Year Released: 1973
Directed by: Franklin J. Schaffner
Starring: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman
(PG, 150 min.)
Genre: Mystery and Thriller

The vilest deeds like poison weeds
Bloom well in prison air:
It is only what is good in man
That wastes and withers there:
Pale anguish keeps the heavy gate
And the Warder is Despair. – Oscar Wilde

Steve McQueen is mesmerizing is this brutal saga capturing man’s eternal yearning to be free. At the jungle labor camp he battles betrayal, disease, starvation, as well as encounters with unfriendly lepers, a pragmatically sadistic prison director, nuns with unusual ideas of Christian charity, and more than one person setting him up for certain death. But it is his unlikely alliance with fellow prisoner Dustin Hoffman that anchors this epic tale.

The unlikely alliance begins on the ship taking the two convicts to the French Guiana penal colony on the aptly named Devil’s Island. The two could not be more different.

McQueen’s Pappilon, named so because of the butterfly tattooed on his chest, is a safe cracker wrongly convicted of killing a pimp. Dustin Hoffman’s Dega is an infamous forger and embezzler with loads of cash as well as quasi-intellectual proclivities.

Dega keeps a large cash supply as well as a spare pair of glasses in a body cavity you can probably surmise, but the fellow dead enders on the ship intend to get it any way they can before he reaches the island and “gets a decent jail with bribeable guards.”

After one close incident, he tells Papillon, “I may be in need of some rather close protection.” Papillon agrees if Dega promises to finance his escape from the island.

Of course bribable guards are not necessarily reliable. They may be bought, but will they stay bought? The same for a prison doctor who promises a sound boat for a hefty price. Or Pascal, the owner of the boat guaranteed to get Pappillon off the island. After Pascal receives the cash, his handshake and smile as quick as his getaway, Papillon discovers that same boat has been sold and resold countless times, and it’s as rotten to the core as the prison doctor and its owner.

***

Several critics have been dismayed by the overriding bleakness of this film, not just the squalid physical conditions, but the corrupt and vicious pieces of humanity Papillon encounters. Papillon himself, however, seems to accept that as a given and is not nearly as fazed by “man’s inhumanity to man” as the audience or the pearl clutching critics.

Just in case any wayward French criminals expect anything resembling social justice during their incarceration, they are soon disabused of any ridiculous notions. Papillon, however, takes it in stride when the director of Devil’s Island greets their arrival thus:

Welcome to the penal colony of French Guiana, which prisoners you are and from which there is no escape. We make no pretense of rehabilitation here. We’re not priests; we’re processors. A meat packer processes live animals into edible ones. We process dangerous men into harmless ones. This we accomplish by breaking them.

When after finding the boat he had paid dearly for as sturdy as a vessel made of matchsticks, Papillon seeks another from the only venue left to him – a colony of lepers. And they are not too friendly, either. Tousssaint, their leader is as much a criminal as Pappillon, with a ruthless soul that matches his eaten away face.

Toussaint: We do a lot of smuggling here. We raid the mainland. We steal boats. When an outsider comes in we generally kill him, as a security measure.
Papillon: That makes sense.
Toussaint: Well... a man of Christian understanding.

And that said Christian understanding on the part of the nun from whom an escaped Papillon seeks refuge is not that different from that of the lepers. She readily accepts a cache of pearls some friendly natives have bestowed on Papillon as an offering for sanctuary, but that is not exactly what follows. The pearls, however, will remain in the convent, even if Papillon does not.

***

In a dream sequence near the beginning of the film Papillon stands before a cloaked judge who says ‘I accuse you of a waste of life, and the penalty for that, is death’. It is clear Papillon is not only striving for freedom from imprisonment but also for existential freedom. –Tom Crowley

As Tom Crowley so shrewdly explains, just like Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke, Papillon’s quest for freedom is rooted in existential anguish.

Or as Different Drummer said of Paul Newman in that prison escape saga,

So while our intellectual friends like Sartre and Camus are discussing existential concepts such as alienation, disregard of the rational, and man’s meaningless struggle in their cozy cafes, somewhere in the bowels of Georgia an ill-bred American is actually living it. If living is what you call toiling daily in the hot sun under the trained eyes and rifles of the casually sadistic guards.

***

As one escape attempt after another ends in prolonged punishment and solitary confinement, we watch the once debonair Papillon become a shell of himself – sunken eyes, hollowed cheeks, and blackened teeth. Dustin Hoffman’s Dega also ages, though spared the solitary confinement.

But for Pappillon, at least, that existential quest never ends. That or death. Is there really a difference?

[Papillon is contemplating a daring leap from a cliff to escape]
Dega: [the plan] It seems so desperate. You think it will work?
Papillon: Does it matter?

***

Different Drummer grew up as a fan of the super cool Steve McQueen, who was taken from us way too early. Watching this performance from nearly half a century ago is like visiting a fine piece of classic architecture from your hometown. Standing out in its timeless magnificence, it is more lovely now even as it is surrounded by the flashy steel and glass towers of current Hollywood.

Not to miss. Or a must see once again. Epic in every way.

–Kathy Borich
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁

Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

While their initial alliance is purely pragmatic – Dega will provide the funds for Papillon’s escape; Papillon will provide the protection for the soft city boy – their relationship grows and changes during the many years they are imprisoned. Papillon actually saves Dega’s life and pays the price for it. His heroic act is not for money this time, but out of his simple humanity, which he tries so hard to keep hidden.

When he is put in solitary – a 5-year sentence for any escape attempt – Dega uses his money and influence to sneak in a coconut to Papillon daily. When it is discovered, Papillon is tortured to reveal the name of his benefactor, but he does not break. Thus, while Papillon suffers the physical torment, who can say that Dega’s guilt over his good deed backfiring is not as harsh?

But instead of a simple coconut, how about a great Coconut Mojito, which Different Drummer has dubbed Prison Fantasy Coconut Mojito. A guy can dream, can’t he? It’s not just permissible, but maybe necessary during that long, sunless hell, don’t you think?

You can drink your Prison fantasy Coconut Mojito anywhere you like, though. And in the sun around the pool sounds ideal, right?

Prison Fantasy Coconut Mojito

Want a Mojito that’s impossibly even better than the classic? Try this Coconut Mojito! Coconut infuses a tropical sweetness and creamy body into this cocktail that’s altogether irresistible. Cream of coconut and coconut rum come together to make magic, forming a delightful frothy topping that adds a little foam to each sip.

The coconut mojito is a tropical spin on the Mojito. Some think origins of the drink stem back hundreds of years. The modern version took off in America in the 1930’s when Ernest Hemingway helped to popularize it. (Which is almost exactly the time period of Papillon)

The coconut spin on this drink adds two different coconut products to the drink. Cream of coconut replaces the simple syrup to add sweetness and creaminess, and coconut rum adds major coconut flavor. –Sonja and Alex Overhiser

Ingredients

6 mint leaves, plus more for garnish
1 ounce white rum
1 ounce coconut rum
1 ounce lime juice
2 ounce cream of cocnut (not coconut cream)
2 ounces sparkling water

Directions

1. In a cocktail shaker, muddle the mint leaves. Add the white rum, coconut rum, lime juice, and cream of coconut to the shaker and fill the cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until cold.

2. Place ice into a glass, and strain in the drink. Top off the glass with sparkling water. Garnish with additional mint leaves.

A Couple Cooks.com