Midnight Express (1978)

Directed by: Alan Parker | 121 minutes | biography, crime, drama, thriller | Actors: Brad Davis, John Hurt, Randy Quaid, Irene Miracle, Bo Hopkins, Paolo Bonacelli, Paul L. Smith, Norbert Weisser, Mike Kellin, Franco Diogene, Michael Ensign, Gigi Ballista, Kevork Malikyan, Peter Jeffrey, Joe Zammit Cordina, Yashaw Adem, Raad Rawi Tony Boyd, Zannino, Mihalis Giannatos, Vic Tablian, Ahmed El Shenawi

‘Midnight Express’ is a famous and infamous prison film by Alan Parker, with a screenplay by a young, debuting Oliver Stone. It is an intense, technically successful and well acted film, which, however, provoked a lot of protest – especially in the Netherlands, where an attempt was made to ban the film – because of the one-sided, negative exposure of the Turks. Despite these kind of justified comments, however, the dramatic film experience is very effective and the film has lost very little of its power over the years. ‘Midnight Express’ is still an impressive film.

The film is based on the biographical book “Midnight Express” by Billy Hayes, about his own experiences in a Turkish prison from the moment he wanted to smuggle drugs into America. It’s certainly not a 100% authentic adaptation from Parker and screenwriter Stone, though. For example, two extreme acts of violence on the part of Billy never took place in reality, the ending was very different from what is shown in the film and he has been in different prisons (instead of one large complex, as in the film). He also never made an abusive speech in court calling the Turks pigs, nor is it true that all the Turks Billy encountered were evil or corrupt. In fact, he had several Turkish friends in prison and while the chief guard was a sadist, Hayes had no problem with most of the guards and they were just civilized people doing their job. Hayes himself has made this known regularly in interviews in response to criticism of the film.

The film has done a lot of damage to tourism in Turkey and Billy Hayes has been persona non grata in the country for a long time. The resistance from the Turks was, and is, understandable, but a truly racist film cannot be called ‘Midnight Express’ as everything has to be seen in the context of the narrative perspective and the message of the film. After all, the film is set in the hostile, usually inhospitable environment of a prison and, moreover, it is the intention that the viewer identifies with the main character, who (of course) experiences everything as threatening and oppressive. Still, the speech in court is a bit too much of a good thing. Even though you could imagine Hayes (verbally) beating himself up when he hears that he has to do another 30 years after serving nearly five years in prison, it’s still an extremely awkward scene and doesn’t sound like anything what Hayes would have said. Director Parker also admits in the extras with the blu-ray that he was a somewhat naive filmmaker at the time and would have done things differently in the meantime.

‘Midnight Express’ is in part, at least from the point of view of screenwriter Oliver Stone, a film that should clarify something about the legal systems of certain (non-Western) countries, and the extent to which they are really fair. In the case of Billy Hayes, you could speak of disproportionality. A thirty-year sentence for possession of two kilos of hashish seems to be a bit excessive. Billy Hayes, however, had the misfortune that he was just caught in a period when the Turkish government wanted to set an example for political reasons in their fight against (international) drug trafficking. So normally Hayes would most likely have been released after five years. On the other hand, Hayes would have been lucky in that case, because, as it turns out, he was playing with fire even more than the movie suggests. Hayes later admitted that he had already smuggled drugs from Turkey to America three times before this conviction. In that light, we can’t really feel sorry for the “real” Hayes. The Billy Hayes from the movie is a slightly different story, though he also does several stupid things. Thus, apart from the aforementioned missteps, it is not smart of him to immediately try to flee when he has just promised to help the police in catching the Turkish supplier (which could possibly exonerate him). But the sentence of thirty years remains unjust in the situation of the (fictional) Billy Hayes from the film and on this individual, personal level the film works best.

The way ‘Midnight Express’ works is like a movie showing how humans behave in extreme conditions. How flexible a man’s will can be and how strong the perseverance, but also what it takes to shatter a man’s hopes. How injustice – both within the “social” environment of the prison as well as from within the justice system as a whole – causes people to revolt mentally, and often physically. Billy, for example, keeps it up for quite some time and is quite obedient, but when good friend Max (and great role of a young John Hurt) is framed by a snitch, Billy (finally) blows the whistle. He himself, in short, can endure much, but if his friend is wronged, it is unbearable.

The film also shows once again how important friendship and love are for the survival of hope, and how important hope is in itself. Male love is common in prison, including among straight people, and Billy also clearly needs affection and tenderness, even if it comes from a fellow (male) inmate. They are beautiful, sincere moments (it’s just a bit of a shame that the Billy from the film makes it very emphatically clear in the end that he doesn’t want to go all the way and is really a full-blooded straight). This need for love, friendship, and contact for survival is reflected in many prison films. For example, even though Andy Dufresne, “Papillon”, and Rubin “Hurricane” Carter (from ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ and ‘The Hurricane’) only seem to be able to resolve and survive by the power of their own minds, they ultimately need friendship to get through it. In ‘Midnight Express’, the friendship between Billy, Max, and Jimmy (Randy Quaid) is also one of the most enduring elements that keeps the film going. And of course the gruesome context of the barbaric prison makes it all extra powerful and harrowing. It becomes all the more sad when Billy’s girlfriend (whom he didn’t have in real life) comes to visit in the last act of the film and he has become a pathetic little man, who would so much like to make love to her again, but this probably never will again.

‘Midnight Express’ doesn’t hold up very well when it comes to reading a message about the cruelty or injustice of foreign legal systems, but from the personal perspective described above ‘Midnight Express’ is a successful, intense film, with (at the time) unique and emotionally gripping electronic music by Giorgio Moroder (who sometimes comes to the fore a bit too much), innovative heart palpitations in the soundtrack, appropriate sets and camera work, and excellent actors. With a little more “balance” it could have been an outright classic.