Papillon
Papillon is a 1973 historical adventure drama prison film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and Lorenzo Semple Jr. was based on the 1969 autobiography by the French convict Henri Charrière. The film stars Steve McQueen as Charrière ("Papillon") and Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega. Because it was filmed at remote locations, the film was quite expensive for the time ($12million), but it earned more than twice that in its first year of release. The film's title is French for "Butterfly", referring to Charrière's tattoo and nickname.
Plot
Henri Charrière is a safecracker nicknamed "Papillon" because of the butterfly tattoo on his chest. In France, he is wrongly convicted of murdering a pimp in 1933 and is sentenced to life imprisonment in French Guiana. En route, he meets a fellow convict, Louis Dega, an infamous forger and embezzler. Papillon offers to protect Dega if he will fund the former's escape once they reach Guiana. Enduring the horrors of life in a jungle labour camp, the two become friends.
More details
| author | Dalton Trumbo Henri Charrière |
|---|---|
| contentLocation | French Guiana South America |
| director | Franklin J. Schaffner |
| editor | Robert Swink |
| events | liberty prison escape will to live |
| genre | adventure drama historical |
| keywords | abbess andré maturette bounty hunter capture climb colombia convent devil\'s island doctor who escape attempt france french third republic kill labour camp leper colony life imprisonment louis dega morning mother superior native tribe old man pimp prison of st-laurent-du-maroni safecracker smuggle solitary confinement st-laurent-du-maroni wait |
| musicBy | Jerry Goldsmith |
| nomination | Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score |
| producer | Robert Dorfmann |
| productionCompany | Les Films Corona |
| publisher | Allied Artists Pictures Corporation Australian Classification Board BBFC Columbia Pictures Danish Film Institute |
| theme | biographical drama epic independent prison |