Talking To The Screen
Papillon
Monday 1/27/03, 1:26 am
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?Papillon? is the story of two French prison inmates shipped to serve their term in colonial Guyana. The prisoners are played by Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. Steve McQueen?s character, Henri ?Papillon? Charriere, is a hardened killer known for escaping from prison. Dustin Hoffman plays famed safecracker, Louis Dega. In colonial Guyanese prisons, you have nothing without money. Dega has money and everyone knows it. Papillon comes to Dega with a proposition of protection in exchange for financing an escape. The rest of their relationship and much of the rest of the film is characterized by that relationship. Dega is a stable, homebody with means. Papillon is a loose cannon, continuously trying to escape or evade recapture.
?Papillon? has two scenes which stuck with me. McQueen in one of his many escapes, finds himself on an island occupied only by lepers. The head leper offers to help him, on one condition, that Papillon smoke from the same cigar as he. Earlier in the film, there is an amazing sequence of Papillon?s delusions while in solitary confinement.
The friendship between Papillon and Dega makes this film more than a sequence of escapes and recaptures. Dega embodies home, he supports and comforts the errant Papillon as best he can, but he can?t keep him still.
?Papillon? is a very good movie, but it came out in 1973, so the pacing is quite slow. For a while, I thought the whole story was building up to one single escape attempt, as in ?The Great Escape?. When the film went on, I realized how epic the scope of ?Papillon? is. It follows the whole life of Papillon starting when he is captured and shipped to Guyana.
Home
?Papillon? is the story of two French prison inmates shipped to serve their term in colonial Guyana. The prisoners are played by Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. Steve McQueen?s character, Henri ?Papillon? Charriere, is a hardened killer known for escaping from prison. Dustin Hoffman plays famed safecracker, Louis Dega. In colonial Guyanese prisons, you have nothing without money. Dega has money and everyone knows it. Papillon comes to Dega with a proposition of protection in exchange for financing an escape. The rest of their relationship and much of the rest of the film is characterized by that relationship. Dega is a stable, homebody with means. Papillon is a loose cannon, continuously trying to escape or evade recapture.
?Papillon? has two scenes which stuck with me. McQueen in one of his many escapes, finds himself on an island occupied only by lepers. The head leper offers to help him, on one condition, that Papillon smoke from the same cigar as he. Earlier in the film, there is an amazing sequence of Papillon?s delusions while in solitary confinement.
The friendship between Papillon and Dega makes this film more than a sequence of escapes and recaptures. Dega embodies home, he supports and comforts the errant Papillon as best he can, but he can?t keep him still.
?Papillon? is a very good movie, but it came out in 1973, so the pacing is quite slow. For a while, I thought the whole story was building up to one single escape attempt, as in ?The Great Escape?. When the film went on, I realized how epic the scope of ?Papillon? is. It follows the whole life of Papillon starting when he is captured and shipped to Guyana.