Paths of Glory (1957)

Kirk Douglas was so impressed with Stanley Kubrick’s previous outing The Killing that he agreed to work with the director on his next project Paths of Glory which is often regarded as Kubrick’s first masterpiece and rightfully so as Paths of Glory is certainly a staggering film. The film tells the story of three French soldiers who are under trial for cowardice in the face of the enemy, Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) is assigned to protect them in a court martial. The penalty for cowardice in the face of the enemy is death, yet the mission they were sent on, under orders by General Mireau (George Macready), is suicidal. At first Mireau wants to execute 100 men from each regiment but is eventually persuaded to reduce this down to ten and then eventually one. This single person will be selected by the regiment’s captain in a manner he sees fit.

Killer's Kiss and The Killing

Two years after the failure of Fear and Desire Kubrick moved onto his next project Killer’s Kiss. Similarly to his first feature film Killer’s Kiss had a very low budget; Kubrick was forced to borrow $40,000 from his uncle to finance the project. Despite having a similar budget to his previous film the step forward Kubrick had taken is more of a giant leap forward as Killer’s Kiss is superior to Fear and Desire in every possible way.

Fear and Desire - Kubrick's career part one.

While making Fear and Desire Stanley Kubrick was essentially a twenty-five year old man with a crazy dream, making his first feature film. Despite having made several short documentaries before 1953 Fear and Desire was his first shot at the big time. While showing some signs of skilful filmmaking it is rather surprising to see Kubrick rise from this low budget box office failure to creating a film that, to this very day, influences a whole genre and created, as Steven Spielberg put it, ‘the genre’s big bang’.

The Thing with Man on a Ledge is there is more tension found in Salmon Fishing in The Yemen.

Directed by Lasse Hallström (Dear John and The Cider House Rules), Salmon Fishing in the Yemen stars Ewan McGregor as a fishing expert who is blackmailed by his boss into joining a project that he believes to be fundamentally unfeasible. This plan, conducted by Sheikh Muhammad (Amr Waked) and supported by consultant Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt), involves bringing the sport of Salmon fishing to Yemen (south of Saudi Arabia, in the Middle East, if your geography is not up to scratch).

Mission Quite Difficult but Entirely Possible

I am perfectly aware that this joke has been said many times, but it becomes apparent after a TV show and four films that it really isn’t mission impossible, but mission quite difficult but entirely possible, though Mission Quite Difficult but Entirely Possible - Ghost Protocol doesn’t exactly go well together, does it? That said it is still a better title than Marvel Avengers Assemble.

The Avengers (I refuse to call it Avengers Assemble).

It’s a good thing that the film itself is much better than the film’s title because Marvel’s Avengers Assemble is a bad name, but there is a reason for this name change. The fear which British distributors held is that they believed some people would think that a film called The Avengers will be a remake of the 1970s TV show also called The Avengers and then turn up to find that the film they actually are going to see has very little in common with the film they thought they were going to see. Anyway Marvel Avengers Assemble could be called anything and still make several £100,000,000.

Into the Abyss, The Texas Killing Fields and The Rum Diary

Of late Werner Herzog’s documentaries have been his best and more notable works, his most recent documentaries are fascinating and have provided great insight into subjects such as the life of a bear enthusiast, prehistoric caves and now the death penalty which Herzog’s most recent documentary focuses on. Using the case study of a triple homicide to debate the use of capital punishment Herzog tackles the issue with objectiveness and sensitivity, in the documentary interviews are conducted with a former executioner, the victims’ families and the murderers themselves who all provide a powerful account of the incident in their own unique way.