Thread: Name That Film!

This has bugged me for years. I can't figure out/find the name of a movie I watched one lazy summer afternoon years ago. So I started a thread!

Let's crowd-source, & pool together some trivial knowledge! Anybody else got a real stumper?

******!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!******

On to mine. I'll try to recall as much pertinent detail as possible, it was at least a decade ago when I saw this movie on either network t.v. (most likely) or basic cable. It stared Daniel Craig (yep, the most recent Bond) as a prisoner/convict of some sort. Sadly, I didn't catch the first 5-15min of it to know why he was there (or the NAME OF THE BLASTED FILM!).

Anywho. It's basically on a British Alcatraz, not modern, but not colonial/American Revolution either. It's one of those "one way in, one way out" sort of prisons. Despite this, his character tries to escape several times, and he also gets in trouble for getting a slight bit more food stuffs from someone he's chummy with (prisoner on lighter restrictions, or paroled & got job with supplier to the prison?). Various forms of punishment are doled out as a result; one of those "they can't break me" characters. The final one, IIRC, was solitary confinement... indefinitely. Before he is taken to where keys are thrown away, the commandant or warden tells them there is no hard labor, no exercise, and barely enough rations to sustain life. He even tells them they should not masturbate, because they can't afford such a waste of energy. I've mucked up the exact wording, but I'm not kidding about that part being in the movie. Maybe the "inescapable island" part came towards the latter act of the movie, where the super-solitary happens.

Sorry if this lacks a coherent flow. Did I mention it was like a decade ago? Lol.

Anyway... so when the prisoners in solitary for life are too feeble to put up much of a fight, they get moved into these geezer cottages with like an acre or two of land where they are allowed a garden to supplement their still meager rations.

This gives Daniel Craig, aged to look 50-70, time to watch the ocean that surrounds them, and the waves that never stop, and never wash away from the island. After much time, he works out the timing of the tide & waves & makes his escape with a bunch of coconuts in a net as a raft. That's pretty much the very end of the movie.

Craig's acting was excellent. That's likely the only reason this movie has stuck in my A.D.D. riddled head. Obviously, I'm not great with names. But when I saw him play Bond for the first time, I was like "Holly ! It's that guy from that movie I saw that one time!"

There is no trace of it, anywhere! I've tried lots of searches on lots of sites over lots of years. Craig is the lead, but this movie is not on ANY list of his work. WTF! Will it break the internet if somebody posts the film title here?? I dunno. I just want this answered.

Go to IMDb - Movies, TV and Celebrities - IMDb
Look up his name.
Done.
Your Welcome.

Originally Posted by Chevhead

Go to IMDb - Movies, TV and Celebrities - IMDb
Look up his name.
Done.
Your Welcome.

Originally Posted by Crawler

...There is no trace of it, anywhere! I've tried lots of searches on lots of sites over lots of years. Craig is the lead, but this movie is not on ANY list of his work. ...

Been there. Done that.

It kinda sound a bit like Papillon (1973) but that one is with (a fantastic performance by) Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, no Daniel Craig.

You've described the movie "Papillon". It was made in the early Seventies and starred Steve McQueen (who you may have mistaken for Daniel Craig) and Dustin Hoffman
Papillon (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wow. Thanks for that. As far as I can tell from the wiki link, that's the movie!!!

I figured it was older than a Daniel Craig movie, but my memory of faces isn't the best, I suppose. Now, to hunt it down & watch it again! And this time, not "edited for time and content".

Thanks again. About every year or so, I would have a week or two with "waves" of momentary insanity when this film would pop into my head, and I would desperately try to remember details and faces. Lol!

You should definitely watch it again. It is brilliant and one of my favorite movies. So much so that I gave it a very rare 10/10 on IMDb.

The film was OK but could not cover all the aspects of the true story of Henri Charriere and other French (not English) prisoners on Devil's Island. The book describes how the McQueen character escaped on several occasions including one spell of living with Indians and fathering a child. In the film, this episode is inaccurate in that he wakes one morning to find the tribe has moved on without him - in the book it's him that moves on having become bored with the Indian way of life.

Although it's over 30 years since I saw the film, I distinctly remember the closing scene involving the sea escape - you can clearly see a scuba diver dragging the raft with McQueen on top.

One other inaccuracy of the film - and without wishing to deride the attractions of south-American Indian females - in the film they are portrayed by females more similar to Tahitian or Hawaian - a considerable improvement and one that may have tempted Henri to stay in my opinion.

Yep Steve McQueen , in Papillion, tc