Had I have known what the 1973 original had truly been about, I don’t think there is any way I would have gone my entire adult life without seeing Franklin J. Schaffner’s cult classic Papillon. With that information stated, I am actually glad I never saw the original before watching Michael Noer’s (Nordvest (Northwest)) remake of the film of the same title. I went into the film fresh, with no expectations. Nor did I know a single thing about the story other than it was a prison movie. But after watching just 30 seconds of the trailer and understanding my own self that prison backdrops are often the set of some of my favorite movies, I knew I would see the film and that I would see it in the theatres. The only problem was that the critics and the lack of moviegoers were shortening my timetable. While this movie has a 76% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it has only a 54% critic rating, and its gross after two weeks is less than $2 million. Long story short, when I went to look at the possible times and theatres for when and where I could see this movie, my choices were few and far between. If I had waited even a week longer, I’m not sure that this movie would have still been in the theatres. And I have no idea why. This movie was absolutely riveting and had me engaged throughout its 133-minute runtime.
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