Papillon [1974]

See Larger Image	List Price: £19.99 Our Price: £4.98 Availability: Usually dispatched within 6 to 10 days Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Starring: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory, Don Gordon, Anthony Zerbe Directed By: Franklin J. Schaffner Average Customer Rating:


Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Binding: DVD EAN: 5035822004931 Format: Anamorphic Label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Number Of Discs: 1 Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Region Code: 2 Release Date: 2000-12-04 Running Time: 144 Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Theatrical Release Date: 1973-12-16
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Editorial Reviews: Franklin J Schaffner's Papillon is 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 Apes and 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
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: An Epic Tale .... Comment: This film had a huge impact on me when I watched it growing up. Yes it is a long film and at times it is heavy going but stick with it. Amazing performances from McQueen and Hoffman. This is the greatest true story of escape ever told. The ending is the most moving, sad and thought provoking I've seen in a film. Long after the credits have gone you will still have Papillon in your head. They don't make films like this anymore. Customer Rating: Summary: Pap Comment: Overwrought, over intense, over squalid psychological drama about two convicts coming to terms with their sentence on a harsh island penal colony. Pretentious, a bit pointless, and not at all where cinema should be directing its energy. It comes from a little 3 or 4 year period where films of this type became fashionable with directors, though god knows why. Customer Rating: Summary: Disappointing fim (but interesting documentary!) Comment: The director of this film stated clearly that his intention was simply "to entertain", so it would be unfair to carp that it is not faithful to Henri Charriere's autobiography (particularly when there has been doubt cast on whether Charriere's account is entirely true!) However, it seems to me to be obvious that the alterations made for dramatic purposes should actually improve the story! Instead, the changes made render the film less exciting, and less satisfying than the book - when considered purely on its literary merits. The reordering of events destroys the pacing of Charriere's narrative, and makes the ending of the film oddly bathetic. Whilst the amalgamation of several characters into one may be neccessary (to limit the number of people the viewer has to keep track of) often makes motivations, in terms of Papillon's relationships with the other convicts, confused. The choice of starting and finishing points is also odd; after all, Papillon's raft only takes him as far as the mainland - the STARTING point for his previous esczapes! (The film starts from Papillon's embarcation for French Guiana, leaving out his experiences at the transit prison in France,which seem to have determined how Charriere interacts with the penal system - and also why he arrives in Cayenne with an "intractable" label! The range of relationships that Charriere describes have also been replaced by a black-and-white "all authority figures are evil sadists" version. This has the strange effect of weakening the impact of the inhuman conditions Papillon and his fellow convicts endured - by making them seem an aberration, rather than the norm of an evil system. However, the main problem with the film is the choice of actor for the leading role. I have no criticism of Steve McGueen as a performer, but the choice of an actor in his fifties changes the whole tenor of the story. Charriere was twenty-five when sentenced to "penal servitude with hard labour for life"; when he escaped, thirteen years later, he had a full life still ahead of him. The film completely misses the cocky optimism that characterises Charriere's depiction of himself. It also (perhaps understandably) downplays considerably his sense of the community of criminals, replacing it with Hollywood's archetypal "lone wolf" male. It also destroys the sense of character development present in the book - McQueen's Papillon is physically broken but otherwise unchanged by his experiences; whilst Charriere describes himself as evolving under the influence of his experiences - such as giving up his plans for revenge, in preference for building a satisfying life for himself - whilst minimising the physical damage he has incurred! So, for a more subtly coloured narrative - choose the book over the film. BUT for a faster, pacier, more horrifying, more moving, more inspiring story - STILL choose the book over the film! Shaeffner has taken a distinctive, exciting narrative,in a distinctively French setting, and turned it into "yet another American prison buddy movie". (It is perhaps not surprising that there is no option for French subtitles!)It's not a truly bad movie, but it IS an opportunity missed. (Incidentally, if you HAVE seen the film, reading the book WILL explain some of the oddities in the film.) So, why am I giving it two stars? The accompaying documentary, showing how the film was made on location. It has the usual 1950s overblown voice-over, but is worth watching for its interview with Henri Charriere. Anyone who HAS read the book will be fascinated to see and hear the man himself - still irrepressible in his sixties! Customer Rating: Summary: Bleak but brilliant Comment: A pretty stark depiction of the human spirit and how quickly normal people can become dehumanised by their conditions, but balanced out by the characters played by McQueen and Hoffman (together with the chaacters that come into the story and help them out). It's not always the actions of the prisoners that are brutal either, the establishment - both guards and civilians - are also portrayed in a damming light. Brilliant acting from McQueen and Hoffman as they are able to pick up their characters and bring out their differing but complimentary personalities perfectly. I'd agree with the comment that you wouldn't watch it much more often than once every five years as it's a long film and quite heavy going; but when you do you'll be drawn into it without fail. Cinematically it's also very impressive with brilliant use of locations and atmospheric sound, including effective use of silence when some films may have shied away and felt that they needed music. Customer Rating: Summary: Very moving Comment: I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, it was bought as a birthday present for me by a friend who new i was interested in Steve McQueen movies. The performances of McQueen and Dustin Hoffman are superb, Hoffman perfectly capturing the role of the nerdy person completely lost in the world he finds himself in, and McQueen plays perfectly the man who never gives up on his dream of freedom for a crime he supposedly did not commit. Th film as a whole is really moving, and the end is actually very sad, a must watch More Reviews