For me, it was the cinematography and the lighting. I mean, I know its been said before but it just seemed so ahead of it's time. The scene where Kirk Douglas is walking through the trench and the camera is cutting from his view and the soldier's view was brilliant. Of course I enjoying everything else about the film but those stuck out to me in particular, what about you?
"The world doesn't just go away when you close your eyes, does it?"
I thought the scene showing the actual battle was very well done. The scene before that where the three men left the trenches to investigate the Anthill was also really good. Then of course there's that final scene with the woman singing.
If John Wayne and Chuck Norris got into a fight, John Wayne would probably win.
I can't pick anything, since it's a flawless movie. It's not my favorite out of Kubrick's movies, but I think it is the best of them (2001 is my favourite, yet I could find a lot of flaws in it on several aspects). In fact I think it might just be the greatest movie ever made, or at least competing with Lawrence of Arabia for that title.
It's hard to pick what I liked the most when everything about it is great. I think that if I had to pick just one thing, I would pick the cinematography. Kubrick was always a director that made movies with visual flair, and even though this one is in black and white, this one is no exception. The long tracking shot of Dax walking down the line of soldiers is cinematic gold. And the shot of the three soldiers, who are, at this point, soon-to-be execution victims, standing in front of a light-filled window (thus making them look like martyrs) is wonderful and memorable. Kubrick was not, of course, a cinematographer, but he clearly had the sense of it. The composition of every one of his shots is gorgeous; it would seem as though he spent hours just thinking how to photograph each one. Great film, great cinematography, great everything. An absolute masterpiece.
In a way it can be said that Kubrick was a cinematographer, in that his first jobs were as a photographer, and he worked as a pro photographer for a number of years before directing movies. He was always focused on film as a visual medium, above all else, and he filmed quite a number of his movie scenes.
Amazing cinematography.The shot when Douglas walks through the trenches reminded me of when Danny is walking through the maze in The Shining. Great shot. The tracking shot through the trench. No lame sets but actual locations like the large stairs in the mansion or castle or whatever it was. =).... I was amazed to see the vast difference in when Kubrick shoots on location like that and when other directors shoot a scene and you can see the obvious lame sets they`ve built. And the execution scene in the end was just brilliant. There was such emotion displayed by everyone involved. And when Wayne Morris I think it was, offers the guy a blindfold and says "Im sorry", was one of the most emotional scenes I`ve seen. I can go on and on.