Having never experienced a Kubrick film before, my expectations for Paths of Glory were surprisingly well-managed. Of course, I’d heard of his greatest works before starting this project: The Shining, Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange… I know he’s widely regarded as one of the best directors of the 20th century. Continue reading “Paths of Glory”
Paths of Glory
Based on the 1935 novel of the same name, it tells the story of an ill-fated assault on German forces by French soldiers, and the grippling consequences those soldiers face when they refuse to follow through with it.
Seven Samurai has too many Samurai. Kurosawa reportedly put together incredibly detailed dossiers for each of the leads, but unfortunately, I’m not interested in how Kambei likes his rice, or what Kikuchiyo’s favourite colour is. One of them got shot and I didn’t even realise, until I thought to myself, “I thought this film was supposed to have seven Samurai…” The body count by the end leaves only three alive, but I couldn’t pick them out of a line-up. And that has nothing to do with the fact that I can’t tell Asians apart. 
Ben-Hur is described as the “entertainment experience of a lifetime”, which is probably correct. Because at over three and a half hours long, you don’t have much lifetime left to try and top it. The movie even has an intermission, I guess because in 1959, there were laws about how long you could make an audience sit still and quiet in a cinema for. Luckily for Martin Scorsese and Peter Jackson, 2015 has no such laws. 