Papillon

Grim and authentic telling of Henri "Papillon" Charrière's time at Devil's Island.

Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (Planet Of The Apes/Patton), Papillon is adapted for the screen by Dalton Trumbo & Lorenzo Semple Jr. from notorious French felon Henri "Papillon" Charrière's own novel. It stars Steve McQueen (Papillon) & Dustin Hoffman (Louis Dega), is primarily shot in Jamaica & Spain with Fred J. Koenekamp (The Towering Inferno) on photography duties and Jerry Goldsmith provides the score.

Henri "Papillon" Charrière was a crook, a bad egg, he however was sent to the notorious, ines...

Grim and authentic telling of Henri "Papillon" Charrière's time at Devil's Island.

Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (Planet Of The Apes/Patton), Papillon is adapted for the screen by Dalton Trumbo & Lorenzo Semple Jr. from notorious French felon Henri "Papillon" Charrière's own novel. It stars Steve McQueen (Papillon) & Dustin Hoffman (Louis Dega), is primarily shot in Jamaica & Spain with Fred J. Koenekamp (The Towering Inferno) on photography duties and Jerry Goldsmith provides the score.

Henri "Papillon" Charrière was a crook, a bad egg, he however was sent to the notorious and in...

Although present for much of the filming, author Henri Charriere didn't live to see the release of PAPILLON (1973), which was based on his allegedly autobiographical novel. The veracity of what he recounts has been questioned virtually since the books' release in 1969, and the film takes further liberties, leaving one to wonder if this adventure picture is more fiction than fact. What one doesn't have to wonder about, however, are the results achieved by an underrated director at the top of his craft; a bracing Jerry Goldsmith score; marvelous cinematography by Fred Koenekamp; and spot-on perf...

_**The living hell of a penal colony in equatorial South America during the 30s**_

Henri Charrière’s account of his experiences from 1933-1945 involving the penal colony of Cayenne in French Guiana, South America, are chronicled, including solitary confinement, escape attempts, dwelling with Goajira Indians (in northeastern Columbia) and living on Devil's Island. Steve McQueen plays Henri, nicknamed Papillon (aka ‘Butterfly’ due to his chest tattoo), while Dustin Hoffman plays his friend Louis Dega.

"Papillon" (1973) is a realistic ‘prison film’ and probably more accurate than...

Steve McQueen is superb as unlucky safe-cracker Henri "Papillon" Charrière, an innocent man convicted of murder and sentenced to imprisonment in the French penal colony at French Guiana. Once there, he learns quickly to appreciate the sheer brutality of a prison where any semblance of decency and humanity has been long abandoned. He allies himself with "Dega" (Dustin Hoffman), the rather wealthy, calculating, forger who fully expects his release papers to arrive any day! McQueen agrees to keep an eye on Hoffman meantime, in return for enough funds to enable him to try to escape too. Over the ...