History Film / PathsOfGlory

* ShellShockedVeteran: Several examples. General Mireau denies it, stating that "there is no such thing as shell shock."

* ShownTheirWork: The wattled revetments of the trenches are correctly done in the French style. The concessions to filmmaking were making the trenches wider and straighter than they would normally have been, to allow the camera dolly to pass through.

* ArmchairMilitary: General Mireau is one of the worst.

* AFatherToHisMen: General Mireau puts on an elaborate show about this in the beginning when asked to attack the Anthill, but quickly changes his tune when the possibility of promotion comes up. He's a {{hypocrite}}. Colonel Dax plays it completely straight, however.
** Ambiguous-- Dax at first refuses the attack order, but relents when he is threatened with removal from command. YMMV on whether he too is ambitious, or guesses a replacement may be just like Mireau and his men need him.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Both the attack on The Anthill, and Colonel Dax's defence in the court-martial.

* GeneralFailure: Both Mireau and Broulard.

* HollywoodHistory[=/=]HistoricalVillainUpgrade: While loosely based on the real [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souain_corporals_affair Souain corporals affair]], several aspects are exaggerated - not to mention that the incident itself was incredibly exceptional to begin with. Of particular note is the portrayal of generals partying in chateaus while their men die on the field, which is in direct contrast to the historical record where they were statistically more likely to become casualties than enlisted men. The biggest reason the film caused so much outrage in France, however, was due to how the war is viewed differently in the French- and English-speaking worlds. Essentially, while UsefulNotes/WorldWarI in the Anglosphere's popular conscious is often viewed as futile and pointless (although this view has been challenged and scrutinized in recent decades), in France it's usually seen as a war of national defense against an aggressive and militaristic invader. To give a rough analogy, imagine if the same general plot and message was transplanted to the Pacific Theatre of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, only with American soldiers and generals.

* KangarooCourt: The court-martial is pretty much this.

* MakeAnExampleOfThem: The execution of three innocent conscripts.

* SuddenlyShouting[=/=]TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Dax disgustedly rants out Broulard for thinking that he was just after a promotion, causing Broulard to demand that he apologize:
-->'''Colonel Dax:''' I apologize for not being entirely honest with you. I apologize for not revealing my true feelings. I apologize, sir, for not telling you sooner that you're a degenerate, sadistic old man. ''AND YOU CAN GO TO HELL BEFORE I APOLOGIZE TO YOU NOW OR EVER AGAIN!''

* RatedMForManly: While Colonel Dax reviews his troops before the attack, enemy shells detonate less than 10 yards away from the trench. He ''doesn't even flinch.'' Then when he blows the whistle to go over the top and advance across the No-Man's Land, he's out in front leading the way with enemy bombardment and machine-gun fire going off on all sides. Grrrrrr.

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

* WeHaveReserves: Mireau orders an attack against the Anthill knowing that the ''optimistic'' prediction is that the regiment would take 65% casualties during the assault. When the attack predictably bogs down, in order to 'encourage' a company of men who aren't advancing, General Mireau [[MoralEventHorizon orders his artillery to bombard his own trenches.]]

--> ''Hmm, say, 5% killed by our own barrage. That's a very generous allowance. 10% more in getting through no-man's-land... and 20% more getting through the wire. That leaves 65% with the worst part of the job over. Let's say another 25% in actually taking the Anthill. We're still left with a force more than adequate to hold it.''

-->So now I'm the scapegoat! The only innocent man in this whole affair!

* TranslationConvention: All the characters are French soldiers, but all the dialogue is spoken in perfect English with American and British accents.

* AscendedExtra: 701st Infantry Regimental Commander Colonel Dax, who was merely a minor figure in the novel, gains a much large role in the film. Colonel Dax is promoted to a central protagonist and is the heart of the film, as he's now a the fearless leader of a troop and wants to defend the three men sentenced to death.

