Midnight Express

First of all im turkish and i have seen this movie for several times. I LIKE it and i simply know what other people think about this movie. If they are turkish, they simply hate the movie and tell that its giving the turkish nation a bad name. If they are not turkish then they start to think about bad things about turks. And thats normal. BUT!!!! The main problem of the movies is not that its not showing true things. The main problem of the movie is that it tells the things that happaned to the main characters happened cause he is AMERICAN. I think thats the wrong thing about this movie. If bad things happen to americans in turkish jails then bad things happen to turkish people in jails too. I dont think that they would harras someone MORE just cause he is AMERICAN. Im turkish and i know that turkish people dont hate americans, like most of the other muslim countries. Also, this movie is 20 years old. I think many things changed in Turkey in this past 20 years. Come to Turkey, then you can Judge as much as you can. truth or fiction. I! LIKE! THIS! MOVIE!

I found an old VHS tape of this film among my film collection: I don't think I've watched it for 30 years so I put it in the machine. I thought it was a strong movie with good performances and held up very well. I've always liked the music. I was amazed to read the reviews and find that the film was treated like a cinematic diatribe against Turkey and the Turkish people. The film is not about Turkey. That's simply the setting. it's no more about the Turkish people than "I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang", "Cool Hand Luke" or "The Shawshank Redemption" is about the American people.

The film works on two levels. It's about a guy who foolishly decides to ignore the laws of a foreign country and smuggle hashish from ti to make some quick money. He gets caught and confronts a series of policemen, lawyers, judges and prison guards, none of them sympathetic characters. Those are the "Turkish people" presented to him and to us. They are little different from the sort of people who would hold those jobs in any country, including ours. A couple of prisoners make comments about disliking Turks but that's because this is their experience of them. There's no implications that all of the Turkish people are like these characters. On this level the film is just a stark reminder that if you travel to a foreign country you must be aware of and obey their laws. Just because you are an American, you have no special status.

The other level of the film and the part that makes it special is the psychological. the "Midnight Express" is not a train but it's not just an escape attempt. When Billy winds up in the asylum, he gets into a battle to hold on to his mind. He doesn't want to be a "bad machine", which is the other way to escape his dismal reality. he's losing that battle when his girlfriend show up to give him hope and reason to use it. That's what the movie is really about.

It's interesting to note the comments on this movie.

I saw it on TV last night, not for the first time, and I noticed how the Turks in the film are all one-dimensional bad people, and physically ugly to boot. I also read that many of the scenes are completely fictional. I am not one of those people who think that a "true" story must be completely true; I think that the purpose of movies is to entertain, and this one certainly does that, if in a harrowing way. But, given the politics of our time, if the author of the screenplay wanted to create a demon people for dramatic effect, perhaps it would have been better to have set the story in a fictional or unidentified country.

The other observation I would make is, we are not much better than they are. We regularly sentence people to ungodly amounts of prison time for drug offenses, both on a state and federal level. Our prisons are no picnic, either, with many of the same sorts of things that were portrayed in the movie happening right here at home.

So, go check "the man in the mirror" before you condemn anyone else.

While this film is entertaining to watch and has its level of suspense at various points it is not a truly `true story' much of it according to the real Billy Hayes never happened and his eventual escape is very different from what is depicted in this motion picture. It also tends to demonize the nation of Turkey and presents a distorted view of its people. Is it possible to have sympathy for the main character? He was fully aware of what he was doing and knew the consequences should he be caught so sympathy is on an individual basis. You may have sympathy or may not.

A number of years ago a public service commercial narrated by actor Hal Holbrook frequently ran on Television, which told of Americans being held in foreign prisons. He spoke of one American held in a Turkish prison. Was it Billy Hayes? The commercial ends with the line `When you're busted for drugs over there you're in for the hassle of your life' That's the message this film was intended to send out irregardless if the events in it were true or fictionalized for dramatic purposes. As always purchase or rent a copy to see the uncut unedited version.

This movie is pretty good, but speaking as an American who has lived in Turkey, this movie is a dramatization of a true story. While Turkey certainly has its problems with corruption, this movie is hardly something one should use to form an opinion on Turkey.