'Realist Theory In Paths Of Glory'

I will argue that Paths of Glory exemplifies a formalist use of the cinema’s frame in its realistic depiction of a World War I court marshaling of three French Soldiers sentenced to death for cowardice. Dudley Andrew discusses the differences between the formalist view of screen as frame and the realist view of screen as window within film theory and I will use his arguments to better understand how Paths of Glory can at once accept realist theory and formalist theory through its conscious exploitation of the film screen as window and frame. Paths of Glory consists of 3 main points of action of which we will analyze; first, the battle for the Ant Hill; second, the court marshal of three French soldiers; and third, their subsequent execution …show more content…
While the authenticity of the auteur theory is debated, it is important for my argument to discuss director Stanley Kubrick. He is well known for his beginnings as a photographer and has a keen eye for framing in his films. Each shot is positioned with complete intentionality, informing ideology and moods throughout his movies. In regards to realism, Stanley Kubrick is no stranger. His film 2001: A Space Odyssey is praised for its faithful depiction of space. The beginning of Paths of Glory positions the audience in the middle of a French attack on an impregnable defensive outpost known as the Ant Hill, defended by the German Army. This scene is hailed as one of the best depictions of WWI trench warfare in film and is partly due to the ideologies advanced by the realists of French cinema. During the charge through no mans land we are subjected to a lengthy tracking shot of men crawling, running, and dying in watery ditches whilst bombs go off left and right. The scene is doing what the realists attempt to do with their own long tracking shots; remove the audience from its elements, its distractions, to focus on the image and away from the edges of the screen. We move through the space looking through a window not a frame. Apart from this scene and the detail of every set, prop, and performance, the film still remains mostly …show more content…
Dudley examines the findings of film theorist Jean Mitry. Mitry argues that film’s great advantage over other forms of art and expression is that cinema can be viewed as both window and frame. Paths of Glory is able to establish the legitimacy of Mitry’s argument, in a single juxtaposition. Shot A presents us with the ideology (the painting), Shot B physically positions our view from that ideology. Whether that ideology is indifference or fatalism, the cut still puts the audience in the balcony of a balcony-less room to look down in judgment of the unfair proceeding. The painting is both frame and window and throughout the short trial the audience is subjected to its gaze. The mood is unnerving and hopeless as the dark painting, with all it’s ideological weight, looks down on the audience in judgment of their compliance to an unjust bureaucracy. Mood is really all its all about. Stanley Kubrick is able to wield both theories of realism and formalism to create mood that unnerves the audience, frustrates them, and causes a general lack of comfort when the soldiers defend their