240 PATHS OF GLORY
shares his story with Dax. Dax approaches Broulard with witness statements
incriminating Mireau, but he is waved away dismissively. The three condemned
men are later brought outdoors, with their fellow soldiers and commanding officers
surrounding them. All three men are then executed by firing squad. After the
sentence is carried out, Broulard meets Mireau for breakfast and finds him giddy
with the result of the court- martial. Dax interrupts them, and Broulard tells Mireau
that he will be investigated for his actions. Mireau departs in a fury, and Broulard
then offers Dax Mirau’s post. A disgusted Dax calls Broulard a “degenerate, sadistic
old man.” After the execution, Dax joins his soldiers on leave, drinking at an inn.
Their mood shifts from antagonism to empathy as they listen to a captive German
girl (Christiane Harlan) sing “The Faithful Hussar,” a sentimental folk song. They
are unaware that orders have come for them to return to the front. Dax lets the
men enjoy a few minutes while his face hardens as he returns to his quarters.Reception
Paths of Glory premiered on 1 November 1957 in Munich, West Germany, and
opened in the United States the following month, but the movie’s class- inflected
anti- war politics made it box office poison throughout much of Eu rope. UA did not
even bother to submit the film to the French censorship board, knowing that it
would be banned for its unflattering depiction of France’s military (Paths would
not be shown in France until 1975). When the movie was screened in Berlin in
June 1958 it caused an uproar with French occupation troops stationed there and
had to be withdrawn from the Berlin Film Festival when the French threatened to
withdraw altogether if it was exhibited. Weeks later the movie was banned at all
American military bases in Eu rope. In Spain, Francisco Franco’s government also
banned the film as anti- military. It was not shown until 1986, 11 years after Fran-
co’s death. In Switzerland, the film was censored at the request of the Swiss Army
until 1970. Because it was so often banned, box office returns were modest (less
than $1 million) and Paths of Glory did not quite break even.Reel History Versus Real History
As noted earlier, Humphrey Cobbs’ novel was initially inspired by postwar revela-
tions about the execution of five French soldiers from 5th Com pany, 63rd Infan-
try Regiment, after their unit refused to join an attack in the St. Mihiel sector on
19 April 1915. Many similar injustices were perpetrated by the French Army dur-
ing the First World War— France carried out some 550 military executions— but
Cobb’s novel and Kubrick’s film both derive from a particularly egregious incident
known as the “Souain Corporals Affair.” On 10 March 1915, near the Marne vil-
lage of Souain, Gen. Géraud Réveilhac, commander of France’s 60th Infantry Divi-
sion, ordered his artillery to fire on his own trenches when the 21st com pany of
the 336th Infantry Regiment refused to go over the top and attack after a first wave
was mowed down by German machine- gun fire. As depicted in the movie, the artil-
lery commander (the real man’s name was Col. Raoul Berube) refused to obey his
general’s command without a written order. Réveilhac did not issue one, but in
the wake of the failed attack he demanded that action be taken against the soldiers