Paths of Glory
United Artists | Release Date: December 25, 1957 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
90
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonApr 29, 2014
This is the director’s most vivid, most emotional and humane film, and perhaps his best. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Banned in France for 18 years, this masterpiece still packs a wallop, though nothing in it is as simple as it may first appear; audiences are still arguing about the final sequence, which has been characterized as everything from a sentimental cop-out to the ultimate cynical twist. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Paths of Glory was the film by which Stanley Kubrick entered the ranks of great directors, never to leave them. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
It is arguably the best film about the first world war, and still has a reasonable claim to being Stanley Kubrick's best film. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalDavid Mermelstein
One of the greatest war films ever made. Read full review
100
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Kubrick’s film vividly depicts the harsh realities of war and remains a great anti-war drama. Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
This is a harrowing and still very effective antiwar film that ranks with Lewis Milestone's epic All Quiet On The Western Front in its power. Read full review
100
EmpireColin Kennedy
As the anger simmers, Kubrick’s camera remains detached, patrolling the trenches, pacing the courtroom. Terse and remorseless it may be, but the final flourish is perhaps the most fitting gracenote in all of cinema. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Paths of Glory is an antidote to false movies about the glories of war, nonsensical fantasies like John Wayne's The Green Berets or Sylvester Stallone's Rambo. [25 Feb 2005, p.C2]
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh Larsen
Hardly a flattering portrait of the military machine, Paths of Glory suggests a soldier’s best hope often is to survive the chaos that his or her own army causes. Read full review
80
CineVueDaniel GreenMay 3, 2014
Paths of Glory undoubtedly succeeds in both foreshadowing the bravura auteurism that was to come as well as lampooning the abhorrent bureaucracy that destroyed the lives of so many brave young men in Europe's trenches. Read full review
80
BBCTom Dawson
The searing Paths Of Glory continues to impress with its striking blend of formal brilliance, economical storytelling and emotional directness. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid Denby
The sardonic rhetoric may be laid on a little heavily at times, but the movie is blunt and scornfully brilliant. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Ken Tucker
Paths of Glory is all about that greatest of all movie subjects: power. Read full review
80
The New YorkerPauline Kael
The film's rhythm is startling -- you can feel the director's temperament. And there's an element of relentlessness in the way he sets out to demonstrate the hopeless cruelty of the "system."
63
Slant MagazineChristian Blauvelt
Paths of Glory may be first-rate humanity, but it’s also second-rate art. Read full review
60
The New York TimesBosley Crowther
Mr. Kubrick has made it look terrific. The execution scene is one of the most craftily directed and emotionally lacerating that we have ever seen. But there are two troubling flaws in this picture, one in the realm of technique and the other in the realm of significance, which determine its larger, lasting worth. Read full review
50
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
While the subject is well handled and enacted in a series of outstanding characterizations, it seems dated and makes for grim screen fare. Read full review
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