Last night I watched a movie by Steve McQueen called Papillon (Pap pee yon). The name of the movie also was the name of the character that Steve McQueen played. Dustin Hoffman was also a character in the movie and he played the character of Louis Dreyfus, whom if memory serves is the great uncle of the actor known as Richard Dreyfuss. Louis Dreyfus’s famous as a French investor who potentially conned the number of people out of their war bond investment in France and was sentenced to a prison in the South Pacific on Devil’s Island. This prison is considered to be one of the worst or most harsh prisons to have ever graced the planet.

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I’d never seen this movie before even know was made any decades ago. There were several remarkable scenes in the movie, however overall the movie was very good. Essentially Steve McQueen’s character attempts to repeatedly escaped from prison, a prison that is probably the most difficult to escape from anywhere making an escape from Alcatraz look like child’s play.

In the early portions of the movie Steve McQueen’s character hooks up with Dustin Hoffman and offers his protection. Dustin Hoffman plays a character that is still wealthy and has access to money which can conceivably be used to bribe the guards and possibly purchase a boat by which Steve McQueen can escape the prison island.

There are several notable situations that, but they all focus on the concept of escaping from prison. They also focus on the strength and weaknesses of the characters that both actors play. Steve McQueen’s character is strong almost to a fault both mentally and physically while Dustin Hoffman’s character is intellectually effeminate despite some apparent physical strength displayed in the movie such as the scene where Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen’s character are required to wrestle down a crocodile in a swamp. I don’t think I’ve seen a more unlikely scene than watching Dustin Hoffman wrestle with crocodile.

Now escapes tend to be a common theme in Steve McQueen movies as he’s either trying to escape from prison, escape from the Germans, escape from the police in a car chase or many other areas. This action adventure however seems a little peculiar for Dustin Hoffman is known for more intellectual movies. It’s possibly this aspect which makes this a good movie for Dustin as that intellectual capacity is thrown into an extremely harsh tropical environment. Later scenes of the movie with Dustin Hoffman exhibit an uncanny performance that is extremely similar to his performance as Rain Man. His latter performance was more than likely stolen in part from his affectation of a prisoner that is slowly going crazy while trapped upon a rock of an island that is impossible to escape.

Anyone it’s a fan of Steve McQueen or a Dustin Hoffman should definitely watch this movie. I’m slightly surprised that it is not considered more of a classic especially from a Steve McQueen perspective. It is probably one of the more profound Steven McQueen movies I’ve ever seen with a number of themes from man versus man to man versus nature to man versus himself. Overall it is a movie that tests the will of each of the characters and despite the differences in the results each of the characters seems to pass the test.

The cinematography of the movie is excellent although shots in a style that today seems to be somewhat outdated. This is stored goal action adventure movie seems to benefit from the aging that it has received over the years and as such has a little more realism today than it probably did when it was released. There are a number of teams in the movie that are somewhat surprising in their application. Including an inmate that is gay that has been sentenced to the island for murder, the historical accuracy surrounding Louis Dreyfus, scenes with Honduran Indians and Hondurans in general eating a derivative of cocaine to be able to run through the Central American jungles without losing their breath, and a scene or a broken ankle is set in a most convincing manner.

There are many documentaries on the life of Louis Dreyfus and a doubles island today. I’ve watched several of these in the past. I was not aware of this particular movie and so it came across as a bit of a gem in the rough representing a great action film with two amazing stars bringing to life the story that is parallel to historical events that occurred less than a hundred years ago.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 7th, 2007 at 3:14 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.