“Make a scene as uncomfortable and dangerous as possible”: 68 years ago, Stanley Kubrick produced one of the biggest combat scene in the history of cinema

Four years before Spartacus, the first cooperation between Stanley Kubrick and Kirk Douglas has already had an absolute masterpiece, undoubtedly the best film ever dedicated to World War I: The Gpats of the Glory.

If the film is held in 1916, remember the offensive flaws that occurred in Somom, we think that in 1917, as well as General Nielley, an excessive attack on April 16, 1917. “There has been time, trust, courage and long France!” He announced.

Assessment: The butcher shop of 187,000 was killed and injured for the only French side. Failure to comply with this attack was one of the 1917 mutines catalysts. Of the 3500 convicts expressed in the Council of War, 1381 were convicted of forced labor, 554 of the deaths, 49 of which were held.

“If they do not want to face German bullets, they will hit French bullets!”

For his film, Kubrick relies, among other things, in the case of “Caporaux de Souain” where the name General Awakion It is likely that in February 1915 it was drawn to its regiment, which refused to leave the trenches in an impossible attack before four corporations were executed on March 17, 1915. Which will not be implemented before 1934 before rehabilitation.

Unlike the classic war movie, you will never see the enemy in the trails of fame. Here the opposition does not run between two camps, but between officers and the soldiers of the same camp; Some play their shares, for example, cruel General Mirow (who is no one except a fictional colleague of general awakening), some in their lives as these sad people who shoot for “example”.

And in the middle: Men like Colonel Dats (a strong interpretation by Douglas), of course, impulsive and impulsive, but idealistic and deeply human. Without demagogen and manicism, which counted the vulnerable and dishonest mechanisms of military justice, Kubrick’s film is also a powerful vector of strong and universal values such as peace, justice and equality.

Attack on Antill

Among the memorable queues, of course, the main sequence of the film, the real narrative, the location AntiOn which General Miro starts 8,000 men, who are implemented by Colonel Dats.

Properly stunning intensity sequence, thanks to the work of Kubrick’s travel. Although the camera goes to the trench, as if Kirk Douglas, the artillery pounds begins. Types of hair become serious and closed. The attack is inevitable. Before hell fell to the unhappy people who come out of the trenches.

“It was cold. It was uncomfortable. It was wet”

Three Kubrick’s film producer (The Ultimate Razzia, Glory and Lolita’s paths) and a friend, James B. Harris will tell you the creation of this famous sequence in a rare interview with the ballot at the time by the American Guild. Cinephilia & outside) And named after Stanley in the trenches of Kubrick.

“The scenes of the battlefield were programmed. The agricultural land we rented had to be dressed and transformed into a battlefield, with trenches, wires, and all shell hole.

The idea was to Kirk, according to the moving plan, through as much action as we could gather before it was cut, after which we will continue. It was cold, uncomfortable, it was wet. Everything was difficult for Kirk. After you did it for the first time, he told Stanley, “I’ll give you another socket, maybe two, but that’s it. I’m not going to do it forever.”

He adds: “We had a few cameras, even a portable camera in the middle of the field to cover the explosions, and Stanley embraced Kirk’s moving plans. He knew everything he had to do and he did.

On the other hand, there is no place to add ideas on such a scene. The case was heard: it shows Kirk’s struggle. To make it as uncomfortable and dangerous, with blasts around it. Kirk had to swell in cold water and mud shell holes. “

It is still unthinkable that such a film and its importance were referred to in its place in the history of the cinema, with no supporters of Blu-Ray publications in France yet. You have to be happy with a terrible DVD publication published 23 years ago. And who was naked as a worm. If the editor was sufficiently charity to see this question … At the same time, the film is available on a prime video.