Many people love this movie and think it a great adventure, and for a Franklin J Schaffner film it isn't half-bad, (it has great visual sweep and he certainly makes the most of the locations). It is based on the true story of Henri Charriere who escaped from Devil's Island, but like all 'true stories' you wonder at how much the film-makers, and indeed the man himself, who chronicled the escape in a book, fabricated events. It's really just one escape after another until he finally gets away, but the escapes are exciting in a literal, very widescreen kind of way and even though you know the ending, Schaffner still manages to crank up the suspense.
Steve McQueen is Charriere, ('Papillion'), and he's got a haunted, ferrety look about him; he has the needling determination of a survivor. Dustin Hoffman is the wormy little forger who becomes his friend. They are well-matched. There is a touch of 'Ratso' Rizzo about Hoffman's performance. He hadn't been in movies long and had yet to broaden his range. It's a long movie (two and a half hours) and there isn't anyone else to root for, and though the guards, and some of the other prisoners, are sadistic, the film is surprisingly short of villains.
Steve McQueen is Charriere, ('Papillion'), and he's got a haunted, ferrety look about him; he has the needling determination of a survivor. Dustin Hoffman is the wormy little forger who becomes his friend. They are well-matched. There is a touch of 'Ratso' Rizzo about Hoffman's performance. He hadn't been in movies long and had yet to broaden his range. It's a long movie (two and a half hours) and there isn't anyone else to root for, and though the guards, and some of the other prisoners, are sadistic, the film is surprisingly short of villains.