Back in 2000, I worked my way back through Stanley Kubrick's films. This effort didn’t progress in a purely chronological order, as it favored his better-known titles.

Only toward the end of this run did I get to Kubrick’s work from the 1950s. As I viewed his films, I picked up on his tendencies, the most important of which I felt was his objectivity of filmmaking and his moralistic bent.

This meant most of his movies remained distanced from their subjects and presented them in a matter-of-fact manner. The films also often focused on less-pleasant aspects of human behavior, for which the characters usually got punished to some degree.

1957's Paths of Glory offers the first full-blown example of the Kubrick Zeitgeist. The previous year's The Killing followed some of his "tenets" but wasn't a very distinctive piece; there's little that made it appear to be a “Kubrick film”.

That's not the case with Paths of Glory. From start to finish, it clearly bears the mark of a Kubrick work.

Set in 1916 during World War I, French leadership orders their troops to execute an assault on a German stronghold called “the Ant Hill”. This seems suicidal but the commanders demand it nonetheless.

It falls on Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) to lead this futile mission. When the generals eventually accuse some of Dax’s men of cowardice, the colonel rises to their defense.

Even though Paths features some of the least appealing and most amoral characters of any of his pictures, Kubrick never imposes his own judgment on the participants. He clearly feels the audience can draw their own conclusions from the depictions he offers.

And while the baddies "get theirs", he doesn't do this in a stereotypical way. The results of the characters' actions seem logical and realistic.

One stylistically unusual move that would later see more use by Kubrick involves the film's almost complete lack of a score. We occasionally hear some rhythmic backing, but for the most part, Paths supplies little music, though incidental music appears in scenes such as at a dance.

It's an effective method because it accentuates the starkness of the situation. It also helps remove any potentially melodramatic appearances.

Although not a perfect film, I'd place Paths very high in the Kubrick pantheon. He depicts his subject with a complexity and a broadness that suits the material well and makes the storyline quite gripping. This tale of World War I hypocrisy isn't an easy watch in many ways - it can be brutal and unforgiving - but it serves the needs of the film well.

The actors, including star Kirk Douglas, all provide strong work and avoid stereotypical tendencies. They all seem to be largely realistic and compelling characters.

Kubrick makes a clear winner with Paths of Glory, a harsh but fascinating portrait of the way individuals will callously sacrifice others for their own good.

Paths of Glory appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.66:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. I felt impressed by this Dolby Vision transfer.

Across the board, sharpness was good. Occasionally, I saw slightly soft elements, usually during semi-dim interiors.

A few battle scenes could be a little ill-defined as well. Nonetheless, most of the movie exhibited nice clarity and definition, and the majority showed borderline excellent material.

Jagged edges and moiré effects remained absent, and I saw no signs of edge haloes or artifacting. With a natural – albeit occasionally heavy – layer of grain on display, I discerned no problematic noise reduction, and source flaws weren’t a factor.

Paths came with a strong black and white presentation. Blacks were deep and dark, and shadows offered good clarity.

HDR gave whites and contrast added emphasis. Outside of some mild softness, this became a stellar presentation.

While not as good, the DTS-HD monaural soundtrack of Paths was more than acceptable given the film’s age. The biggest problems materialized during battle sequences.

With all the mayhem and explosions, those scenes could come with some minor distortion and harshness. Those issues weren’t massive, but they created some distractions.

The rest of the track satisfied. A few lines came across as a bit edgy, but most sounded surprisingly good, as the majority of the film’s dialogue appeared natural and concise.

Effects never quite impressed, but when they weren’t on the distorted side, they seemed fine; despite the dated elements, they showed reasonable clarity.

Don’t expect much music from Paths, as the film lacked a prominent score. When music did appear, however, it sounded fine.

As with the effects, those elements weren’t really impressive, but they appeared perfectly solid when I factored in the flick’s vintage. Source noise wasn’t an issue.

The distortion in the battle sequences almost knocked my grade down to a “B-“, but since those scenes didn’t occupy a lot of the movie – and the rest of it sounded so good – I thought the audio deserved a solid “B”. The mix has held up nicely over the nearly 60 years since the movie’s release.

How did the 4K UHD compare with those of the Criterion Blu-ray from 2010? Both came with similar audio.

As for the Dolby Vision UHD, though, it showed superior delineation, blacks and contrast, and it also lacked the minor print flaws of the BD. This became a strong version of the source.

Unfortunately, the Kino 4K drops the extras from the Criterion release. For the main attraction, we get an audio commentary from critic Tim Lucas.

He provides a running, screen-specific affair. Lucas discusses story/characters, cast and crew, production elements and his thoughts about the movie.

The Criterion release included a commentary from critic Gary Giddins that I thought worked very well.

Though probably not as strong, Lucas’s chat works fine too. He covers a good array of domains and makes this an engaging and informative track.

The disc also provides trailers for Killer’s Kiss, The Killing and Paths of Glory.

While not as well-regarded as Stanley Kubrick’s more famous films from the 1960s and 1970s, I think 1957’s Paths of Glory deserves to be viewed as one of the director’s best efforts. It offers one of his most provocative and stimulating films. The 4K UHD gives us very good picture and audio as well as a pretty informative audio commentary. Paths remains a fine film.

To rate this film visit the Blu-ray review of PATHS OF GLORY