I always wonder why Hollywood feels compelled to remake movies, especially an effective one. I guess it's for new audiences who would not have seen the Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman Papillon and, obviously, today's movie makers can do it better. With that in mind, Danish director Michael Noer takes us to penal colonies so dark and bleak that they drive prisoners insane. And while the performances of Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek are good, you have to be in a mood for starvation, madness and harsh physical cruelty. Calling this gritty story of crime, punishment and the unquenchable urge to escape enjoyable is a stretch. Henri Charriere's supposedly true account of his imprisonment in French Guiana and Devil's Island has sold 13 million copies since its 1969 publication and the 1973 film was a hit.
Papillon (Hannum) is a tough safecracker framed for murder and Louis Dega (Malek) is a wealthy dandy caught forging government bonds. When they are convicted, the French courts banish them to the hell of a prison camp in French Guiana, never to return to France even if they survive the length of their sentence. Papillon, nicknamed for the butterfly tattoo on his chest, has no desire to remain stuck in a prison hellhole and he quickly aligns with Dega, who has a considerable amount of money shoved up his rear end, to plot an escape. The task is far from simple, especially under the draconian watch of Warden Barrot (Yorick Van Wageningen), but the jailbirds wind up sticking together through thick and thin, through swamps, seas and years of solitary confinement, to try and make their way to freedom. Hunnam and Malek show intense dedication to the physical demands of the script, but they don't have the level of charisma of McQueen and Hoffman. Noer wisely doubles down on adventure (and not so wisely on the gore), but, ultimately, this "Papillon" has me wondering why it was made.
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