I felt that this film lacked one or two shots to really hammer home the joy of escape. The last we see on Papillon in close-up is on the cliff. After he jumps, and as he floats, we are distanced from his personal victory, which dilutes the feeling of that victory, after all, we have followed him through thick and thin.
Washing up on shore or even his eyes as he sights land would have really helped.
in response, there wasnt much joy in escape here. He escaped earlier from the prison and made it all the way to honduras only to get extradited back to prison. So this escape to the mainland isn't a sure thing like you think it is. Prison escapes are foiled 99% of the time, so there really isnt any joy of escape until you are truly free from being hunted. Because of this I think the ending is perfect, if they did what you would have preferred, it would have undercut the entire film.
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