form of punishment itself is presented as inhuman. The execution scene itself is a combination of military rites with the biblical crucifixion story: Passing press people and the regiment, including officers who guard of honor standing, the condemned go to the three execution piles the three crosses Calvary is symbolize. In addition, the priest typically recites the discourse on Golgotha ​​from the Bible ( Lk 23.39-43  EU ).

With this film, Kubrick positions himself early against the death penalty . Until the 1970s, films against the death penalty were very rare.

In the last scene of the film, in which a German woman is harassed in a soldiers' bar and then has to sing for the soldiers, Dax is initially repelled by the rawness of his own men - after all, only three comrades had just been executed in front of her. Broulard comments that "soldiers are just animals and must be treated as such". But when the woman then begins to sing in German, the soldiers, without being able to understand the text, hum the melody - sometimes with tears in their eyes. Commenting on the scene, Kubrick said, “This movie is romantic in a very cynical way. Indeed, Colonel Dax discovers human nature in its most hideous form in his people, and sees a ray of light in the others. Man is capable of both the ugliest and the most beautiful things. "

German version

The German title Weg zum Ruhms is an imprecise translation, correct would have been "Weg des Ruhms".

The German dubbed version was created in 1957 by Ultra-Film , Berlin .

role actor Voice actor
Colonel Dax Kirk Douglas Gert Günther Hoffmann
Caporal Philippe Paris Ralph Meeker Horst Niendorf
General Georges Broulard Adolphe Menjou Siegfried Schürenberg
Général Paul Mireau George Macready Erich Fiedler
Lieutenant Roget Wayne Morris Werner Peters
Commandant Saint-Auban Richard Anderson Axel Monjé
Soldier Pierre Arnaud Joe Turkel Gerd Martienzen
Cafe owner Jerry Hausner Klaus Miedel
Chairman of the court martial Peter Capell Curt Ackermann
Sergent Boulanger Bert Freed Heinz Rabe
Soldier Maurice Ferol Timothy Carey Arnold Marquis
Capitaine Rousseau John Stein Paul Wagner

The first broadcast of Paths to Fame on German television was on March 17, 1972 at 11:05 p.m. on ZDF .

reception

censorship

In France, Roads to Fame saw an attack on the honor of the French army , which is why the film was not shown there until 1975. The film was never officially banned; However, as massive protests from military personnel and, on the other side, students demonstrating against the Algerian war were expected as in Belgium (which led to performance stops in Brussels on several occasions ), the distributor made no attempt to submit it to the censorship authority. The title sequence of the film is highlighted at the beginning with the Marseillaise . However, when the French government protested against the use of the national anthem , it was replaced by percussion instruments in countries considered to be particularly Francophile .

In June 1958 , the responsible city ​​commandant issued a performance ban in the French sector of Berlin . He also threatened to withdraw French festival entries from the Berlin International Film Festival if Roads to Fame were shown in West Berlin cinemas during the festival . The Governing Mayor Willy Brandt called it publicly as "a step backwards in the year 1948". After appeals from the Berlin Senate , United Artists finally removed the film from the festival program. With an explanatory opening credits that the incidents shown in the film are not representative of the army or the people of France , the film was finally allowed to start in the French sector from November.

In Switzerland , the canton of Geneva was the first to ban the screening of the film in May 1958. Other cantons followed, until finally, in December, the Swiss Federal Council issued a ban and demanded that the distributors take all copies out of the country under threat of confiscation ; even journalists were denied viewing. The film was not released until the 1970s.

In Israel , too , the film was banned by the state; in Great Britain , Australia and New Zealand cutting restrictions were issued.

Reviews

“[Unrepentant accusation against the crime of war and the military's lust for glory. The film, shot in Germany with a budget of only $ 900,000, is considered one of the best anti-war films ever. Realistic, timeless, shockingly believable; an astonishing achievement for the newcomer to directing at the time. "

- Lexicon of international film

“Kubrick […] castigates the senseless war as a trench war between the insane who bypass life. His precise psychological study shows the devastating conclusion of military thinking. (Rating: 3½ out of 4 possible stars - exceptional) "

- Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz : Lexicon "Films on TV"

Awards

The film has won several film awards.

  • Jussi Award 1958 in the category of best foreign director
  • Silver Ribbon of the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists 1959 in the category Best Director (Foreign Film)

The film was nominated for the following film awards:

In 1992 the film was included in the National Film Registry of the National Film Preservation Board, USA.

literature

  • Humphrey Cobb : Roads to Fame. Scherz Verlag, Bern / Stuttgart / Vienna 1959.
  • Bodo Traber, Hansjörg Edling: Paths to Fame. In: Thomas Klein, Marcus Stiglegger, Bodo Traber (eds.): Film genres. War Movie. Stuttgart, Reclam 2006, ISBN 978-3-15-018411-0 , pp. 123-131.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Matthis Kepser: Paths to fame, analysis and didactic-methodological considerations for working with film in secondary schools. A film booklet. University of Bremen 2007 on behalf of the Senator for Education and Science Bremen PDF
  2. ↑ Fischer, Ralf Michael, “A pleasant atmosphere in which to work”. Interactions between appearance and being in the cinematic space of Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory (USA 1957), p. 302.
  3. ↑ James H. Meredith: Introduction. In: Humphrey Cobb: Paths of Glory. Penguin Books, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-14-310611-1 , pp. Xiii – xxviii, here pp. Xiii f.
  4. ^ Paths of Glory. In: IWM. Imperial War Museum , accessed November 1, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Interview with James B. Harris on DVD and Blu-ray by the US company Criterion, published 2010.
  6. ↑ a b Roads to Fame on Turner Classic Movies, accessed August 8, 2012.
  7. ↑ a b Ways to Fame in the Internet Movie Database .
  8. ↑ "Ways to Fame" conquered the world of 'Paths of Glory' from Munich. Retrieved July 8, 2014 .
  9. ↑ Script version with a positive ending
  10. ^ The Kubrick Site: The Ending of 'Paths of Glory'. Retrieved November 26, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Walker / Tylor / Ruchti 1999, p. 20
  12. ↑ Benedict Descourvières: The film analysis - State Media Center of Baden-Wuerttemberg 2002. PDF , accessed on 30 March 2013
  13. ↑ Georg Seeßlen / Fernand Jung, Stanley Kubrick and his films. Marburg, 2008, p. 107
  14. ↑ Ways to Fame in the Synchrondatenbank and on Synchronkartei.de , accessed on August 8, 2012.
  15. ↑ Les Sentiers de la gloire on the website of the “Center national de documentation pédagogique”, accessed on September 15, 2012.
  16. ^ A b c Andrew Kelly: Cinema and the Great War (Cinema and Society), Routledge Chapman & Hall, London / New York 1997, ISBN 978-0-415-05203-0 , p. 168.
  17. ^ Gene D. Philipp in The Stanley Kubrick Archive , Taschen, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-8365-5684-2 , p. 127.
  18. ↑ Roth, Generals, p. 53.
  19. ↑ Ways to Fame ( Memento from November 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on Schulkinoportal.de, accessed on September 15, 2012.
  20. ↑ Marcello Walter Bruno: Stanley Kubrick , Gremese International, Rome 2001, ISBN 978-88-7301-450-8 , p. 11.
  21. ↑ Paths to Fame. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 1, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  22. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier, Berndt Schulz: Lexicon "Films on TV" , Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 906.