Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
Steve McQueen stars as "Papillon" -- so named for the butterfly tattoo on his chest -- a Parisian thug transported to a penal colony in French Guiana in the 1930s. Based on a nominally autobiographical account published by Henri Charrière in 1969, it's the sort of harrowing story you'd expect from an autobiographical account about a decade in a notorious French penal colony.
That, I suppose, is my problem with the film: it's deeply unpleasant, and because it's real it doesn't even have the grace to follow a good narrative arc. I appreciate that the filmmakers had to drag it out for 3 hours so the audience could empathise with Papillon's 7-year stretch in solitary, but the vague "ttiumph of the human spirit" ending ain't worth the slog.