Midnight Express (film)

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This article is about the 1978 film. For the novel upon which this film is based, see Midnight Express (book).
Midnight Express

A DVD cover of Midnight Express.
Directed by Alan Parker
Produced by Alan Marshall
David Puttnam
Written by Billy Hayes (book)
William Hoffer (book)
Oliver Stone
Starring Brad Davis
Randy Quaid
John Hurt
Irene Miracle
Music by Giorgio Moroder
Cinematography Michael Seresin
Editing by Gerry Hambling
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) October 6, 1978 (USA)
Running time 121 min.
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Turkish (inarticulate)
Maltese (minimal)
Budget US$ 2,300,000
IMDb profile

Midnight Express is an Academy Award winning 1978 film, based on Billy Hayes' book of the same name adapted into screenplay by Oliver Stone. Hayes was a young American student sent to a Turkish prison for trying to smuggle hashish out of Turkey. The movie deviates from the book's accounts of the story, especially in its portrayal of Turks, to such a level that many have criticized the movie version, including Billy Hayes himself. Later both Oliver Stone and Billy Hayes expressed their regret on how Turkish people were portrayed in the movie.[1] It starred Brad Davis, Irene Miracle, Bo Hopkins, Paolo Bonacelli, Paul L. Smith, Randy Quaid, Norbert Weisser, Peter Jeffrey and John Hurt. Alan Parker directed and David Puttnam produced. The film's title is prison slang for an inmate's escape attempt.

Contents

[edit] Taglines

  • "A true story for triumph."
  • "Everyone gave up on Billy Hayes - except Billy."
  • "Walk into the incredible true experience of Billy Hayes, and bring all the courage you can!"

[edit] Synopsis

On October 6, 1970, after a stay in İstanbul, a US citizen named Billy Hayes is arrested by Turkish police, on high alert due to fear of terrorist attacks, as he is about to fly out of the country with his girlfriend. After being found with several bricks of hashish taped to his body – about two kilograms in total – he is sentenced to a relatively lenient four years and two months' imprisonment on the charge of drug possession. He is sent to Sağmalcılar prison to serve out his sentence. In the remand centre, he meets and befriends other Western prisoners. In 1974, after a prosecution appeal (who originally wished to have Hayes found guilty of smuggling and not possession), his original sentence is overturned by the Turkish High Court in Ankara, and he is ordered to serve a 30-year term for his crime. His stay becomes a living hell: terrifying and unbearable scenes of physical and mental torture follow one another, where bribery, violence and insanity rule the prison. Monstrous wardens cruelly force the prisoners to undergo the worst brutalities. Some prisoners work for the prison administration as 'informers'. In a fit of madness, Billy bites off the tongue of a prison informant who has notified the warden of his escape plan and also accused one of Billy's accomplices. In 1975, after being committed to the prison's insane asylum, Billy again tries to escape, this time by attempting to bribe the warden-in-chief. He ends up accidentally killing the warden, as the latter wanted to rape him, and Billy puts on an officer's uniform and manages his escape by walking out of the front door. From the epilogue, it is explained that on the night of October 4, 1975 he successfully crossed the border to Greece, and arrived home three weeks later.

[edit] Differences between the book and the film

There are some differences between the cinematographic and literary versions of Midnight Express.

  • In the movie, Billy Hayes is in Turkey with his girlfriend, where he was alone in the original story. In the movie, the love story is a main dramatic driving force.
  • The rape scenes are also fictional. Billy Hayes never claimed to be raped by his Turkish wardens or that he ever suffered any sexual violence. He engaged in consensual sex, which is alluded to in the film.
  • Billy Hayes never bit out anyone's tongue or engaged in the violent fight scene in which that was depicted.
  • The endings of the cinematographic and literary versions of Midnight Express differ from one another. While in the narrative, the protagonist is moved to another prison from which he escaped by sea, in the movie this passage has been replaced by a violent scene in which he unwittingly kills the warden-in-chief while the latter is preparing to sexually assault him.

[edit] Awards

The film won Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Score (Giorgio Moroder) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Stone). It was also nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (John Hurt), Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Picture.

[edit] Filming location and casting

Although the story is set largely in Turkey, the movie was almost entirely filmed in Malta, after permission to film in İstanbul was denied. Background shots of Istanbul were shot by a small crew pretending to shoot footage for a cigarette commercial. Some of the movie was also filmed in Libya.[citation needed]

[edit] Criticism

[edit] Billy Hayes interviewed

An amateur interview with Hayes appeared on YouTube (Part 1 - Part 2) recorded during the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, in which he described his real experiences and expressed his disappointment with the film adaptation.[2]

In an article for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Hayes was reported as saying that the film 'depicts all Turks as monsters'.[3]

[edit] Screenwriter's apology

When he visited Turkey in 2004, screenwriter Oliver Stone, who won an Academy Award made an apology for offenses to the Turkish people.[4]--

[edit] Reviews

Several authors criticized the movie's inaccurate portrayal of the events.

"Midnight Express is 'more violent, as a national hate-film than anything I can remember', 'a cultural form that narrows horizons, confirming the audience’s meanest fears and prejudices and resentments'".[5]

"The Turks I saw in Lawrence of Arabia and Midnight Express were like cartoon caricatures, compared to the people I had known and lived among for three of the happiest years of my life."[6]

'This story could have happened in almost any country, but if Billy Hayes had planned to be arrested to get the maximum commercial benefit from it, where else could he get the advantages of a Turkish jail? Who wants to defend Turks? (They don’t even constitute enough of a movie market for Columbia Pictures to be concerned about how they are represented)'[7]

[edit] In popular culture

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Real-life 'Midnight Express' character visits Turkey to 'make amends'".
  2. ^ Interview with Billy Hayes about 'Midnight Express' on YouTube
  3. ^ The real Billy Hayes regrets 'Midnight Express' cast all Turks in a bad light - Seattle Post Intelligencer
  4. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/dec/16/turkey.film
  5. ^ John Wakeman(ed) (1988). World Film Directors. New York: T.H. W. Wilson Co. 
  6. ^ Mary Lee Settle (1991). Turkish Reflections. New York: Prentice Hall Press. 
  7. ^ Pauline Kael (1980). When the Lights Go Down. New York: Hall Rinehart and Winston. 

[edit] External links


v • d • e
Films directed by Alan Parker

Our Cissy (1974) • Footsteps (1974) • The Evacuees (1975) (TV) • Bugsy Malone (1976) • Midnight Express (1978) • Fame (1980) • Shoot the Moon (1982) • Pink Floyd The Wall (1982) • Birdy (1984) • Angel Heart (1987) • Mississippi Burning (1988) • Come See The Paradise (1990) • The Commitments (1991) • The Road to Wellville (1994) • Evita (1996) • Angela's Ashes (1999) • The Life of David Gale (2003) • The Ice At The Bottom Of The World (2007) (in production) •
Preceded by
The Turning Point		 Golden Globe for Best Picture - Drama
1979		 Succeeded by
Kramer vs. Kramer