:17:00
The sense the Sterling Hayden
character has that he's on top of it. . .
:17:04
. . .he really knows what he's doing.
At the end of it. . .
:17:07
. . .the little yapping dog
gets loose. . .
:17:10
. . .and the money
blows all over the place.
:17:13
It's a brilliant
and existential movie.
:17:16
If existentialism basically posits
that we define ourselves by doing. . .
:17:21
. . .and that chance is the one thing
we can never quite fully comprehend. . .
:17:26
. . .prior to its impinging on our
desires, or plans, or whatever. . . .
:17:31
It's a brilliant statement of that.
:17:33
The Killing was not
a commercial success. . .
:17:35
. . .but it did succeed in building
Kubrick and Harris' reputation.
:17:40
When I saw The Killing I said,
"My God.
:17:44
Stanley's gonna make it.
This is good. "
:17:49
But it's Paths of Glory
that turned it all around.
:18:19
We walked in the middle,
as we usually did as kids. . .
:18:22
...Paths of Glory.
:18:25
And myself and my friends,
who were war-film buffs. . .
:18:28
. . .we had never seen anything
quite like it, or quite like. . .
:18:31
. . .the tone of it.
We'd seen other anti-war films.
:18:35
But this one was so honest. . .
:18:37
. . .particularly the trial, and scenes
between Macready and Kirk Douglas.
:18:41
I ordered an attack.
Your troops refused to attack.
:18:45
They did attack,
but they could make no headway.
:18:47
Because they didn't try.
I saw it myself.
:18:50
Half of them never left the trenches.
:18:52
A third of them were pinned down
by the intense fire.
:18:55
Don't quibble over fractions.
:18:56
The fact remains that a good part of
them never left their own trenches.