Like many films by this director, this one caused a lot of noise when it was released in theaters. To the point that its broadcast was banned for eighteen years in France!
It’s a cult film available on Prime Video, which nevertheless took time to find its audience in France. And for good reason: we had to wait eighteen years for the release of Paths of Glory is finally authorized in France. The film adapted from the eponymous novel by Humphrey Cobb, published in 1935, was directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1957. It takes place in 1916, when French soldiers survive in the 800 kilometers of trenches dug to fight against the Germans, who are fighting fiercely. It was impossible in these conditions to launch an assault, but the ambitious General Mireau nevertheless ordered an attack. At first, Colonel Dax opposes it but he ends up giving in, even if it means putting the lives of his men in danger. The offensive ended in failure and the infantrymen were quickly pushed back. To cleanse his honor, General Mireau believes that the soldiers have shown themselves to be cowardly and demands, as an example, the public execution of three of them.
Paths of Glory : a film against
The film denounces the grotesque situation in the French trenches during the First World War. The execution of soldiers at the heart of the plot is not a fiction since more than 600 of them were shot as an example by the army for refusing to comply. Stanley Kubrick relies here on historical facts, which is why the authorities decided to ban the film in France for eighteen years.
Paths of Glory : why Stanley Kubrick’s film was banned from release in France for 18 years
The war will be an important source of inspiration for Stanley Kubrick who will devote four of his thirteen films to it. Paths of Glory offer an important place to the character of Colonel Dax, brilliantly played by Kirk Douglas. Colonel Dax could also have represented a pacifist soldier if he had not given in, which led some to denounce Paths of Glory as an antimilitarist film. It was not until 1975, eighteen years after its release, that the film was finally released on French screens. And if you want to see it, hurry up because it will be removed from Prime Video on November 30!
Article written in collaboration with 6Medias
