Papillion

Storyline

Papillion, Based on the international best-selling autobiographical books “Papillon” and “Banco”, PAPILLON follows the epic story of Henri “Papillon” Charrière (Charlie Hunnam), a safecracker from the Parisian underworld who is framed for murder and condemned to life in the notorious penal colony on Devil’s Island. Determined to regain his freedom, Papillon forms an unlikely alliance with quirky convicted counterfeiter Louis Dega (Rami Malek), who in exchange for protection, agrees to finance Papillon’s escape.

1973, 2017 Papillon: Classics

This is based upon a true story

Both Papillon Movies, 1973 and 2017 are to be considered Classics. 1931 in France, Safe Cracker, Henri Charriere later known as Papillon (Charlie Hunnam) is framed for murder and sent to the prison in French Guiana and later to Devil’s Island. He is known as Papillon because of the Butterfly tattooed on his chest. Attempts at escaping always proved fruitless and landed him in Solitary for 2-year and then in solitary for 5-years and then it was on to Devil’s Island.

This is a remake of a 1973 movie starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. Poppy as he is called by fellow inmates lines himself up with wealthy art forger Louis Dega (Rami Malek) and we see these two survive as best they could and still think about escaping. I am sure the prison life was more brutal than what we saw on screen.

I took this out because I had seen the 1973 Papillon, but wanted to see if current technology updated the scenes and or action. No. No CGI. Nothing much changed – the story went on as in 1973. At times the cinematography was outstanding.

I noticed that no one spoke French or even had a French accent There were many characters whose names I cannot recall mostly because many were not referred to by name. That was a huge disservice to those players because they were very good and should have been recognized at least by name in the movie.

Notables: Yorick van Wageningen as Warden Barrot; Nikola Kent as Deputy Warden Briouelet; Michael Adams as Bartiloni, one of Warden Barrot’s enforcers.

Papillon in 1973 is a classic and I think this one in 2017 can be also considered such a classic also as it is very good. Not sure why it was remade, but those who didn’t see the 1973 version have a great opportunity to see almost a carbon copy of that classic. Charlie Hyunnam and Rami Malek made this work.

There are statements at the end to tell all what happened to Papillon and Dega.

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Humor: Yes, at times. Language: Yes, mostly in the beginning Rating: A

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