Set in France in 1916, Kubrick’s film captures the war on two fronts: the no-man’s land where recruits scrap over inches and the glorious chateaux where the officer class angle for promotion.

A deeply ironical rumination on the madness of war...

These shots of long duration impress the importance of their subjects upon us: The permanence of trench warfare, the devastation of attack, the hypocrisy of the ruling class, the dread of the condemned men.

...arguably the best film about the first world war, and still has a reasonable claim to being Stanley Kubrick's best film.