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I think this movie is an insult to the book (founded)

posted 17 years ago by deboas
35 replies | jump to latest

When i read the book over the last months i was truely impressed by nearly every page this man had written. Every story about the countless people he met was incredible. The way he describes spending two years in solitary and the way you have to think and make decisions to be able to get through his sentence alive is done in a perfect sensible way.

This movie scrambles the whole story up, neglects beatiful pieces of the book, and more or less remakes the whole story. The most wisest things are being said in the book, and i was really curious about how these would look in a movie, but i got very disappointed at seeing that they barely put these in and instead made up conversations to build up a different storyline.

Dega does'nt spend nearly as much time with Papillon in the book as is in the film, the book doesn't end the way the film does either. The final break is done with another prisoner, wich dies in one of the most horriffic ways you can imagine, with papillon being able to see it happen but not do a thing. These are things that make the story so powerfull, and the fact that the creators of the movie just swapped it for a different story is kind of bad i think.

ofcourse it is difficult to translate a book of this length (560 pages) to a movie of adequate length, but still, a book of this magnitude deserves better.

[–] Royalcourtier 12 years ago

You do realise, I hope, that this is a work of fiction.

[–] PussyCrusher_Principal 11 years ago

the book was better than the movie huh? i've heard that that happens from time to time..out of curiosity, have you ever seen a movie outdo the book it is derived from?

The Godfather, while an entertaining book, was basically garbage. The movie is, of course, art.

"Everything's so green..."

[–] manas19782002 11 years ago

Totally agree with you. The book is one of the best prison escape story. If the book is to be converted to a movie it should be done honestly. B'coz the best prison escape movie I've seen is "le trou"/"escape from alcatraz". But papillon book has that potential, which,if made honestly would be the best prison escape movie ever. and what's best is -it's a true story. And never mind the length. If possible it should be made in 2 parts. Desperately waiting for some production house to remake this movie, not some crap like "spiderman".

[–] bora-bora54 10 years ago

I loved the Papillon story so much that i became mildly obsessed with it in the 70's .. the book and the film were the reason that i took off from home at 18 and traveled the world on boats, ships or whatever .. i carried his book with me for years and even used the tobacco juice to repel mosquitoes idea, that i got from the book, a few times, and it works great .. i've read everything that i could find on the man and his story .. I thought that the film was beyond excellent and i've seen it at least half a dozen times .. i've read the book twice and i think that with the time constraints, that they did a pretty good job of condensing Henri Charrière's stories in a watchable film .. the book and film are not the exactly the same but i think that they compliment each other .. if the film was as long as some want, then it would be unwatchable for the general audience as i don't think that most people can't sit through a 4 hour (or more) long film unless it's something that they really are obsessed with .. a mini series would be full of commercial product placements i bet, with people drinking pepsi's lol .. Henri himself has hinted in several interviews that he never let a few facts get in the way of a good story .. who knows how much is true and how much he just added on because he loved to tell a good story .. whatever the case he was an amazing man and i wish that i had me him..
~every saint has a past .. every sinner has a future~