Midnight Express (1978)

Director:

Alan Parker

Writers:

Billy Hayes (book) and
William Hoffer (book) ...

Release Date:

6 octubre 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Biografía | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Frase comercial:

A story of triumph.

Plot:

Story of a man who is caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey and thrown into prison. Inspired from and dramatized upon a true event.

Plot Keywords:

Defense Attorney | Prison Haircut | Secret Tunnel | Corporal Punishment | Manipulating

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 13 wins & 12 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

A Contemporary "Jude Suess"

Cast

Brad Davis	...	Billy Hayes
Irene Miracle	...	Susan
Bo Hopkins	...	Tex
Paolo Bonacelli	...	Rifki
Paul L. Smith	...	Hamidou (as Paul Smith)
Randy Quaid	...	Jimmy Booth
Norbert Weisser	...	Erich
John Hurt	...	Max
Mike Kellin	...	Mr. Hayes
Franco Diogene	...	Yesil
Michael Ensign	...	Stanley Daniels
Gigi Ballista	...	Chief Judge
Kevork Malikyan	...	Prosecutor
Peter Jeffrey	...	Ahmet
Joe Zammit Cordina

También conocida como:

Expreso de medianoche (Argentina) [es]
Expreso de medianoche, El (Spain) [es]

Duración:

121 min

País:

UK | USA

Idioma:

English | Maltese | French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sonido:

Mono

Clasificación:

Iceland:16 | Germany:16 (re-rating) | Brazil:18 | West Germany:18 (original rating) | Netherlands:16 | Singapore:M18 (cut) | Spain:18 | Argentina:18 | Australia:R | Canada:18A | Chile:18 | Finland:K-18 | France:-16 | Norway:18 | South Korea:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 (video rating) (1986) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Fort St.Elmo, Valletta, Malta

Company:

Casablanca Filmworks

Trivialidades:

According to his book, Brad Davis had a drug problem of his own while promoting this film.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The "fez" hat worn by several Turkish men in the movie has been extremely rare in Turkey since 1925 when it was abolish by Kemal Ataturk (the leader and founder of the Republic of Turkey) in an attempt to "westernize" the country. This was one of the reform actions of those times.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[Susan makes her way through a line at an airline checkpoint]
Susan: Excuse me... Excuse me... Excuse me... Excuse me.
[she reaches Billy in line]
Susan: Nervous?
Billy Hayes: No.
Susan: Geez, I hate flying.
Billy Hayes: It's something I ate. I think I've been poisoned.
Susan: Or you're just excited about getting home.
Billy Hayes: No, I think it's the baklavas.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Holiday in the Sun (2001) (V)

Soundtrack:

Istanbul Blues

A Contemporary "Jude Suess"

Artistically, MIDNIGHT EXPRESS is quite well made... I do recall several media reports at the time of the film's release that led to contrary impressions, supporting the deliberate attempt by the filmmakers to do a hatchet job on the setting of this film. The first was Billy Hayes himself, when he first arrived on native soil, having pulled off his alleged escape; he said on TV, "I like the Turks...it's the prison I had a problem with" Easy to understand; few prisons are a joy ride, regardless of nation of origin. From this, I gathered he personally didn't have an animosity against the Turks, although MIDNIGHT EXPRESS goes out of its way to make everything negative about the country and culture. Only the "Western" characters are good and attractive, and the folks selected to play the Turks are corrupt, physically ugly and basically sub-human. The exterior scenes in Turkey itself have a grayish tint, implying the land is a hell-hole, and even the near-universally acclaimed cuisine gets a black eye.

The second thing from the (film's release) period I recall was a discussion on radio that claimed the prison Billy served time in was relatively modern, built in the mid-sixties... and not the Devil's Island PAPILLON setting depicted in the movie. (A 19th-Century British barracks in Malta was used for the prison.) Naturally, some artistic leeway is allowed here, since the movie's purpose is to paint a picture of a living nightmare.

I recall reading the book years ago, and when our hero got his unfair sentence, naturally he was in despair... but at that moment, he felt an almost gallant, resigned acceptance. In contrast, when Billy gave his courtroom speech in the movie (which certainly was a defining moment of the film's ill-naturedness... to quote part of the speech: "For a nation of pigs, it sure seems funny that you don't eat them! Jesus Christ forgave the bastards, but I can't! I hate! I hate you! I hate your nation! And I hate your people! And I f**k your sons and daughters because they're pigs! You're all pigs!"), the three ugly judges actually hung their heads in shame. I wonder if there's a courtroom in any nation that would permit such a prolonged and loud outburst.

The August 30th post mistakenly referred to Turkey as an Arab nation.... so the user must not have seen "Lawrence of Arabia," where the Arabs were the heroes and the Turks were the villains. It's interesting that in the rare Hollywood film where Arabs are portrayed "positively," Turks still come across as barbaric.

A Turkish-American friend has told me, contrary to what others here are thinking that the film couldn't really prejudice the viewer, that the film has achieved one of its purposes, to leave a sore, anti-Turkish taste in mouths. Keeping in mind that Americans are generally ignorant of the ways of many foreign nations, this film continues, even today, of being the only source of information most Americans have about Turkey. As cinematically effective and wonderfully made this film is, there's a disturbing side to MIDNIGHT EXPRESS that makes it mildly resemble a contemporary "Jude Suess," or THE ETERNAL JEW ("Der Ewige Jude").