When it was released on Christmas Day 1957, Paths of Glory received excellent reviews almost across the board praising the film's realism, high production values, and the stellar performances by the actors. Two of the most important critics of the time, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times and William Zissner of The New York Herald Tribune, praised the film for its realistic portrayal of the cruelty of war with Zissner calling it "a good, hard movieÖpowerful in design and execution." However, neither of the critics saw any deeper meaning in the film, with Crowther stating that "the picture's significanceÖcomes to and inconclusive point." The events depicted in the film were "nothing more than a horribly freakish incident." One of the complaints that was levied at the film was that a movie about World War I looses its relevancy in the atomic age, but Hollis Alpert rebuffed this idea in his review of the film that concluded "there is never anything untimely about an appeal to the human conscience, and this Paths of Glory makes."

Paths of Glory did not have any problems with domestic censorship other than the Motion Picture Producer's and Distributor's Association's problem with some of the profanity, the portrayal of the Priest, and that the woman's blouse was cut too low. However, the film was banned on United States military bases at home and abroad because of its anti-war themes. In Europe the film met a much stormier reception with bans in many cities and countries. For example, to be shown in Brussels, because of protests of French veterans, the following disclaimer was required:

This episode of the 1914-1918 war tells of the madness of certain men caught in its whirlwind. It constitutes an isolated case in total contrast with the historical gallantry of the vast majority of French soldiers, the champions of the ideal of liberty, which, since always, has been that of the French people.

The largest problems for the film were, not surprisingly, in France. United Artists did not even submit the film to the French censors when it was originally released because they knew there was no chance that it would be passed. The film was not released in France until seventeen years after its initial release date in 1974 when the then French President Valery Giscard D'Estaign rescinded the policy of political censorship and freed the film for first-run in Paris.

Kelly, Andrew The Brutality of Military Incompetence: 'Paths of Glory' in The Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television 13: pg. 216 N2 1993

Kagan, Norman The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick, Continuum Press: New York, 1989. pg. 47

Crowther, Bosley The New York Times D 26, 1957, 23:2

Variety, 276:36 October 2, 1974