zlarvixen

This movie, contrary to what lots of people will say, definitely wasn't "bad". The idea was sickening as hell, and at times the acting was horrendous, but that was pretty much what the film was going to deliver. Nobody goes into this film without knowing exactly what to expect.

In my opinion, Dr. Heiter was nowhere near as intimidating as I imagined he would be. His voice definitely gave tingles, but he was only truly scary the first moments we see him escorting the girls through his house that night when their car breaks down. After the operation, he turns into a laughable character, honestly. One of the cops that came to his house near the end stared him down intensely, and suddenly he didn't seem so powerful.

In a way, the viewer almost develops a kind of Stockholm's Syndrome towards the doctor - you can't really touch on why, but you can't exactly 100% hate his character. He shows many gestures where he almost hesitates when looking at his creation, and he doesn't appear satisfied with his life. He's so cold, yet there's so much "feeling" coming out of him. He doesn't try to hide his evilness - which almost brings out a kind of human quality as a result.

Overall, Heiter seems like someone who was mistreated severely in his previous days or someone who suffered horrendous abuse which caused his mental deterioration. In many moments it is seen how he is thinking to himself quietly, he does not have the confidence that most psychopaths do. In the end, I found Laser's character far less menacing than it could be implied.

Basically about a woman, having gone to a school like MIT, who is nowhere near as smart as she looks.

Also, it feels like a child wrote this movie. Any kindergartener could have written up a plot as basic and cliche as this.

A very old motion picture indeed, this movie kept my attention precisely because it was so realistic.

There was definitely an air of self-righteousness on the part of the protagonist, as he did commit a crime in a foreign country after all. Regardless, a life sentence for an amount of hashish so small seemed quite absurd to me at the time. The antagonist who tormented him throughout the movie was also very well played out and did a terrific job of instilling the reality of depraved individuals in these sorts of occupations.

It was shot in a very graceful style, and the interaction between the different characters really had a unique tone to the whole atmosphere. The slow but certain degeneration of Hayes' character as a whole really shows what takes a toll on humanity once they are secluded to a place where they are subject to no freedom in any aspect of their lives.

On an additional note, in contrast to what most skeptics might say, in my opinion the portrayal of Turkish people in this movie was spot on. They are not a moral nor graceful people by any means, and thus should not be displayed as such. From the atrocities of the Ottoman Empire to the Armenian genocide, there is little sympathy to be had with Turkish history, especially from a Western and Christian perspective.

Midnight Express was nothing other than a film with enough courage to expose the Turkish nation for what it truly is, and how UN-European its people and culture truly are. Yet another thing I applaud this masterpiece for.