Midnight Express – 1978
I have to say, I am pretty conflicted about Midnight Express. There were some things that I liked very much, things that I thought were incredibly well done. But there were just as many things that I didn’t like at all. The movie had the potential to be incredibly good, but it too many problems that I couldn’t get past.
The film took itself way too seriously, trying to present itself as a deep, hard-hitting drama about a young man who is forced to endure unbelievable hardships! He survives and triumphs! It’s based on a true story! It’s a film that pulls no punches! It will change your life forever! Well… not really, but it will be incredibly offensive to Turkish people and the Turkish nation. The film had no subtlety at all, and was pretty heavy-handed, clobbering you over the head with its own self-importance. And the overtly 80s style synth score, especially the crappy rock-inspired stuff at the beginning of the movie, was ridiculous.
It sounds like I have a lot of complaints, but as I said, there were just as many good things that I liked very much. The subject matter was pretty heavily dramatic and there was some very good acting. The ending was interesting and took a turn I didn’t expect. It also had a couple of actors who I like.
The film was about Billy Hayes. Billy, played by Brad Davis, is a young man who did a really dumb thing while visiting Turkey. While leaving the country, he tried to smuggle 2 kg of hash through customs. He was caught and tried in the Turkish court system. He was convicted and sentenced to 4 years in prison, with the hope of a reduced sentence if he behaves himself, which he does, even though he is mentally abused and physically tortured.
He makes friends with an American inmate, Jimmy Booth, played by Randy Quaid, and a heroin addicted British inmate named Max, played by John Hurt. Together, the three of them dream of escape. The filthy and unsanitary conditions in the prison would be enough to drive anyone crazy. But it was the prison snitch and the head guard that made their lives a real hell. The snitch was a disgusting man named Rifiki, played by Paolo Bonacelli. He took care of most of the mental abuse, depriving people of food, blankets, and dignity. He would also watch for any misbehaving and report it to the head guard, Hamidou, played by Paul L. Smith. Hamidou would administer the physical torture. The scene where Billy is strung up by his ankles while Hamidou caned the souls of his feet was hard to watch.
Eventually, when his sentence is nearly complete, Billy learns that his sentence has been changed, and he is suddenly facing a 30 year sentence. He loses his mind and murders Rifiki in a very gruesome battle, biting out his tongue. He is transferred to a ward for the criminally insane. He loses what is left of his sanity. To make a long story short, Billy’s family smuggles him money and he tries to bribe Hamidou to get him transferred to a low-security ward. Instead, Hamidou tries to rape him. Billy kills the evil guard, steals his uniform, and escapes.
My biggest problem with the film is that it didn’t show a single example of a Turk who wasn’t evil or corrupt. It portrayed them all as monsters. As we all know, this is a complete fiction. Even the film’s director, Alan Parker, said that the script, which had once been based on the memoirs of the real Billy Hayes, held little of the true story that it had once been. One little change after another, after another, after another, produced a film with very little truth in it.
Apparently, one of the biggest offenders of making changes to the plot, was the script writer, Oliver Stone. For example, the whole attempted rape, murder, and escape scene was a complete fiction. In reality, Hayes was moved to another prison on an island from which he eventually escaped, by stealing a dinghy and rowing 17 miles in a raging storm across the Sea of Marmara. But I guess that wasn’t dramatic enough for Stone.
But the performances from Davis, Smith, Quaid, and Hurt were good. Davis really seemed to throw himself into the role. The part where Billy learned of his increased sentence and denounced all of Turkey as a nation of pigs was pretty dramatic. But like I said, it lacked any kind of subtlety and was as unapologetic as a sledge hammer.