Papillon Was True, Sort Of. The other night I was wondering why, in the opening scene of the 1973 movie, would the march of French prisoners be such a heroic parade? That is, what was the import of that moment and why was it framed as such? I just couldn’t remember what the historical significance was. As it turns out, there kind of wasn’t any. Charrière, apparently, crafted his autobiography from an amalgam of stories he had heard from other convicts. What I didn’t know though, was that he was exposed as never having even done time on Devil’s Island, which the entire story is about. So, here was an earlier example of unsubstantiated writings soaring to mythical heights, later exposed as false and even later re-entering the canon as legend. There is no mention that this film was based on a true story which at least sidesteps that cliché. Still, I grew up in the shadow of these early 70s movies and this one was frequently purported to be truth. At any rate, that was a golden period of film. Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman are, of course, amazing. The movie holds up still as an epic, nearly purely visual at moments, tale of yearning for freedom and the tolls worthy of regaining it. There does seem to be something interesting though in the connection between Papillon and Alfred Dreyfus. They both were possibly framed and sent to the penal colony at Devil’s Island. Both for very different reasons: Dreyfus, a Jewish Artillery officer, seems to have been a victim of politics and, perhaps, anti-Semitism; Papillon was handed what was effectively a life sentence for killing a pimp. Dreyfus was very publicly stripped of his rank and there was some not unconsequential resistance* to his humiliation and draconian sentencing. When a curmudgeon warns Papillon that he can’t sit on a stone bench because it belongs to Captain Dreyfus, this is surely a reference to Alfred Dreyfus. Finally, the above photo of Dreyfus’ shack on the island looks like a frame straight out of the movie. *Theodor Herzl, assigned to report on the trial, no doubt affected, at least in part, by the anti-Semitic conspiratorial viewpoints, later formed the World Zionist Organization, “which called for the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine.” Both actors Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who, as it turns out is the  heiress to French billionaire father Gerard Louis-Dreyfus and granddaughter to Jewish French WWII Resistance figher Pierre Louis-Dreyfus (who flew 88 missions for Charles de Gaulle’s Free French Air Force)) and Richard Dreyfus claim to be descendants of Alfred Dreyfus.

Papillon Was True, Sort Of.

The other night I was wondering why, in the opening scene of the 1973 movie, would the march of French prisoners be such a heroic parade? That is, what was the import of that moment and why was it framed as such? I just couldn’t remember what the historical significance was. As it turns out, there kind of wasn’t any. Charrière, apparently, crafted his autobiography from an amalgam of stories he had heard from other convicts. What I didn’t know though, was that he was exposed as never having even done time on Devil’s Island, which the entire story is about. So, here was an earlier example of unsubstantiated writings soaring to mythical heights, later exposed as false and even later re-entering the canon as legend. There is no mention that this film was based on a true story which at least sidesteps that cliché. Still, I grew up in the shadow of these early 70s movies and this one was frequently purported to be truth. At any rate, that was a golden period of film. Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman are, of course, amazing. The movie holds up still as an epic, nearly purely visual at moments, tale of yearning for freedom and the tolls worthy of regaining it.

There does seem to be something interesting though in the connection between Papillon and Alfred Dreyfus. They both were possibly framed and sent to the penal colony at Devil’s Island. Both for very different reasons: Dreyfus, a Jewish Artillery officer, seems to have been a victim of politics and, perhaps, anti-Semitism; Papillon was handed what was effectively a life sentence for killing a pimp. Dreyfus was very publicly stripped of his rank and there was some not unconsequential resistance* to his humiliation and draconian sentencing. When a curmudgeon warns Papillon that he can’t sit on a stone bench because it belongs to Captain Dreyfus, this is surely a reference to Alfred Dreyfus. Finally, the above photo of Dreyfus’ shack on the island looks like a frame straight out of the movie.

*Theodor Herzl, assigned to report on the trial, no doubt affected, at least in part, by the anti-Semitic conspiratorial viewpoints, later formed the World Zionist Organization, “which called for the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine.” Both actors Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who, as it turns out is the  heiress to French billionaire father Gerard Louis-Dreyfus and granddaughter to Jewish French WWII Resistance figher Pierre Louis-Dreyfus (who flew 88 missions for Charles de Gaulle’s Free French Air Force)) and Richard Dreyfus claim to be descendants of Alfred Dreyfus.