# Papillon (1973 film)

Papillon is a 1973 epic historical drama prison film about the repeated attempts of two convicts to escape the French penal colony of Devil's Island.
    Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and written by Dalton Trumbo and Lorenzo Semple Jr., based on the 1969 autobiography of Henri Charrière.

## Quotes

* As of this moment, you are the property of the Penial Administration of French Guiana. After serving your full terms in prison, those with sentences of eight years or more, will remain in Guiana as workers and colonists, for a period equal to that of your original sentences. As for France, the nation has disposed of you. France has rid herself of you altogether! Forget France... and put your clothes on.
** Commandant
* It's up to you. You're worth just as much dead as you are alive. The rule here is total silence. We make no pretense of rehabilitation here. We're not priests, we're processors. A meatpacker processes live animals into edible ones. We process dangerous men into harmless ones. This we accomplish by breaking you. Breaking you physically, spiritually, and here. Strange things happen to the head here. Put all hope out of your mind... and masturbate as little as possible. It drains the strength.
** Warden Barrot
* Hey you bastards, I'm still here.
** Papillon
* Darkness does wonders for a bad memory.
** Sergeant
* A temptation resisted is a true measure of character.
** Dega
* Blame is for God and small children.
** Dega
* If you're going to catch leprosy, it's better to catch it from money than from people.
** Toussaint
* We're really something, aren't we? The only animals that shove things up their ass for survival.
** Papillon
* Make the best of what we offer you, and you will suffer less than you deserve.
** Commandant
* If I stay – here in this place – I will die!
** Dega
* Me they can kill... You they own!
** Papillon [to Dega]
* Your five years in solitary confinement are at an end. You've paid part of your debt to France.
** Warden Barrot [to Papillon]
* Do you realize that the first man who carved a wheel out of stone used it as an ornament?
** Dega
* We've all got our sensitive spots.
** Maturette
* Did you hear about my wife? She married my attorney. Or, else, he married her. Although, actually, it doesn't really matter. I mean, it all works out to the same thing. Don't you think?
** Dega
* Papillon made it to freedom. And for the remaining years of his life, he lived a free man. This, the infamous penal system in French Guiana, did not survive him.
** Warden Barrot [last lines, voiceover]

## Dialogue

* Doctor: You're fine. Next! Dega: Must be better than I feel.
* Prisoner: I know all about you, Mr. Dega. Very intelligent man. Dega: Thank you. I seem to be known in all the wrong places.
* Dega: It seems so desperate. You think it will work? Papillon: Does it matter?
* Dega: Remember what the chicken said to the weasel? Papillon: If he was a healthy weasel, the chicken didn't get a chance to say anything.
* Judge: I accuse you... of a wasted life. Papillon: Guilty. Judge: The penalty for that is death. Papillon: Guilty... guilty... guilty.
* Toussaint: We do a lot of smuggling here. We raid the mainland. We steal boats. When an outsider comes in we generally kill him, as a security measure. Papillon: That makes sense. Toussaint: Well... a man of Christian understanding.
* Papillon: If your wife was here and you were in Paris with all of that money how much would you pay to get her back? Dega: Everything I have. Papillon: And how much would she pay to get you back?
* Clusiot: You're Louis Dega. I'm Clusiot. How come you ended up in a place like this? Dega: Favoritism.

## Taglines

* Escape is Everything!
* Welcome, to the prison colony of French Guiana, whose prisoners you are and from which there is no escape.
* After 5 years as an International Best Seller It Comes to the Screen Unquestionably The Greatest Adventure of Escape Ever Filmed
* The Greatest Adventure Of Escape!
* The greatest adventure of escape ever filmed!
* For Papillon survival was not enough... He had to be free.
* Two men with nothing in common but a will to live and a place to die

## External links

* "Papillon Script - Dialogue Transcript", Script-o-Rama