Papillon (1973)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 150m
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Cast: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory
Synopsis:
In the early part of the twentieth century a man is wrongly convicted of murder and sent to the French penal colony in Guiana. After many years' suffering and two failed escape attempts he is placed on Devil's Island, from where he ultimately makes a successful bid for freedom.
Review:
Based on a true story and resonantly cast (McQueen played a similar character in The Great Escape), this is a long and harrowing document of degradation. Herein lie its strengths and weaknesses: McQueen's magnetic presence is a gamble that paid off - he gives the performance of a lifetime - but the American accents jar elsewhere; the enormous timescale has to be paid its due in screen time, but the resulting chronicle can be disjointed and confusingly elliptical as a result. Good production values and an appropriately worldweary tone achieve a net gain.
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 150m
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Cast: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory
Synopsis:
In the early part of the twentieth century a man is wrongly convicted of murder and sent to the French penal colony in Guiana. After many years' suffering and two failed escape attempts he is placed on Devil's Island, from where he ultimately makes a successful bid for freedom.
Review:
Based on a true story and resonantly cast (McQueen played a similar character in The Great Escape), this is a long and harrowing document of degradation. Herein lie its strengths and weaknesses: McQueen's magnetic presence is a gamble that paid off - he gives the performance of a lifetime - but the American accents jar elsewhere; the enormous timescale has to be paid its due in screen time, but the resulting chronicle can be disjointed and confusingly elliptical as a result. Good production values and an appropriately worldweary tone achieve a net gain.
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 150m
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Cast: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory
Synopsis:
In the early part of the twentieth century a man is wrongly convicted of murder and sent to the French penal colony in Guiana. After many years' suffering and two failed escape attempts he is placed on Devil's Island, from where he ultimately makes a successful bid for freedom.
Review:
Based on a true story and resonantly cast (McQueen played a similar character in The Great Escape), this is a long and harrowing document of degradation. Herein lie its strengths and weaknesses: McQueen's magnetic presence is a gamble that paid off - he gives the performance of a lifetime - but the American accents jar elsewhere; the enormous timescale has to be paid its due in screen time, but the resulting chronicle can be disjointed and confusingly elliptical as a result. Good production values and an appropriately worldweary tone achieve a net gain.