'Midnight Express'
A retrospective movie review by Walter Frith
American films have dealt quite successfully with prison themes in such films as 'Cool Hand Luke' (1967), 'The Longest Yard' (1974), 'Brubaker' (1980), and 'The Shawshank Redemption' (1994). While these films are all excellent and deal with diverse subjects inside their institutions, they all have one thing in common; they are all domestic. Alan Parker's 1978 film 'Midnight Express' tells the true story of an American who was caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey in 1970 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. One of the opening scene is breathtaking. There is a pulsating sound effect of a constant heartbeat in the room where he is taping drugs to his body and upon departure, he is caught just before entering the plane by Turkish authorities and is put in jail.
Brad Davis plays William Hayes, the American in question. The story then focuses on his family and American authorities trying to facilitate his release. He attempts an escape and only makes things worse for himself. At his trial he makes a rather poignant speech in conflict with the laws and customs of Turkey and he is a criminal nevertheless and while the film does extend a look at human rights violations, the audience should never lose sight of the fact that the film's protagonist IS a criminal and that sympathy for him may be generated on a certain level but he learns a lesson he will never forget.
The brutal scenes of torture are hard to watch at times and Parker creates a dark atmosphere of terror in keeping with the film's theme. A little known fact is that the incident documented was adapted into a screenplay by Oliver Stone who won an Oscar for it and the film would earn a second trophy for the toggling and pulsating score by Giorgio Moroder.
The cast also includes John Hurt, Randy Quaid and Bo Hopkins and 'Midnight Express' is a harsh lesson in brutality that make some other prison films look pale in comparison.
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