Papillon, 1973, dir. Frank Schaffner
Papillon, 1973, dir. Frank Schaffner
Was not expecting a film about escaping from a French prison to suddenly arrive at an island natives village, and the sudden transition to Dances with Wolves is kinda jarring. The woman in this shot, one of maybe three women in the entire film, was just introduced in the previous shot; literally thirty seconds later, Papillon and the woman are bathing (and presumably sleeping) together.
At least this sequence is only a few minutes long, something I can only wish for a certain other film.
Papillon, 1973, dir. Frank Schaffner
Papillon, 1973, dir. Frank Schaffner
Papillon (Steve McQueen) at the leper colony
“You know the charge!”
“I’m innocent! I didn’t kill that pimp! You couldn’t get anything on me, and you framed me!”
“That is quite true, but your real crime has nothing to do with a pimp’s death.”
“Well then, what is it?”
“Your’s is the most terrifying crime a human being can commit. I accuse you of a wasted life!”
“Guilty.”
“The penalty for that… is death.”
“Guilty. guilty… guilty…”
Papillon’s hallucination in solitary confinement
Papillon, 1973, dir. Frank Schaffner
“We make no pretense at rehabilitation here, we’re not priests, we’re processors. A meatpacker processes live animals into edible ones, we process dangerous men into harmless ones. This we accomplish by breaking you: breaking you physically, spiritually, and here. Strange things happen to the head here. Put all hope out of your mind, and masturbate as little as possible. It drains the strength.”
- the warden, introducing solitary confinement
Papillon, 1973, dir. Frank Schaffner
Papillon, 1973, dir. Frank Schaffner
Papillon (Steve McQueen) after a long period in solitary confinement