* SuddenlyShouting[=/=]TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Dax disgustedly ranks out Broulard for thinking that he was just after a promotion, causing Broulard to demand that he apologize:

* ThatsAnOrder: A dramatic example. Gen. Mireau orders an artillery barrage on his own troops several times over the phone, but the battery commander refuses to execute the order unless it's in writing and signed by the General.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_1106_4.JPG]]

''Paths of Glory'' (1957) is an early Creator/StanleyKubrick film and also one of his most critically acclaimed. It's an adaptation of a 1935 novel by Humphrey Cobb, with a screenplay by Kubrick, Creator/JimThompson and Calder Willingham.

* GeneralRipper: Mireau orders wasteful attacks against nearly impregnable targets and orders his own troops to be shelled when the attack fails.

* TranslationConvention: All the characters are French soldiers, but all the dialogue is spoken in perfect, unaccented English.

** Notably averted in the non-technical aspects; one of the specific reasons why this infuriated the French public was because it inaccurately portrayed the UsefulNotes/WorldWarI French military doing things even the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Soviet penal units would have balked at.

* SmugSnake: Major Saint-Arnaud when acting as prosecutor during the trial of the [[spoiler:doomed]] soldiers. During the first act, he was mostly a YesMan to General Mireau; [[spoiler:during the execution, he has the good grace to look thoroughly uncomfortable while reading the sentence of the court]].

* ThatsAnOrder: A dramatic example; Gen. Mireau orders an artillery barrage on his own troops several times over the phone, but the battery commander refuses to execute the order unless it's in writing and signed by the General.

* CoversAlwaysLie: Posters like the page image tries to fool viewers into believing this is an action flick when it's really more of a courtroom drama.

* ColonelBadass: Colonel Dax shows that he is brave and fearless, either when he leads men on the battlefield — the first to go over the top, and in the vanguard of the attack — or when he confronts and expresses his disagreement to his superiors and has the stones to talk back. Near the end, he openly expresses his disdain at the face of General Broulard.

** One of the three condemned men sees a cockroach and ponders how tomorrow that lowly creature will be alive while he's dead. His colleague stomps on it. "Now you've got the edge on him."

'''Dax:''' Sir, would you like me to suggest what you can do with that promotion?\\

* DirtyCoward: Lieutenant Roget.

* PragmaticVillainy: The only reason that General Broulard talks Mireau into having three men executed instead of one hundred is that the latter would be seen as needlessly harsh and thus damage the generals' reputations.

Paths of Glory is loosely BasedOnATrueStory, namely [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souain_corporals_affair the Souain corporals affair]]. The event is considered one of the most egregious and most publicized examples of military injustice during World War I in France.

-->'''Broulard:''' It would be a pity to lose your promotion before you get it. A promotion you have so very carefully planned for.
-->'''Dax:''' Sir, would you like me to suggest what you can do with that promotion?
-->'''Broulard:''' Colonel Dax! You will apologize at once or I shall have you placed under arrest!
-->'''Dax:''' I apologize... for not being entirely honest with you. I apologize for not revealing my true feelings. I apologize, sir, for not telling you sooner that you're a degenerate, sadistic old man. And you can go to ''hell'' before I apologize to you now or ever again!

* GrayAndGreyMorality: Despite this movie fitting into the AristocratsAreEvil trope, the film still fits this trope.
* HollywoodHistory[=/=]HistoricalVillainUpgrade: A large part of the reason why this was panned in France for a long, long time; similarities between how the French military actually behaved in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and how they are portrayed here tend to be coincidental at best.
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraud_Reveilhac General Reveilhac]], on whom the character of General Mireau is based, ''was'' even worse in RealLife.

* RealityIsUnrealistic: The French public were outraged by how the leadership of the French army was portrayed as horribly cruel, and the film was banned in France for a number of years for it. The whole film is based closely on a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souain_corporals_affair real-life incident]].

*** Then again, the movie is based on a real incident, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souain_corporals_affair Souain corporals affair]].

* ZergRush: The usual WWI tactics on ''both'' sides. It fails miserably against fortified positions, such as The Anthill.