Stanley Kubrick - One

[Scene: A dimly lit briefing room. Solid Snake leans against a wall, arms crossed, cigarette smoldering in the ashtray nearby. His voice is gravelly, thoughtful.]

Solid Snake:
“World War I... the Great War, they called it. Nothing great about it. Just mud, blood, and the grinding sound of industrial death. Trench warfare was hell—men buried in filth, sleeping next to rats, corpses, and lice, just to gain a few feet of ground. Machine guns turned men into mulch. Artillery thundered day and night, shaking the earth like an angry god.”

“They thought war would be glorious. That was the lie they fed the youth of Europe. Honor. Patriotism. Duty. But when the bullets started flying, all that collapsed into one simple truth: survive.”

“There’s a film that gets it. Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory. Most people forget he made it. It’s not as flashy as 2001 or A Clockwork Orange, but it hits harder than both. No sci-fi, no ultraviolence—just raw human failure.”

“It follows Colonel Dax, played by Kirk Douglas, trying to defend three innocent soldiers from execution. They were scapegoats. Cowards, the brass called them—because the men refused to die for a suicidal order. That film showed the real war. Not just the blood, but the hypocrisy. The disconnect between officers drinking wine in châteaus and soldiers drowning in mud.”

“War hasn’t changed. That’s the phrase, right? But in truth... the methods evolve. The horror doesn’t. Whether it's trenches, nukes, or Metal Gears... it’s always the same story. Greed at the top. Death at the bottom.”

[Snake exhales slowly, stares into the darkness.]

Solid Snake:
“Kubrick saw it. Maybe that’s why they buried that film under his more famous ones. It hits too close to home. No glory. Just ghosts.”