Search - Midnight Express on DVD

One of the most disturbing, yet powerful films

Neal Blitzer | 09/22/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This movie brings us into the terror that William Hayes experienced in a Turkish prison in the early seventies after attempting to smuggle hash from that country. I know after the book was published, it caused radical changes in the Turkish prison system and Turkey released many foreign nationals from incarceration. We cannot compare the Turkey of the early 1970's to the Turkey of today, which is a modern cosmopolitan environment.I think the movie wouldn't have the same affect with a lesser actor than the enormously talented, under-appreciated and late Brad Davis as William Hayes. I found that he had a boy-like innocence, and I was compelled to feel very protective of him, despite his drug smuggling. He has some Oscar caliber performances, in particular one where he goes into a pathological rage and bites the tongue off of another inmate. I have never seen such monumental fury like that on film. Another scene that gripped me was his bitter statement before the Turkish court as he is being sentenced to 30 years. Through Brad Davis, you feel this young man?s hopes, fears, anguish, terror, and rage ? the entire spectrum of emotion. You know an actor is powerful, when it only takes the look in his eyes to affect your senses. After this film came out, I was waiting for Davis to get bigger and better roles, why he didn't is baffling to me. John Hurt was actually nominated for an Oscar for this film, although he was very good, his performance could not touch that of Davis. Alan Parker deserves much credit to for his direction. The scenes in this film range from beautiful with the glorious mosques of the Ottoman Empire against the Turkish sky in the opening scene, to dark and grey as pathos sets in on our main character. Oliver Stone has a screenplay which sets the tone. Many of the scenes are in Turkish with no subtitles, but although we don?t know what they are saying, we really do; that was done on purpose since the scene was meant to convey the moment. Giorgio Moroder produced a beautiful score that reflected the wide array of emotions in this film. It is not an easy film to watch, some of the scenes are so violent and gruesome, many would turn away, but it is a harrowing story of a young man?s five year nightmare."

Movie deviates from book

Neal Blitzer | Baltimore, MD | 08/04/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I feel the movie does some good. It doesn't deny that the main charector was wrong for what he did. Remember, back in 1970, there was a more cavilier attitude towards drugs and he was dealing with the original 4 year prison sentence appropriately. But being beaten, tortured and imprisoned in a foriegn country, with limited contact with family and freinds is going to be traumatic for anyone, and the movie dispays that well.
With that said, however, I think the movie deviates WAY too much from the book. The escape first-handedly described in the book is much more fascinating and would have been better to see than the movies deviation. The ommision of some the amnesties to prisoners makes the movie fall short as well.

The movie gets the basic point of the book across, but the impact could have been stronger if it just followed the story as laid out by the first hand recollection of it."