Midnight Express

Horrorphile

E-mail Subscription

Receive an e-mail notification of new posts on this site:

Vimu Subscription

Horrorphile - December 2007

Midnight Express

December 28th 2007 03:52

Based on the true story of Billy Hayes, a twenty-year old American who in 1970 foolishly tried to smuggle a large amount of hashish (two dozen or so thin blocks taped to his torso) out of Turkey, but was caught at the airport and subsequently spent several years in a Hellish prison before finally managing to catch the infamous “midnight express”.

Midnight Express (1978) was only director Alan Parker’s second feature after his cult debut, the gangster spoof Bugsy Malone. But it would be Midnight Express, along with the nightmarish Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982) and his horror-noir masterstroke Angel Heart (1987), which he would be most remembered for.

Malta doubling as Turkey

Midnight Express is a harrowing story. There have been plenty of great prison movies made, but none which was set amidst such dissolute and morally corrupt surroundings. The film caused a fair amount of controversy upon its release with the Turkey government condemning the film as racism and lies. It wasn’t until many years later that the real Billy Hayes returned to the country he’d escaped from to apologise to Turkey officials and explain that the movie had been unfair in its depiction of Turkey incarceration.

The bars of hash that will do Billy no good

The screenplay was written by a young Oliver Stone, several years before he’d pen the remake of Scarface or direct Salvador. Stone was an angry, coke-addled Vietnam veteran, and he had bones to pick. He took out his xenophobic frustration and rage on the Turkish people, portraying them as conniving thugs and sexual deviants. It made for an exhilarating and tense movie, but it was not true to life.

Brad Davis as cocky Billy Hayes

Only half of Billy Hayes’ story is told in Midnight Express, but it’s the most compelling part: his incarceration and his eventual escape (the book tells of his further escape traveling across the Turkish border). With brilliant use of sound (laboured breathing and accelerated heartbeat) the audience watches anxiously as Billy tries to pass without hassle through Turkish customs, onto the airport shuttle, and onto the plane. We know he’s guilty because in the movie’s opening sequence we witnessed Billy methodically wrapping large chocolate bar-sized blocks of hash in tin foil and then taping them to his body. Can a person really be that stupid? Oh yes indeed. Billy was, and he paid a dear price for it.

A dark, stinkin' customs office ain't the airplane comfort Billy was aiming for

With a pulsating score from Giorgio Moroder, sensational cinematography from Alan Parker regular Michael Seresin, and great production design (the entire film was shot on location in Malta), Midnight Express is expertly handled by director Parker. Brad Davis (who died of AIDS in the early 90s) is solid in the role of Billy, but there’s great support work from a young Randy Quaid as hotheaded Jimmy, John Hurt as junkie Max, Mike Kellin as Billy’s tortured father, Paolo Bonocelli as repulsive Rifki, and Paul Smith as the nasty prison head honcho Hamidou (Smith would go on to play Bluto two years later in Popeye). Irene Miracle actually won the Golden Globe for her role as Billy’s girlfriend Susan, despite the fact that she’s absent for a good portion of the movie (the nod probably had something to do with her teary despair and going topless in a pivotal, but rather tenuous, scene later in the movie).

Midnight Express Mike Kellin and Brad Davis

Mike Kellin as Billy's papa with his distraught son

Billy contemplates his cramped future

Nominated for countless awards Midnight Express won many of the major ones including two Oscars (Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay), the Palme d’Or at Cannes, three Baftas and six Golden Globes. Although not strictly a horror movie, it is the movie with the highest accolades that I’ve included a review of in my Pleasure of Nightmares blog (only just beating The Exorcist 1973).

Paul Smith as Hamidou the prison boss

Billy's wrath is fixed upon Rifki (Paolo Bonocelli)

Midnight Express was one of my early adult movie experiences (on VHS) and I’ve seen it several times along the way. It has aged curiously well. There's an undeniable sense of visual poetry at work. Although the violence isn’t as shocking as it was when it first came out, it is still a confronting movie. But it is also, undoubtedly, a troublesome and ill-conceived portrait of the Turkish prison system. Both original author Hayes and screenwriter Stone admit to this now; they were two men who were bitter and sought their own justice and the purging of anger through the irresponsible illustration of another country’s legalities.

John Hurt as the stoned, genteel Max

Midnight Express Irene Miracle and Brad Davis

Billy's girlfriend Susan (Irene Miracle) visits Billy and finds him at the end of his tether

On the other hand, if you take away the “based on a true story” tagline, then the movie is no more reprehensible than Hostel and its depiction of Slovakian hospitality. In the annals of horror moviemaking there’s a simple motto; if it works, flog it, and if it bleeds, flog it harder.

