Why was Paths of Glory not shown in France until 1975?

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American director Stanley Kubrick — Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick during the filming of *Barry Lyndon* (1975).

The 1957 film Paths of Glory, directed by Stanley Kubrick, was not released in France until 1975 due to its controversial depiction of the French military during World War I.1

The film features a narrative in which French officers accuse their own soldiers of cowardice following a failed military operation, ultimately leading to the execution of innocent infantrymen to serve as a deterrent. Because of this provocative denouncement of elitism within the French officer corps and its broader critique of military bureaucracy, the film faced significant censorship and was withheld from French audiences for nearly two decades.1