Jeff's Reviews

Thoughts on every movie I've ever seen.

Papillon (1973)

Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner

Starring Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory, Don Gordon

Author

Experimental and a little bit awkward, which is owed to the era in which it was filmed. But the greatest flaw is that the story is a bit aimless. I know that anti-heroes were popular around this time, but there’s almost no character development and no reason that we should care for these guys.

McQueen was pretty cool, wasn’t he? For its time, this is a courageous performance for a sex symbol. Interesting stunts they let these guys do, including gator-wrestling and cliff-jumping.

Schaffner’s direction features neatly defined characters, good pacing, creative editing, and nice framing of shots. Goldsmith’s score, particularly during the jungle chase scenes, is reminiscent of his score for Planet of the Apes.

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