Papillon (1973)

Papillon: Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. With Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory, Don Gordon. A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.

“Does anyone remember the name of the medic who escapes over the wall with Papillon and Dega – is it Maturette? In any case, he may mark the first time Hollywood created a gay character – at least in a big-budget film – who is sympathetic, not stereotypical or ridiculous or treacherous, and is given his fair share of personal dignity. First, Papillon wants to prostitute him to distract a guard so that he can escape: He lets Papillon know in no uncertain terms that heu0026#39;s u0026quot;not a whoreu0026quot; and that u0026quot;Between the two of us, Iu0026#39;m the one whou0026#39;s killed a man.u0026quot; Later, he shows bravery, solidarity, and resourcefulness equal to the two leadsu0026#39;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s a fairly large role, the actor makes a strong impression, yet (almost as important) the filmmakers donu0026#39;t showcase him in a self-congratulatory way (u0026quot;Look how progressive we are!u0026quot;). Heu0026#39;s not offset by any more u0026quot;typicalu0026quot; gay characters to lessen his impact, nor, thankfully, by one of those ritual gang-rape-of-the-male-lead scenes that seem to be obligatory in prison pictures (e.g., u0026quot;The Shawshank Redemptionu0026quot;). This is all especially remarkable in that Hollywood movies at the time were still rife with abysmal gay stereotypes (see u0026quot;Play Misty for Me,u0026quot; u0026quot;The Eiger Sanction,u0026quot; u0026quot;The Producers,u0026quot; any number of others in all kinds of genres.) Iu0026#39;d love to know if this was a conscious decision by Schaffner or the screenwriters (Trumbo and Semple both had good progressive credentials, after all).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBy the way, if youu0026#39;re going to see this film, see it letterboxed – it loses much of its visual impact in a standard TV pan-and-scan format.”