Henri Charriere? Who's he? This movie is about Steve McQueen! Devils' Island? Where's that? This movie is about Hollywood! I saw this film way back when in a time where Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman were at the height of their popularity. McQueen was the typical "good looking" lead while Hoffman was part of the new wave of "serious" actors. Frankly this was all fluff and this film stands out as a example of popular reputations polluting a interesting subject for a film.<br /><br />Devils Island had been used by Hollywood as a setting in melodramatic plots not much unlike other prison films. Although his story is based on fact and has tried to bring some more gritty reality to the story, it is still a Hollywood formula film where the looking for respect "actor" but really movie star McQueen is paired with the a new wave (for the time) respectable actor but really movie star wannabe Dustin Hoffman to give it commercial appeal.<br /><br />McQueen's casting works somewhat he having a tough guy image but Hoffman's casting, again I think meant to make McQueen look good, looks sillier every day. He is just too light to be doing this part, a part someone like Edward G. Robinson would have been perfect for in his prime. Time and social changes has betrayed the phoniness of the late 60's Auteur directing and method acting as some kind of a religion school of thought. McQueen's movie star charisma has held up much better because it was a integral part of him. "Little Big Man" Hoffman's later roles such as as "Tootsie" just makes him a joke as in most famous Hollywood expression of them all: "There's ten dollars I'll never see again." <br /><br />My favorite part of the movie is when McQueen is in solitary and he tries to stop from going crazy.<br /><br />I will not go crazy! I will not go crazy! I crazy will not go! Go crazy I will not! Not crazy go not I! I wonder if the audience was as successful? By the way, how do I look? Did the warden ever keep pet mocking birds? I've got such a lovely bunch of coconuts!<br /><br />In short, McQueen and Hoffman try hard but the movie is just too long.<br /><br />Of course the biggest bunch of phonies at the time were the audience of pretentious message film as art of intellectual wannabes sitting in the cinema. A generation of baby boomer's once removed from European peasants holding City College degrees lording over the universe. Lure these self important phonies in and be pseudo socially relevant all the way to the bank. Sounds like a formula for a death camp movie, not Devils Island.<br /><br />In other words. like seeing oneself in some home camcorder production from the 70's, this film has aged as well as canned mystery meat at best.<br /><br />So there!