No accent?

The use of accents is absurdly stupid and ludicrous. It doesn't add to authenticity it ruins authenticity. You never forget that you're watching a movie if the actors speak with unnatural accents appropriate for comedy. Standard theatre English would be the best when the language spoken on the screen is not supposed to be English.

What would be the point? Everybody on the island spoke French so they would sound like they were speaking normally.

I agree, making American English speaking actors attempt fake French accents would be absurd.

I don't know how big the budget was for this film. So they get Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. For all the other characters it seems they could have had French actors speaking English.

IIRC the guy who gives the speech about the guillotine, and the guy in solitary who gives the speech about not masturbating, maybe even the guy who tells Hoffman that his family lost everything in the fake bonds, those guys IIRC had somewhat affected accents, not French, not British, but definitely not Steve McQueen English. I don't recall noticing anything odd about the way the judge spoke in the "guilty" sequence.

Also, IIRC Papillon calls Hoffman DEE GASS at first and later calls him DAY GAH. Also he calls him alternatively Louis and Louie. The French don't say LouiS.

I found all this puzzling and slightly annoying.

He was Steve Frickkin' McQueen! He didn't need no stinking accent!







Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.