Midnight Express is a
Alan Parker 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. 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.
Synopsis
On October
6, 1970, after a stay in Istanbul
, 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 four years and two months'
imprisonment on the charge of drug possession. He is sent to
Sağmalcılar prison (closed in 2008) 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, Susan comes to see Billy and is devastated at what the
guards have done to him.After being committed to the prison's
insane asylum, Billy again tries to escape, this time by attempting
to bribe the head guard, who then takes him to the sanathatyinm.
Billy screams for the guard to let him go, but the guard ignores
him. Inside the sanathatyinm, the guard totures Billy, and tries to
rape him. He ends up accidentally killing the guard, who gets his
head stuck on a coat peg which snaps off, 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.
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.
- 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, but the film depicts
Hayes rejecting the advances of a prisoner, and the warden.
- Billy Hayes never bit out anyone's tongue or engaged in the
violent fight scene that was depicted.
- The endings of the cinematographic and literary versions of
Midnight Express differ from each other. 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 head guard while
the latter is preparing to sexually assault him.
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.
The film was also entered into the
1978 Cannes Film Festival.
Soundtrack
Side A:
- Chase - Giorgio Moroder (8:24)
- Love's Theme - Giorgio Moroder
(5:33)
- Theme from Midnight Express (Instrumental) - Giorgio Moroder (4:39)
Side B:
- Istanbul Blues (Vocal) - David Castle (3:17)
- The Wheel - Giorgio Moroder
(2:24)
- Istanbul Opening - Giorgio
Moroder (4:43)
- Cacophoney - Giorgio Moroder
(2:58)
- Theme from Midnight Express (Vocal) - Chris Bennett (4:47)
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 Istanbul was denied. Background shots
of Istanbul were shot by a small crew pretending to shoot footage
for a cigarette commercial.
However, ending credits of the movie state: "Made entirely on
location in Malta and recorded at EMI Studios, Borehamwood by
Columbia Pictures Corporation Limited 19/23 Wells Street, London,
W.I. England."
Rating
Motion Pictures
Association of America rated the film "R".
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Film and
Broadcasting gave it "L" rating, advising viewing only by a
limited adult audience, citing violence and sexual
references.
The making of the film: I'm Healthy, I'm Alive, and I'm Free, was
released in 1977.
Critical reception
The film was generally well-received by critics. At the film review
aggregator site
Rottentomatoes, 94%
of film critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 17
reviews.
There were negative criticisms as well, mainly focusing on its
alleged unfavorable portrayal of the Turkish authority and the
Turks. In Mary Lee Settle's book
Turkish Reflections, it
states, "The Turks I saw in
Lawrence of Arabia and
Midnight Express were like cartoon caricatures, compared
to the people I had knownand lived among for three of the happiest
years of my life."
When the Lights Go Down criticizes the
film as well, saying"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)". One reviewer writing for
World Film
Directors wrote, "
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'".
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 experiences and
expressed his disappointment with the film adaptation.
In an article for the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
Hayes was reported as saying that the film 'depicts all Turks as
monsters'.
Screenwriter's apology
When he visited Turkey in 2004, screenwriter Oliver Stone, who won
an
Academy Award for the film, made
an apology for the portrayal of the Turkish people in the
film.
See also
Notes
External links
- Midnight Express truth revealed by Alinur ( Part
1 - Part 2): Interview with Hayes about the movie
at YouTube.