The Greatest Escape Adventure Ever Told.
Not currently showing on the local cinema circuit.
Cast |
Charlie Hunnam, Rami Malek, Tommy Flanagan, Eve Hewson, Roland Møller, Michael Socha |
Director |
Michael Noer |
Screenplay | Aaron Guzikowski, based on the book by Henri Charrière and screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and Lorenzo Semple Jr. |
Music | David Buckley |
Cinematography | Hagen Bogdanski |
Editing | John Axelrad, Lee Haugen |
Soundtrack | Available |
Made in | 2017 |
Produced by | Czech Anglo Productions, FishCorb Films, Red Granite Pictures |
Official Site | IMDB page | ScreenIt Report | CommonSenseMedia Report
Scroll down for embedded trailer
Genre | Crime, drama, mystery |
Language | The film contains fairly frequent instances of moderate to strong impact crude language. The language occurs in the context of swearing within the setting depicting harsh prison life. |
Nudity | Infrequent low to mild impact partial nudity, including displays of buttocks and female breasts, which does not occur in overtly sexual contexts. |
Sex | None |
Violence | Strong impact realistic physical and psychological violence, often including blood-letting and injury, occurs frequently. |
Prejudice | None |
Blasphemy | None |
Drug abuse | None |
Comments | The crime drama mystery film explores themes of escaping prison, friendship in adversity, prolonged solitary confinement, being framed for murder, crime, trauma, despair, optimism, survival, murder, plotting escape, loyalty and cruel conditions in historical penal colonies, presented in a biographical context. These themes are complex and mature and may be confusing to viewers under 16 years. The themes are also intense, based on real-life events and presented realistically with a sense of threat and menace as contained in the threat to the protagonist and his friend's lives and the cruel conditions under which prisoners were kept. Themes may therefore also be disturbing, upsetting and distressing for emotionally immature viewers under 16 years who are not yet able to regulate their emotions, particularly given the enhanced audio-visual effects of the cinematic format, which contributes to the impact of violence, and the overall impact of the film through enhanced visuals and realistic sound effects. Depictions of murder, violent fights for survival, and executions may also be psychologically harmful for viewers under 16 years, with depictions of cruelty and lack of empathy potentially resulting in desensitisation and moral harm for children below this age, who are highly susceptible to media influences. However, the film also contains a number of pro-social considerations, including historical and educational value in telling this biographical tale about historical conditions in penal colonies, and in the positive messages about loyalty, resilience, survival, triumph of the human spirit, triumph, optimism and hope, which will inspire more mature viewers of 16 years and older with the cognitive and emotional maturity and tolerance levels to appreciate and understand the positive messages contained within the potentially harmful portrayals. |
These details are supplied by the FPB. If you have a problem with any of the above, please take it up directly with the FPB. Read the Classification Guidelines. |
R: Restricted | Rated R for violence including bloody images, language, nudity, and some sexual material |
Runtime | 133 |
USA version is usually but not always the same as South African release. Versions released on streaming or DVD, Blu-ray or Video may also differ. |
Sex / Nudity |
Violence |
Blood / Gore / Gross |
Guns / Weapons |
Profanity |
Alcohol / Drugs |
Smoking |
Disrespectful / Bad Attitude |
Imitative Behaviour |
Frightening / Tense Scenes |
Jump Scenes |
Tense Family Scenes |
Music (Scary/Tense) |
Music (Inappropriate) |
Topics to talk about |
Suggested age limit 16 + |
Positive messages |
Positive role models |
Violence |
Sex |
Language |
Consumerism |
Drinking, drugs, smoking |
Scale (Max) | 20 | |
What the Critics say | ||
Die Burger Karla Janse van Vuuren Oorlewingsverhaal gryp opnuut aan. | 10 | |
24.com Ilan Preskovsky Mores the pity, then, that I can’t in good conscious actually recommend Papillon. It gets so much right that I would love to give it at least a moderate recommendation but it fails on such a fundamental level that I honestly can’t imagine it actually working for anyone at all. It’s a truly admirable failure, but it’s a failure nevertheless. | 5 | |
ScreenIt Jim Judy Too much of the film feels like it’s going through the motions -- of either repeating what the original film offered or simply ticking off the various high and low points of the real story -- rather than having things appear to flow organically. | 10 | |
Metacritic.com 29 critics | 10 | |
Rottentomatoes critics 86 critics | 12 | |
Rottentomatoes tomatometer Tomatometer Papillon puts its own well-acted, solidly produced spin on a previously adapted tale, although it may not be quite enough to erase viewers’ memories of the 1973 version. | 10 | |
Movie Review Query Engine MRQE critics | 12 | |
CommonSenseMedia Michael Ordona Brutal violence, strong language in prison remake. | 10 | |
What the People say | ||
Metacritic.com users 11 users | 11 | |
Rottentomatoes users 622 users | 15 | |
IMDB 3249 Netizens | 14 | |
The Movie DB Community | 16 | |
Average .. 56% | 11 |