The novel's Dax may simply be a shade more realistic than the film's. The novel doesn't condemn him for this evasion, if evasion it is. But unlike Dax in the film, who is a fiery if Quixotic advocate for his men, the novel's Dax sets about carving himself away from responsibility. Colonel Dax, in the novel, is appalled by the execution of soldiers as scapegoats for their superiors' murderously poor judgment. The novel Paths of Glory argues that wartime armies are corrupt, and that individuals in them cannot transcend that corruption. In filming the story, Kubrick gave good and evil stark, precise locations (good in Douglas's Dax evil in the unspeakable generals played by George Macready and Adolphe Menjou). But it makes an attempt to understand them all, and none are wholly saintly or inhuman. Dax (played by Douglas) becomes the hero of a story that, in its inception, lacked heroes.īy contrast to Kubrick's version, Cobb's novel diffuses its attention among dozens of characters: some good, some evil, some weak, some callous. In bringing Paths to the screen, Douglas, screenwriters Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson, and writer/director Kubrick conflated several of Humphrey Cobb's characters into Colonel Dax, who figures much less prominently in the novel. The film Paths of Glory was a star vehicle for Kirk Douglas, who also played a major part in producing it. So a little back-comparison is necessary. Yet since 1957 almost no-one has read Paths of Glory before seeing Stanley Kubrick's film. It's common in film criticism to compare a movie to its literary source, but it seems kind of backward to compare a novel to a film derived from it decades later (long after its author's 1944 death). In the case of Paths of Glory, Penguin Classics is trying to balance the scales by publishing and promoting a new paperback version of Humphrey Cobb's 1935 novel. Laura, The Night of the Hunter, Cool Hand Luke, The Graduate are known almost solely from their screen versions. Several great films are based on now-obscure novels.

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Paths of Glory by Humphrey Cobb