Midnight Express (film)
Midnight Express is a 1978 prison drama film directed by Alan Parker and adapted by Oliver Stone from Billy Hayes's 1977 memoir of the same name. The film centers on Hayes (played by Brad Davis), a young American student, who is sent to a Turkish prison for trying to smuggle hashish out of the country. The film's title is prison slang for his escape attempt. The cast also features Irene Miracle, John Hurt, Bo Hopkins, Paul L. Smith and Randy Quaid.
For the 1924 film, see The Midnight Express (film).Midnight Express
Midnight Express
by Billy Hayes
William Hoffer
- 18 May 1978 (Cannes)
- 10 August 1978 (U.K.)
- 6 October 1978 (U.S.)
121 minutes
- English
- Turkish
- Maltese
$2.3 million[2]
$35 million[2]
Upon release, Midnight Express received generally positive reviews from critics. Many praised Davis's performance as well as the cast, the writing, the direction, and the musical score by Giorgio Moroder. Hayes and others criticized the film for portraying the Turkish prison men as violent and villainous and for deviating too much from the source material.[3][4]
The film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director for Parker at the 51st Academy Awards in 1979, and won Best Adapted Screenplay for Stone and Best Original Score for Moroder. It also won six Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture – Drama and BAFTA Awards for Best Direction, Best Editing and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (for Hurt).
Plot[edit]
On vacation in Istanbul, Turkey on 6 October 1970, American college student Billy Hayes straps 2 kg (4.4 lb) of hashish bricks to his chest. As he and his girlfriend Susan are about to board a plane back to the US, Billy is frisked by soldiers (who are on high alert for terrorist attacks) who discover the drug. Billy is then arrested by the police and strip-searched.
A shadowy American — whom Billy nicknames "Tex" for his thick Texan accent — arrives and accompanies Billy to a police station and translates for him. Billy claims he bought the hashish from a taxicab driver. He offers to help police locate the driver in exchange for being released. At a nearby market, Billy points out the driver to police, who arrest him, but they have no intention of releasing Billy. He attempts to escape, only to be recaptured at gunpoint by Tex.
During his first night in Sultanahmet Jail, a freezing-cold Billy sneaks out of his cell and steals a blanket. He is later rousted from his cell and brutally beaten by chief guard Hamidou for the theft. A few days later, Billy awakens in Sağmalcılar Prison, surrounded by fellow Western prisoners Jimmy (an American who stole two candlesticks from a mosque), Max (an English heroin addict), and Erich (a Swedish drug smuggler). Jimmy warns Billy that the prison is dangerous for foreigners and says no one can be trusted, not even young children.
Billy meets with his father, a US representative, and a Turkish lawyer to discuss his situation. During Billy's trial, the prosecutor makes a case against him for drug smuggling. The lead judge is sympathetic to Billy and gives him a four-year sentence for drug possession. Billy and his father are devastated, but their Turkish lawyer insists it is a good result because the prosecutor wanted a life sentence.
Jimmy wants Billy to join an escape attempt through the prison's subterranean tunnels. Billy, due to be released soon, declines. Jimmy goes alone and is caught, then brutally beaten. Fifty-three days before his release, Billy learns the Turkish High Court in Ankara has overturned his sentence after an appeal by the prosecution. The prosecutor who originally wanted Billy convicted of smuggling rather than the lesser charge of possession finally had his way. Billy has been resentenced to serve 30 years.
In desperation, Billy accompanies Jimmy and Max to try to escape through the catacombs below the prison. They give up after running into endless dead-ends. A particularly sycophantic prisoner, Rifki, who routinely acts as an informant in exchange for favors, notifies the guards about the escape attempt. Hamidou suspects Jimmy of being responsible for what happened during the first escape attempt. Jimmy is taken away again for punishment and is never seen again. Billy's imprisonment becomes harsh and brutal: terrifying scenes of physical and mental torture follow one another, and Billy has a breakdown. He brutally beats Rifki, killing him. He is sent to the prison's ward for the insane, where he wanders about in a daze among the other disturbed prisoners. Max is sent there, too. He is seen running from guards for an unknown infraction and is grabbed by Hamidou and severely injured.
In 1975, Billy's girlfriend Susan visits him. Devastated by Billy's condition, she tells him he must get out or die. She leaves him a scrapbook with money hidden inside to help Billy escape. Her visit strongly helps Billy to regain his senses. Billy says goodbye to an almost dead Max, telling him to stay alive and promising he'll come back for him. Max awakens and is somewhat conscious. Billy tries to bribe Hamidou to take him to the prison hospital, but instead Hamidou forces Billy to a room, then tries to rape him. Billy becomes infuriated. They struggle until Hamidou is killed after being pushed into the wall, his head impaled upon a coat hook. Billy dons the guard's uniform and bluffs his way with his Turkish language skills, walks out of the front door and runs to freedom.
The epilogue shows that in October 1975, Billy crossed the border to Greece and arrived home three weeks later.
Various aspects of Billy Hayes's story were fictionalized or added for the movie:
Midnight Express: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Legacy[edit]
The quote 'Have you ever been in a Turkish prison?', in the American comedy film Airplane! (1980), is a reference to Midnight Express.[35]
Susan's prison visit was spoofed in the 1996 film The Cable Guy, where Jim Carrey opens his shirt, presses his naked breast against the glass, and cries, 'Oh, Billy!'
An amateur interview with Billy Hayes appeared on YouTube,[36] recorded during the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. He describes his experiences and expresses his disappointment with the film adaptation.[37] In an article for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Hayes is reported as saying that the film 'depicts all Turks as monsters'.[38]
Giorgio Moroder's work "The Chase" is often used as bumper music on the American late-night radio talk show radio program Coast to Coast AM.[39]
In pro wrestling, several tag teams were called The Midnight Express. Original member Dennis Condrey said the name reflected how they dressed in black, drove black cars and partied past midnight. The most popular iteration, Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane, used the film's theme, "Chase", as their entrance music.
When he visited Turkey in 2004, screenwriter Oliver Stone - who won an Academy Award for writing the screenplay for Midnight Express - apologized for the portrayal of the Turkish people in the film.[3] He "eventually apologized for tampering with the truth".[40]
"Theme from Midnight Express" is sampled on J Dilla's "Phantom of the Synths", which is prominently used on "Gazzillion Ear", produced by J Dilla and performed by MF Doom, released in 2005 and 2009 respectively.[41][42]
Hayes, Stone, and Alan Parker were invited to attend a special screening of Midnight Express, with prisoners in the garden of an L-type prison in Döşemealtı, Turkey, as part of the 47th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in October 2010.[43]
Dialogue from Midnight Express was sampled in the song "Sanctified" on the original version of Pretty Hate Machine, the debut album from Nine Inch Nails; the sample was removed from the 2010 remaster, for copyright reasons.
In 2016, Parker returned to Malta as a special guest during the second edition of the Valletta Film Festival to attend a screening of the film on 4 June at Fort St Elmo, where many of the prison scenes were filmed.[6]