The face of a man who lived through Hell

Midnight Express Brad Davis and William Hayes

On set, Brad Davis and the real Billy Hayes

Here is the superbly constructed airport sequence:

Vote

Subscribe to this blog

Email this post to a friend

Go to the Orble Film Channel

Start your own blog

[ Link ]

Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

Related Posts:

Relate This Post

[ Previous - THE ART LAIR - III ]

[ Next - Black Christmas ]

Comments

19 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by JohnDoe

December 28th 2007 05:53

Film & TV on DVD

Great film, IMO the best prison film of all time...Though i do rank Cool Hand Luke, American Me, Pappillon and Blood In Blood Out

Loved the review and totally agree with your assessment.

Comment by Damo

December 28th 2007 07:41

For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics

I was too young to see R 18 plus when it came out.
When I was old enough it was no longer at the cinema.
I had to wait years for VHS because my father bought Beta.
By that time I had missed see this film.

Wow is me
Wow is me.

But I loved the soundtrack.

Comment by D. Armenta

December 29th 2007 00:55

The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan

The airport customs sequence will always be a nailbiter for me-one of the best portrayals of tension I've seen.

I have this movie in my dvd collection, but really have to be in the right frame of mind to watch; it's powerful and can be very depressing for me.

Funnily enough, I feel the same way about Pink Floyd's "The Wall"...

Comment by Damo

January 2nd 2008 08:35

For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics

DA
Don't knock The Wall.

Comment by Cibbuano

January 2nd 2008 21:17

20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak

wicked... let me track this down, along with Angel Heart...

I'm quite fond of pivotal topless scenes... someone should make a list...

Comment by Bryn

January 3rd 2008 02:13

Horrorphile

Damo, ain't no one knockin' nuthin' ....

Cibby,
Forget about Fame, The Commitments and Evita ... Midnight Express, The Wall and Angel Heart are where Alan Parker really hit pay dirt.

As for pivotal topless scenes ... I think you're the man for the job. Funnily enough I just watched Knocked Up, where the lads are working on a website that tells you which celebrities get nude in which movies and how far into the movie they shed their clothes. Pretty funny movie actually. The director, Judd Apatow, is on a roll, can he deliver a hat trick?

Comment by D. Armenta

January 7th 2008 17:27

The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan

I'd never knock The Wall, Damo..just bounce off of it once in awhile.

Comment by Anonymous

January 9th 2008 21:58

Cool movie, but a little far from the truth.. Billy didnt escape like that, he was transported to an island to a new prison.. and the escape itself ar rom the truth... for once he had to cross a big river and escape into greece..and he had actually a lot af turkish friends outside the prison also, and last...Notice that in the movis there is NOT a single turk who is a good person, that is the directors own foreign hatred at that time Oliver Stone, who just had returned from the Vietnam war full o hatred to anything not western lifestyle.

But all in all.. good entertainment with some sort of thinking to it.

Ps. another "Billy" movie not so up to date with reality is the Young Guns I & II

Really Long Link

Comment by Bryn

January 10th 2008 01:04

Horrorphile

Anon, Oliver Stone wrote the screenplay, Alan Parker directed ... most of the "hatred" came from Stone's xenophobic screenplay which compounded Billy Hayes own trauma.

Comment by nihan

July 25th 2008 10:35

i dont mind to critisim in any movie about prisons about politics anything..prisons are not good anywhere on teh world.but i consider this film as a very creepy film because of teh racist words it contains againts a nation and the racist potrait it draws to a nation.for me quality films are the ones which is more realistic.this one has nothing but a cheap and ridiculous american film

Comment by Bryn

July 26th 2008 07:40

Horrorphile

Nihan, I appreciate your opinion, but as pure cinema I think Midnight Express is superb. I never allow politics to get in the way of a good cinema storytelling ... even if isn't that accurate. Tell me, what prison movies do you rate highly, if any?

Comment by nihan

July 26th 2008 08:42

for me this film is quite far to be considered as a good cinema or not passing even 10000 km near to be pure film.it is in the same classifcation with rambo.i really laugh seeing howeasy to manipulate people with cheap films.also i suprise how possible that this film taken two prices as containing nothing but only dirty words against a nation and a racist potrait of it.i wish the world people would be more inteligente to choose really quality directors to watch but its fact that always cheap films are getting the fame and money.and some film finds supports from some politic sides as finencially and it directly effect the scenerio.propaganda.actually this poor film does not even deserve my words but anyway..

if you ask my favorittes about cinema, i like Andrei Tarkovsky,Krzysztof Kieslowski,jackques perrin,almadovar, Iñárritu,Chan-wook Park,Hayao Miyazaki and i like also Tim Burton..it goes on..
about the prison films i like Papillon.
and also i like this tv serrie Oz .
Really Long Link
its because here in Oz they don't make racism in the film against american nation but they critisize the racist gangs and the system in the american prisons..for me quality comes from sincere and clever critics not from a cheap and prejudged vision.

