Overrated and overhyped

It.s not that good. Thete are bettet films about the great war. like Capitaine Conan for instance. Paths of glory is the usual Hollywood fare. simplistic and cardboard characters.

Kirk Douglas. his colonel Dax is so heroic, so morally flawless, so self-righteous that he becomes disgusting. He is a classical example of a Mary Sue character in film. He,s even allowed to insult his superiors and get away with it, he goes out of his way to make a offensive remark about French patriotism quoting an English writer, not Voltaire, Victor Hugo or Anatole France but Samuel Johnson. Dax is made as non Ftench as possible.
George McReady is a cartoonish villain. right down to the scarred cheek. Only thing missing is the eyepatch. He,s the French equivalent of the evil prussian caricature played by Stroheim fifty years before.