Thanks for the memories!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The Book is fantastic. The adaptation is great. Role Distribution exemplary. The story might be fonctionnalités, it remains deep and sincère.

I had read the book previous to seeing this film and the adaptation by Franklin J. Schaffner tells the story in a good manner. It is hard to imagine the true aspects of the journey of Henri Charriere, played by Steve McQueen, though I know them to be based on fact. Steve McQueen plays a depressing role but does so in a way where the psychological torments are felt by the audience. This is a very underrated film and I can say wholeheartedly that does the book it's due justice. I am bummed that it is currently off the IMDb top 250 list hopefully it makes a return as it truly is a great film throughout. I have seen many Steve McQueen films and I want to pose the question of: is this his best? I believe it is truly in contention.

Based on the infamous penal-system of French Guinea and the true- story of a man's determination to break-away despite severe odds and punishments.In close resemblance with that of "Kala-Paani" during the British Raj on India (with the exception of incarcerating freedom-fighters), "Papillon" (the Butterfly) exhibits in abundance the hardships where not just the body, but the very soul of the man is irreversibly broken.At the same time, it subtly celebrates the spirit of friendship and the "withered-but-alive willingness" to live-free through our principal characters - played by the formidable ‪#‎DustinHoffman‬ and Late ‪#‎SteveMcQueen‬ with rare finesse - and then by the culmination, what one takes away is that familiar feeling of a satiated longing.A visually-engaging prison drama!

Henri 'Papillion' Charriere (Steve McQueen) is given a life sentence for killing a pimp and is to serve his sentence at a penal colony in French Guyana. Whilst he's serving his time, he befriends master forger Louis Dega (Dustin Hoffman). At first, the two men merely share a friendship of 'convenience' - Papillon offers to protect Dega from other prisoners who are trying to get his money and in return Dega promises to finance Papillon's escape once he gets to the penal colony. However, as time passes a much stronger bond begins to develop between the two men and they both decide to try to escape together.The first thing I'd like to address with this film is its running time and at close to 150 minutes it's a very long film and the problem is that it actually feels like a long film. The first half of the film is particularly long and drawn out and I couldn't help but feel that the film was badly in need of being edited a bit.Despite the above gripe the film is still engaging and at times it's very moving. As mentioned, Dega and Papillon's friendship was one of convenience at the start, but as the years pass by a strong bond began to exits between the men and each respective stage of this friendship is brought to life beautifully between Hoffman and McQueen.For me, the best part of the film was McQueen's first stint in solitary confinement. Here screenwriters Trumbo & Semple Jr really highlight how 2 years in solitary confinement can cause a gradual deterioration of the mind - the dream sequences and hallucinations really help to get into Papillon's mind-set and see what he's thinking. McQueen's performance really helps as well and when watching him here I really cared for his character and felt his pain... In truth at times I forgot that I was actually watching Steve McQueen as I've always felt that he's a bit of a mediocre actor (he was particularly wooden in Bullitt), but I was genuinely surprised how good he was here. The only slight downside with this aspect of the film is that I got no feeling that Papillon had been on half rations for 6 months; it probably would have been more convincing if McQueen had gone 'method' and lost some weight during production, but I realise that this is an actor's choice and it's possible that they may have had a tight scheduling limit. It's only a minor criticism and as I said McQueen was excellent here and throughout the film. Hoffman was good as well, but I already knew that he was a good actor, but McQueen was the real revelation here.Although this is a serious portrayal of man's desire to escape from prison the film does have some light hearted moments such as the scene where Papillon and Dega are trying to capture the crocodile - that bit was very funny. The film is also emotionally involving particularly towards the end - I got the impression that Dega didn't go with Papillon because he'd become somewhat institutionalised and perhaps saw Devil's island as his home. The fact that his wife left him as well may have also made him feel that he had no real reason to leave. That's just my assumption.Papillon is a good film, but it does drag at times and is far too long. As far as Prison escape films go then this is inferior to the likes of Shawshank Redemption, Escape from Alcatraz & The Great Escape. However, if you're a fan of those films then you should find plenty to enjoy here too.