How does the Lagrange multiplier method work for constrained systems?

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Are you asking why Lagrange multipilers are a way to do constrained minimization?
 
I'm asking how is the method of Lagrange Multipliers (which is used to find the extrema of level surfaces subject to constraints) used to find the extrema of the Action functional.

I thought I'd be more of a math question but nobody there is throwing me an answer.