58
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyA big, brave, stouthearted, sometimes romantic, sometimes silly melodrama with the kind of visual sweep you don't often find in movies anymore.
- 80TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazinePapillon was produced with consummate technical skill and offers brilliant acting by McQueen and Hoffman.
- 70Village VoiceAndrew SarrisVillage VoiceAndrew SarrisShaffner has really made an exhilarating movie out of the most dangerously depressing material. [10 Jan 1974, p.56]
- 60EmpireIan NathanEmpireIan NathanOne of the greatest behind-bars movies ever, the result finds director Franklin J. Schaffner making the most of both his sun-drenched locations and his leading man, who squintily acts even co-star Dustin Hoffman well off the screen.
- 60TimeRichard SchickelTimeRichard SchickelAudiences whose expectations do not exceed their grasp will find it a much more comfortable vehicle for escape than any that McQueen & Co. discover on location.
- 50Chicago ReaderChicago ReaderNo sense of complicity between filmmaker and spectator, no depth, no ambiguity, no production value spared, plenty of running time and pomposity, and a desperate sense of trying to do everything and please everybody.
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAn expensive, exhaustive, 150-mintue odyssey that doesn’t so much conclude as cross the finish line and collapse. It has been outfitted with expensive stars and a glossy production, but it doesn’t really make us care.
- 50Time OutTime OutWith Schaffner unable to find the necessary perspective to prevent the film from becoming unevenly episodic, it ends up looking as if it were tacked together by at least three different directors.
- 50The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelA methodical, pointlessly grueling movie.