Review of Midnight Express (1978) by Steve J — 24 Aug 2014

Well-made but pernicious trash. Ostensibly an adaptation of Billy Hayes's memoir of his years in a Turkish prison for attempting to smuggle hash out of the country, this film, scripted by Oliver Stone and directed by Alan Parker, plays fast and loose with some significant facts.

The result is a film that blatantly demonizes Turkey and its people, who are invariably portrayed as filthy, moronic barbarians. Moreover, they sanitize the character of Billy Hayes, showing him rejecting the homosexual advances of another inmate when in fact he accepted the seduction, and put a vile, xenophobic speech in his mouth which never took place, presumably to appeal to the American males whom the filmmakers knew would make up a majority of the film's audience.

These and other inaccuracies undermine the purpose of Hayes's story, which was to shed light on what he saw as a faulty legal and prison system in what he otherwise felt was in many ways a great country.

Hayes himself is on record as saying he was deeply disappointed with these lies and the damage they did to Turkey's image. So all this taints my judgment of the film. It wouldn't matter so much to me if it were meant merely as entertainment, but since this was intended as a social statement the embellishments and omissions cast doubt on a valid message in the minds of those who might otherwise be interested in what Hayes is trying to say.

Shame on Parker and Stone for allowing these grotesque distortions of the truth!