Editing Paths of Glory (section)

===Development===
Kubrick said of his decision to make a war film: "One of the attractions of a war or crime story is that it provides an almost unique opportunity to contrast an individual or our contemporary society with a solid framework of accepted value, which the audience becomes fully aware of, and which can be used as a counterpoint to a human, individual, emotional situation. Further, war acts as a kind of hothouse for forced, quick breeding of attitudes and feelings. Attitudes crystallise and come out into the open. Conflict is natural, when it would in a less critical situation have to be introduced almost as a contrivance, and would thus appear forced or, even worse, false."<ref>{{cite book |last=Duncan |first=Paul |year=2003 |title=Stanley Kubrick: The Complete Films |location=Köln |publisher=Taschen GmbH |isbn=978-3836527750 |oclc=51839483 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XBQi4cCEYNIC |page=11 |access-date=December 20, 2014 |archive-date=August 26, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826091619/https://books.google.com/books?id=XBQi4cCEYNIC |url-status=live }} Alternately titled ''Stanley Kubrick: Visual Poet, 1928–1999''.</ref>

Although Kubrick's previous film ''[[The Killing (film)|The Killing]]'' had failed at the box office, it had managed to land on several critical top-ten lists for the year. [[Dore Schary]], then head of production at [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]], liked the film and hired Kubrick and Harris to develop film stories from MGM's pile of scripts and purchased novels. Finding nothing they liked, Kubrick remembered reading Cobb's book at the age of 14 and the "great impact" it had upon him and suggested it as their next project.<ref name="auto">Kelly, A. (2011). Cinema and the Great War. London: Routledge, p.129. {{ISBN|0826404227}}</ref> Schary strongly doubted the commercial success of the story, which had already been turned down by every other major studio.

After Schary was fired by MGM in a major shake-up, Kubrick and Harris managed to interest Kirk Douglas in a script version that Kubrick had done with Calder Willingham. After reading the script, Kirk Douglas was impressed and managed to get an advance for a $1 million budget from United Artists to help produce the film.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite book|last=Kagan|first=Norman|date=2000|title=The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick|doi=10.5040/9781501340277|isbn=9781501340277}}</ref> Of the roughly $1 million budget, more than a third was allocated to Kirk Douglas' salary.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1633-paths-of-glory-we-have-met-the-enemy|title=Paths of Glory: "We Have Met the Enemy . . ."|last=Naremore|first=James|website=The Criterion Collection|language=en|access-date=2019-02-17|archive-date=March 4, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190304134941/https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1633-paths-of-glory-we-have-met-the-enemy|url-status=live}}</ref> Prior to the involvement of Douglas and his Bryna Production Company, no studio had shown interest in the seemingly noncommercial subject matter and filming in black and white.<ref name="auto3">{{Cite journal|last=Kelly|first=Andrew|date=1993|title=The brutality of military incompetence: 'Paths of Glory' (1957)|journal=Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television|language=en|volume=13|issue=2|pages=215–227|doi=10.1080/01439689300260221|issn=0143-9685}}</ref> MGM rejected the idea of the film based on fears that the film would be unfavourable to European distributors and audiences.<ref name="auto2"/> United Artists agreed to back it with Douglas as the star.<ref name=Alpert>{{cite news|last=Alpert|first=Hollis|title='2001': Offbeat Director In Outer Space|url=http://partners.nytimes.com/library/film/011666kubrick-2001.html|access-date=August 1, 2011|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 16, 1966|archive-date=November 6, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111106072414/http://partners.nytimes.com/library/film/011666kubrick-2001.html|url-status=live}}</ref>