FAQ

The script made several deviations from the book:

* The ages of Papillon and Dega are radically changed from book to film: in the book, Papillon is "25 years-old, looking 20" and Dega is 42. Dega is a bit younger in the film, and Papillon appears much older. * It dramatizes the role of men hired to hunt down escaped prisoners. * Papillon's imprisonment before sailing to French Guiana is not depicted in the film, nor is his trial. * Papillon knew Dega well before boarding the transport to South America. They had agreed to protect each other while waiting in prison. * Dega was not included in the first escape attempt. * Dega is portrayed as also being imprisoned on Devil's Island. In the book, he is imprisoned on another of the Îles du Salut, but never Devil's Island. * Papillon's ultimate escape is somewhat changed; the film ends with his escape from Devil's Island to the mainland, without covering his subsequent escape from the penal colony (bagne) itself to eventual freedom in Venezuela. * Admonitions against masturbation occur only once in the film, while in the novel, they are quite frequent. * Henri Charrière's real name is not revealed in the movie, as he is only known as "Papillon." The real name of the character is however depicted on the door of his cell during solitary confinement. (wikipedia) *Papillon had no butterfly tattooed on his chest he had a tiger tattooed on the chest and he tattoos the Indian chief with a tiger not a butterfly.

OTHER NOTES: Many of the secondary characters i.e. the people who escape or attempt to escape with Papillon did exist but are also composites of other characters. In the book, Papillon meets many inmates and the movie had to lessen them, because it's a movie lasting two-hours not hundreds of book pages. The homosexual inmate doesn't die in real life, and in fact winds up free a decade later, as noted by the author. And Dustin Hoffman was given the buddy/sidekick role so Dega's part was expanded greatly, including, as noted above, the fact he didn't attempt to escape and never wound up on Devil's Island. So while this is a Buddy Film so to speak, it's not a Buddy Novel.