Papillon a movie about brotherhood
Remake of cult classic is a fact-based tale that’s worth retelling
In our contemporary insipid remake culture, one’s first reaction might be to grimace at the thought of updating the 1973 Steve McQueen classic “Papillon,” a film which was not particularly well-received by critics upon its initial release but which has since solidified into a cult classic, much to the masculine bravado and timeless cool of its star.
While Hollywood continues to tack on mediocre addendums to formerly mediocre franchises (one need only look to the most overrated of these, the “Star Wars” films) naturally, one might expect Michael Noer’s refashioning of this epic true story of a prison break in South America to follow suit.
However, it is the enduring appeal of “Papillon”’s human drama, that of the resilience of the human spirit and the quest for authentic freedom which makes this story worth retelling.
Based on Henri (Papillon) Charrière’s 1969 autobiography of the same name, the film presents an account of Charrière’s miraculous escape from the notorious Devil’s Island penal colony in French Guyana in 1941 with the help of another convict, a counterfeiter by the name of Louis Degas (played by “Mr. Robot”’s Rami Malek, soon slated to appear in the role of Freddy Mercury in the anticipated biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody”).
Falsely convicted of the murder of a pimp in Paris in 1931, Char-
rière’s final escape in 1941 following a series of failed attempts punished with almost a decade of torturous solitary confinement would seal his freedom for the rest of his life. After resettling in Venezuela in 1945, Charrière would live there until 1969 when he would finally return to France following the publication of his massively successful memoir which sold over 1.5 million copies in the nation alone. Following an extended vacation at the top of the bestseller list, he was finally pardoned for murder in 1970, only three years before his death from throat cancer at age 66.
While many of the details of Charrière’s death-defying escape on a raft fashioned from coconuts and burlap are indeed true, he also acknowledged that much of the story was embellished, stating that roughly 75 per cent of the book was accurate, a claim which historians suggest is likely closer to ten percent. While this detail makes for bad historical reporting,
it certainly makes for exhilarating cinema as the film undeniably demonstrates.
In the opening scene of the film, we get our first glimpse of Charrière (played by Charlie Hunnam of “Sons of Anarchy” fame) framed through the door of his prison cell. Invoking the image of Bresson’s Fontaine in Un condamné à mort s’est échappé, he waits for the intervention of divine grace which comes in the form of his Jost, Degas, who, in exchange for his protection, agrees to finance his escape.
In the face of extreme brutality and intolerable conditions within the prison walls which might be read as a commentary on prison reform (the guards are often indistinguishable from the ‘animals’ that they watch over), the solitary Charrière opens himself up to Degas over the course of the film and together, the two embark upon their most important adventure, one which will test their endurance and wits, but might ultimately secure them their freedom.
While the film presents a vision of masculinity which might seem an antiquated remnant of the past, the film is ultimately one about brotherhood, which, in its very excesses, forces us to reflect upon the brutality unfolding before our very eyes and the name in which it is carried out — man. While perhaps not as compelling as McQueen-Dustin Hoffman, Hunnam and Malek’s marvellous on-screen chemistry make this classic certainly worth revisiting.