Paths of Glory?

I found this movie interesting in its depiction of the corruption of men and men in war.  In this film the concept of Just War is not being debated in the reason for why war was waged, or even how each side treats each other, but rather how one side treat their own men.  Three men are unjustly accused of being cowards during battle to capture the Anthill.  They are also given an unjust trial and are later found guilty and put to death.  It would seem as if there are no just principles for the treatment of an army’s own men.

It is interesting how this movie plays on the meaning of glory.  What is glory in this movie?  Is glory defeating the Anthill? Or what about the three men whose glory have been ripped from them?  In my opinion glory would have been finding those three men not guilty.  This would have been Colonial Dax’s (Kirk Douglass) glory also.  Although at the end of the movie when Cpl. Phillip Paris is essentially fired like Kirk Douglass set out to do, there is still no full glory in that because the men have already died.  Douglass’s goal was not to get Paris fired so he could get his job, but so that people could see he was a bad man.  However, at the end when the woman begins to sing and the men in the bar begin to calm down the audience is left with some hope.