Review of Papillon (1973) by Anssi V — 10 Oct 2011
Extremely solid film. Just about everything in this movie works at least at some level. The two main actors are superb and manage to pull off the huge changes of their characters perfectly. The locations are nice, the directing and the visuals please the eye and the score was actually pretty good.
But the main things that make this movie work are the plot and the performances given by Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. The basic story is of course from the bestseller novel by Henri Charrière so there's nothing wrong with that, although they made some changes.
But what really pleases me are the two main actors - I cannot praise these two enough, it seems. I could easily identify with both, even though they were hardened criminals serving their time in jail.
But I could really feel the deep friendship and trust that slowly build between them. It was beautiful to watch at times. And yes, the movie has its own flaws - there are some unnecessary scenes, for example, and some things are kind of jumped over - but as an experience this movie is definitely a must see one.
This review of Papillon (1973) was written by Anssi V on 10 Oct 2011.
Papillon has generally received very positive reviews.
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