 While "Paths of Glory" did not do well at the box office, it has since become one of the great anti-war films, and is one of early films by director Stanley Kubrick.Douglas, a fluent French speaker, portrayed a sympathetic French officer during World War I who tries to save three soldiers from facing a firing squad.Biographer Vincent LoBrutto describes Douglas's "seething but controlled portrayal exploding with the passion of his convictions at the injustice leveled at his men."