Stars: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory, Don Gordon, Anthony Zerbe, Woodrow Parfrey, Robert Deman, Billy Mumy

Director: Franklin J. Schaffner

Summary: The story of one man's struggle to escape from Devil's Island prison and his refusal to be broken by his captors. Based on the novel by Henri Charriere.

One man sentenced to life in the French prison system refuses to give up trying to escape even when transferred to the prison colony on Devil's Island. Despite years of degradation and horror, the undying spirit of "Papillon" never dies. Academy Award Nominations: Best Original Dramatic Score.

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Reviewed by: mcdermot7@aol.com
Posted on October 23, 2005 5:48 PM

Steve McQueen & Dustin Hoffman excell in Devils Island drama

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Franklin J Schaffner's Papillonis quite possibly the definitive prison escape drama. Not as thrilling as The Great Escape, nor as emotionally cathartic as The Shawshank Redemption, its unflinching emphasis on the barbarism of "civilised" societies is nevertheless unparalleled. Significantly, the only characters to display any real kindness in this film are the social outcasts: the lepers and native Indians; everyone else has been corrupted and debased by the true villain, the penal system itself. Based on Henri Charrière' s heavily fictionalised "autobiography", the film's timeless themes of man's insatiable desire for freedom and the indomitability of the human spirit are thankfully not dependent for their impact on the source material's veracity. Dalton Trumbo's liberal-minded screenplay echoes the themes of his earlier script for Spartacus, and Schaffner's innate gift for epic cinema (this was made just two years after his great war biography Patton) is fully equal to the task of realising it on screen. The director's painterly eye for widescreen composition and his careful pacing impart a gravitas to proceedings even during the film's most squalid depictions of brutality, of which there are many emphasising the cheapness of human life among the convicts and their equally criminal prison guards in the penal colony of French Guiana. Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman form a remarkable screen pairing, with Hoffman outstanding as the pusillanimous Dega. McQueen magnificently overcomes his tough-guy persona in the extraordinary solitary confinement sequences as he is gradually reduced to a shambling, cockroach-eating wreck. Longtime collaborator Jerry Goldsmith, who had previously scored Schaffner's Planet of the Apesand Patton, attained yet another career high with his music.

On the DVD:The anamorphic widescreen print of the original Panavision 2. 35:1 ratio looks fine without being as stunning as some more modern prints; the Dolby 5.1 audio does however do great service to Jerry Goldsmith's score, which can also be selected separately from the Audio Setup menu as an isolated track (note that there's no music at all in the first 20 minutes of the film). The 12-minute "Magnificent Rebel" featurette was made at the time of the film's release , and includes some fascinating footage of Henri Charrière touring the prison se t, reminiscing about his experiences and pontificating ("Society does not want free men, society wants conditioned men"). --Mark Walker

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Wide Screen, 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Interactive Menus, Featurette, Filmographies, Isolated Score, Trailer
Subtitles:	Danish, English, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Swedish
Year:	1973
Release Date:	December 4, 2000
Runtime:	144 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C D R 10049
Keywords:	General, Wide, Screen, Papillon, Drama
Genre:	Drama