OVP: Papillon (1973)

Film: Papillon (1973)
Stars: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Don Gordon, Robert Deman
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Score)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

We're going to conclude our weeklong look at some of my (unseen) films of 1973 with by far the longest movie on the docket, Papillon.  The film clocks in at 150 minutes, and like Scarecrow earlier this week, features two of the most important leading men of the era: Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.  Unlike Scarecrow, though, Papillon was a big hit in its era, keeping Hoffman in the public eye and theoretically moving McQueen into the echelon of the era's top star...though McQueen, infamous for turning down role-after-role-after-role that might have cemented his legend, didn't make much use of the film's success (at some point we'll start featuring male performers in the Saturdays with the Stars series, and McQueen is going to be toward the top of the list of people whose career I want to discuss).

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is loosely based on a true story, about Henri "Papillon" Charriere (McQueen...Papillon is the French word for butterfly), who was sentenced to a prison sentence in French Guiana for a murder he didn't commit.  There he meets Louis Dega (Hoffman), a (guilty) forger & embezzler who needs protection, but doesn't want to escape because he's confident his wife is working to ensure that he will be freed.  Dega helps Papi in several escape attempts, the first of which lands him in solitary confinement for two years, during which time he never once outs Dega as his co-conspirator despite basically being starved and going half insane.  On the second attempt, they enlist the help of Andre Maturette (Deman), a gay man there for murder who one of the guards has developed an infatuation with (yes, there is a gay subplot, yes, it's problematic, but not nearly to the degree of Scarecrow as Maturette is at least given some dignity in his portrayal).  They succeed in escaping, though eventually they are all caught (with Papi lasting longer than the others), and are each sentenced to five years in solitary, which basically kills Maturette.  Papi wants to attempt escape one last time from Devil's Island, but Dega refuses, saying it's too dangerous.  Papi then jumps from a gigantic cliff, near certain to die, but doesn't, and is taken out to sea by a raft made of coconuts.  Somehow, the narrator tells us, he survived and went on to live a free man.

This is an incredible story, and would be even more incredible if it were true.  While Henri Charriere definitely existed, and definitely was a prisoner in the French penal system (which was truly atrocious in its treatment of prisoners, using the guillotine way later than you would have expected, legally ending in 1981 and practically ending in 1977), there's no evidence that the portion of his book where he escaped from Devil's Island is reality (records at the time indicate he was never sentenced to serve there).  This is pure Hollywood fiction, as even at the time they would have been aware that this was disputed.

I don't normally have a problem with biopics taking liberties (the reason I dislike the genre as a whole is because truth is not, in fact, stranger than fiction), but I point this out because it shows the biggest issue with Papillon-it never looks below the surface of its major characters.  This isn't because McQueen and especially Hoffman aren't capable of crafting complex characterizations, but for some reason neither actor looks beyond the page with these portrayals.  We get some incredible action sequences (particularly that final moment of Papillon jumping into the sea, swimming off into the unknown), but there's nothing there.  You spend the movie hoping it'll just be over, as it drags and repeats without any sense of character growth, and Papillon is a character that certainly could grow as he keeps beating against a system that insists on him losing his spirit.  This could've been a great movie-all of the elements are there for it-but it's just dull & pretty.

The movie's sole Oscar nomination was for its score.  The main title here is superb.  This could have been a gut-check nomination for Jerry Goldsmith, who was nominated constantly during the 1970's by the Academy, but the main theme has a windswept quality I loved.  The use of a percussion instrument (I couldn't quite pinpoint what it was, but it sounds like some sort of electrified marimba) adds texture to the music, and invites the gargantuan task that Papillon & Dega are undertaking.  Unfortunately, the rest of the music isn't nearly as inspired-we are, like the plot itself, given the same course over-and-over again, no growth in the music.