Synopsis
Papillon is a true story about French ex-convict Henri Charriére – a petty criminal who is unjustly convicted of murder, and his constant struggle to escape to freedom from the brutal French penal system in Guiana’s infamous Devil’s Island.
Director Franklin J. Schaffner did a helluva job recreating the brutal world that Henri Charriére lived in. Schaffner is no stranger to building epic environments and making them work for the material. Two movies that come to mind that he nailed perfectly were Patton and Planet of the Apes. In Patton he built this military environment that was endless as the war he was trying to portray; war all around with no chance of escaping it, which was the point of Patton. Patton lived in this world and thrived in this world and knew nothing else. In that same sense, Planet of the Apes carried that trapped feeling where Charlton Heston’s character, George Taylor, felt alone and secluded in an environment he wasn’t particularly comfortable with and one he wasn’t welcomed to live in. Schaffner’s ability to create those environments helped out tremendously when he put together Papillon. He took the strict, military attitude and rule-based environment that Patton had and combined that with the seclusion he did so well in Planet of the Apes. Together, they offered the perfect ‘jail’ environment with no hope of ever leaving; that’s what makes Papillon so powerful. The use of islands, the brutality of the guards and the mental games that authority plays with its prisoner is enough to make this movie scary and in a very real sense, hopeless.
Having said that, the presence of Steve McQueen as Papillon helped make it work quite a bit. As I mentioned before, when you think of McQueen you don’t see him as an emotional actor. His silent presence on camera is enough to make people know he’s ‘there’. McQueen stretched out his acting legs and put some great emotion into his character. At the beginning of the film you see a tough guy firmly believing that no system can hold him down. He’s a brute, he doesn’t depend on anyone and he’s determined to get out of his situation one way or another. As the movie progresses you see that powerful personality start to diminish and wear thin. His captors, true to their word, break him down physically and mentally, as each escape attempt goes wrong. The audience, once cheering his escape, is worn down just as bad as his character is and by the time the movie is at an end you’re telling him to stay put and do his time! McQueen’s appearance and worn down demeanor is amazing to watch, and truly sad. For me this is the best movie I’ve seen to date of McQueen’s performance. He sells his character’s beat-down really well and you silently cheer his somewhat victory at the end. How he wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award is beyond me.
Anyway, playing along side McQueen’s Papillon was Dustin Hoffman’s Louis Dega. Hoffman weak willed character was a brilliant counter to McQueen’s tough guy. Hoffman played a perfect nerdy crook that kept the ball rolling for McQueen’s character by helping to fund his escapes and his life inside the prison. He too suffered the same progressive fate with Dega, but at the end of the film I felt a lot more empathy for Dega than I did for Papillon. Dega certainly lost the most and Hoffman’s ability to portray that through his character was sadly amazing. Hoffman is one of the best actor’s of our time and he never comes up short in any role; even if the movie he’s in fails.
So are there any issues with the film? Well, there was only one confusing scene for me. Towards the middle of the movie Papillon is hunted down in a jungle by Spaniards. He is shot with a dart by a native bounty hunter in the jungle and when he wakes up he’s in a nice Polynesian village. I thought it was a dream sequence, but the scene lasts a good 5-7 minutes without explanation or a solid conclusion. It’s an oddity and I’m not sure of what to make of it. I’m positive it has some purpose, but it does seem extremely out of place. Had it been cut from the film altogether it wouldn’t have been missed. That’s my only real issue with the film.
Enough about the film, what the heck about the Blu-ray?! If you asked me to pick a 70s film that had some of the most gorgeous environments to shoot and upgrade to HD then I would pick Papillon. The transfer of the picture was superb, which is a trademark for Warner Home Video these days. When you see the ocean for the first time in the film you’ll be wowed by the visuals. There is almost no grain and no artifacts in the transfer, which is amazing considering the age of the film. It’s one of the highest qualities I’ve seen in some time and a perfect reason to trust WB when it comes to re-releasing Blu-ray. Need an example? Towards the end of the film when Papillon and Dega are standing on a cliff on their colony island they are watching the waves rolling in. The water is eerily blue and it looks refreshing. The scene is so clean that when Papillon finally makes the leap into the ocean and lies back on his raft of coconuts you can actually see the diver underneath McQueen; the movie is that clear.
Again, just an impressive film to HD transfer.
As for the features, you get one older featurette called The Magnificent Rebel. It gives you some dramatic insight about the actual prison, the production and some other points of interest (like cast and crew interviews). It’s certainly an older featurette, but it’s cool that it could be cleaned up and added to this Blu-ray package.
In addition to this featurette, you also get a high-quality booklet with this Blu-ray. The pages of this are really nice, colorful and informative. Much like most of the booklet Blu-rays that Warner Home Video releases, the Blu-ray case will fit nicely on your shelf like a book. Good stuff.
