- Status: Completed
- Score: 8/10
- Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
- Country: FranceUSA
- Year: 1973
- Duration: 151 min
- Genres: Biography,Crime,Drama,
- Production:
A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
A semi-fictional account of Henri Charrière’s time in the penal system in French Guyana – some of it spent on infamous Devil’s Island – is presented. It’s the early 1930s. Charrière – nicknamed Papillon because of his butterfly tattoo – and Louis Dega are two among many who have been convicted in the French judicial system, they now being transferred to French Guyana where they will serve their time, never to return to France even if they are ever released. A safe-cracker by criminal profession, Papillon is serving a life sentence for murdering a pimp, a crime for which he adamantly states he was framed. Dega is a wealthy counterfeiter, who expects his well-to-do wife eventually to get him released. At Papillon’s initiative, the duo enters into a business arrangement: Papillon will provide protection for Dega, who, in turn, will finance Papillon’s escape attempt. As the two men spend more time together than either had expected, their burgeoning friendship ends up being an important …
Steve McQueen, Victor Jory, Anthony Zerbe, Woodrow Parfrey, George Coulouris, William Smithers, Gregory Sierra, Mills Watson, Dustin Hoffman, Don Gordon, Robert Deman, Bill Mumy, Ratna Assan, Val Avery, Vic Tayback,
