This is the once famed "Turkish Prison" movie, bain of the Istanbul tourist board. I was aware of this from a pretty young age, it used to be referenced in pop culture a fair bit, today you never hear about it. Gen Z knows not 'Midnight Express'.
This is the true story of Bill Hayes, at 23 he was arrested for trying to smuggle 4 lbs of hashish out of Turky. This was in 1970. Originally sentenced to around 3 years in prison, 53 days before he was to be released his sentence was upped to 30 years. A higher court wanted to set an example, the lower court judge (one of the few Turkish characters to come off reasonably well) was forced to comply. Bill would eventually escape from prison in 1975, come back to the Sates and write the book on which this movie is based.
The movie is mostly slow periods mixed with moments of brutality and horror. There is a real sense of helpless dread to the piece. Brad Davis plays Hayes, he's not the strongest actor but he conveys Bill's torments effectively. John Hurt and Randy Quaid play two of Bill's fellow inmates, they are likely the only actors in the film you'll recognize.
'Express' did tremendously well at the box office, taking in $35 million off a $2.3 million budget. It won two Oscar's, Best Adapted Screenplay for Oliver Stone, and best score for Giorgio Morodor, an Italin born composer who did other film scores, most memorably for 'The Neverending Story', but made his greatest mark as a composer and producer of popular music, earning him the honorific "The Father of Disco". ***
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