Comment by Bryn

July 27th 2008 23:12

Horrorphile

nihan, difference of opinion on film is what makes it so interesting as an art form. one person's high art is another person's deep trash. midnight express might be considered racist, certainly oliver stone who wrote the screenplay admits that he was harsh in his depiction of the turkey officials. i haven't read the book by william hayes on which stone based his screenplay, so i'm not sure if hayes own attitude had the same kind of vitriolism and bitter edge. but i still defend the movie as powerful story-telling, regardless of whether its politically incorrect or not. it creates an emotional reaction and it captures the dark lonely essence of prison life, regardless of the nationalities it is representing.
i admire the directors you mention, and the few episodes of oz that i've seen have been well-made. papillion is superb. have you seen ghosts of the civil dead? the shawshank redemption? both wildly different movies depicting prison life. you either love 'em or loathe 'em.
and for the record, i enjoyed the latest rambo movie for purely visceral reasons, call me sick and twisted, i don't care. the xenophobia/racism, whatever you wanna call it didn't bother me. i never saw rambo: first blood part 2 or rambo three, although i really enjoyed first blood, but rambo was fun watching as a super-violent horror movie. deep trash i'd call it.
i'm not saying midnight express is high art, but the director alan parker is by no means a stupid man, he's made some brilliant movies; angel heart, birdy, pink floyd - the wall. and oliver stone is no dumbo either, having scripted scarface and directed salvador and platoon.
it seems midnight express hit a raw nerve with you, i'm curious what other movies you feel are reprehensible, apart from rambo ... ?

Comment by nihan

July 27th 2008 23:28

if you want to see a good film about prisons in Turkey watch Yılmaz Guney Duvar.it also hardly critisses teh prisons in turkey in very hard way but at least it does not smell racism.it directly focus on the problem.i think its the difference of european vision and american vision to describe a film as succesful.american vision is more focused on the sucess of efect it leaves on the consumer.its consumer based.even teh oscar reward they give is based on the sucess on the global popularity.but in cannes the criterias are more different.its rare that cannes rewarded films are word wide famous but definetaly they has more intellectual ,objective and realistic vision in politic or sociologic subjects.i will watch the films you mentioned.thank you

Comment by nihan

July 27th 2008 23:34

director: yilmaz guney
film

uvar (the wall)

Comment by Bryn

July 28th 2008 00:28

Horrorphile

nihan, i will try and hunt down the movie you mentioned. where are you from by the way?
you sound very prejudiced against american films ...
there are some very fine american diirectors, just as there are many lame european directors ...
i love film from all over the world ... i don't think any one nation are more prejudiced than another in the way they make films.

Comment by nihan

July 28th 2008 07:33

no noooo!!i love some american films very much you are wrong.for example matrix,fight club,dog ville..all pixar animations..pls don't think in this way..
i am from Turkey hihi

Comment by Bryn

July 28th 2008 07:57

Horrorphile

okay, okay ... you are a passionate person i can tell

i'm a cinephile, i love all kinds of movies, except i don't have much time for musicals

Comment by nihan

July 28th 2008 08:29

i seee you are horror film lover

may be because i saw 'alien' when i was 7, i try not to watch them because i feel nervous after that.i saw the shining from kubrick as i am one of his fans and saw all his films.sometimes i join to my friends when they see some horror films but i think horror is too much for my nerves.. (my sister also like horror films and books very much)
i like musicals and war films too.documentaries,western..ac tually almost all kind of films as well.

anyway

take carreeee*

[ Previous - THE ART LAIR - III ]

[ Next - Black Christmas ]

Add A Comment

To create a fully formatted comment please click here.

CLICK HERE TO LOGIN | CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Name or Orble Tag

Home Page (optional)

Comments

Notify me of replies

Notify extra people about this comment

Is this a private comment?

List the Email Addresses or Orble Tags of the people you would like to be notified about this comment

One per line max of 30

List the Email Addresses or Orble Tags of the people you would like to be notified about this private comment thread. Only the people in this list will be able to see or reply to your comment.

One per line max of 30

Your Name
(for the email going out to the above list, it can be different to your Orble Tag)

Your Email Address

(optional)

(required for reply notification)

Submit

August 2008

20 Posts

July 2008

23 Posts

June 2008

23 Posts