For our first movie studying Stanley Kubrick we watched Paths of Glory. This movie was pretty good but it made me dislike the French more than I previously did. Basically everyone (french people) lies to cover up a general who made a stupid mistake in order to move himself up within the French Army. Three men are sentenced guilty to "being cowards in the face of the enemy," when in fact they were hurt and unable to fight the enemy. As an introduction to Kubrick though this movie was a very good start and made me want to see more of his movies.
He had very interesting scenes in which the camera covered characters over long distances. One such scene is when a man defending the three men is pacing in a court room. The camera follows him back and forth keeping the jury behind him the entire time. Another unique shot was an extreme long shot showing a huge formation of French soldiers waiting for the three men to be brought forth. This style showed the helplessness of the men and that there was no way to escape what was coming to them. Although my desire to meet a French person is severely lower now the movie was a very good piece of work and Kubrick did his job to make them look like monsters.