Papillon Reviews

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I was quite eager to check it out again. I have to admit that, the first time around, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, I thought I might as well watch it. Eventually, I was really impressed. Indeed, it is definitely one of the best movies in this genre and, in fact, I do believe McQueen even gave here the best performance of his career. I mean, sure, you could argue that the whole thing was barely original but I thought it was rather well made and it was definitely a compelling tale. Considering McQueen, he basically gave the same character he always played in all his movies, but, man, he does it so well and, for once, his usual tough guy actually became quite vulnerable which was quite spellbinding to behold. Sadly, it would be his last great movie and the rest of his work would never be as compelling as it was here. Concerning Dustin Hoffman, his character was not really flashy but still entertaining nonetheless and while it was pretty much the beginning of the end for McQueen, Hoffman was at the top of his game at the time and the guy would pretty much rule the 70’s. The only critic I might have was that, after the second escape attempt, the whole thing did loose some steam for a while. Furthermore, I didn’t really understand why Papillon didn’t stay with this tribe living on a beautiful beach instead of continuing his journey. However, it was rather priceless that he was eventually betraying by some nun. Anyway, to conclude, even though it is a little bit forgotten nowadays, I really liked this movie a lot and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

This was actually far better then I thought it would be. Great acting by Steve McQueen who played such a tireless character, especially when it came to the solitary part of the movie.
This is a definite classic.