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Papillon

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1973 film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner

OverviewAI-generated

Papillon is a 1973 biographical prison drama film directed and produced by Franklin J. Schaffner. The English-language movie stars Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory, and Don Gordon. It was written by Dalton Trumbo, Lorenzo Semple Jr., and Henri Charrière, based on a work by Charrière. Jerry Goldsmith composed the score, while Fred Koenekamp served as director of photography. The film’s narrative is set in South America and French Guiana.

The production originated in the United States and France, with a budget of 12,000,000. It was distributed by Monogram Pictures and Netflix in video on demand and DVD formats. The film has a runtime of 151 minutes and carries an R rating. It received a Metascore of 58 and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 73%. On IMDb, it holds a rating of 8.0 based on 145,937 votes. The film was nominated for one Oscar and secured two wins and two nominations in total.

Synthesized by Vinony from 47 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, OMDb, IMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Film · TMDB

7.8

A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.

Released: 1973-12-16151 minDir: Franklin J. SchaffnerCrime, DramaBudget: $12.0MBox office: $53.3M

Cast

  • Steve McQueen as Henri "Papillon" Charriere
  • Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega
  • Victor Jory as Indian Chief
  • Don Gordon as Julot
  • Anthony Zerbe as Toussaint
  • Robert Deman as Maturette

Themes

  • prison
  • escape
  • prison escape
  • jungle
  • solitary confinement
  • based on memoir or autobiography
  • remote island
  • leper colony
  • labor camp
  • corrupt official

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Ratings

IMDb

8/10

145,206 votes

Rotten Tomatoes

73%

Metacritic

58/100

Year
1973
Runtime
151 min
Genres
Biography, Crime, Drama
Rated
R
Awards
Nominated for 1 Oscar. 2 wins & 2 nominations total

via OMDb · IMDb

Key facts

Directed by
Franklin J. Schaffner
Screenplay by
Dalton Trumbo , Lorenzo Semple Jr.
Based on
Papillon , 1969 novel, by Henri Charrière
Produced by
Robert Dorfmann , Franklin J. Schaffner
Starring
Steve McQueen , Dustin Hoffman , Victor Jory , Don Gordon , Anthony Zerbe
Cinematography
Fred J. Koenekamp
Edited by
Robert Swink
Music by
Jerry Goldsmith
Production companies
Les Films Corona , General Production Company
Distributed by
Allied Artists (United States and Canada), Columbia Pictures (International)
Release date
December 16, 1973 ( 1973-12-16 )
Running time
150 minutes
Countries
United States, France
Languages
English, French, Spanish
Budget
$13.5 million
Box office
$53.2 million

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
film
Country of origin
France
Original language
English language
Based on
Papillon
Main subject
prison escape
Screenwriter
Henri Charrière
Cast member
Woodrow Parfrey
Cinematographer
Fred Koenekamp
Narrative location
French Guiana
Duration
150
FilmAffinity ID
253727
Distribution format
DVD
Show 13 more facts
publication date
1973-12-20
title
Papillon
executive producer
Ted Richmond
distributed by
Netflix
after a work by
Henri Charrière
costume designer
Anthony Powell
capital cost
12000000
assessment
Bechdel test
set in environment
prison
review score
58/100
derivative work
Papillon
Commons category
Papillon (film)
box office
53267000
Sources (15)

via Wikidata · CC0

~12 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Papillon is a 1973 historical adventure drama prison film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and Lorenzo Semple Jr. was based on the 1969 autobiography by the French convict Henri Charrière. The film stars Steve McQueen as Charrière ("Papillon") and Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega. Because it was filmed at remote locations, the film was expensive for the time ($12 million), but it earned more than twice that in its first year of release. The film's title is French for "Butterfly", referring to Charrière's tattoo and nickname.

Plot

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Papillon” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (6)