Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!
We're taking a trip to the late 70s to look at a harrowing film that was controversial for its less than truthful version of real-world events but nonetheless considered an effective prison drama, Alan Parker's Midnight Express, starring Brad Davis, John Hurt and Randy Quaid. Based on Billy Hayes' 1977 memoir about his experiences in, and escape from, a Turkish prison, the screenplay was written by the ever-sensationalistic Oliver Stone, winning him his first Oscar.
In 1970, Billy Hayes attempts to smuggle a couple kilos of hashish out of Turkey, gets caught, gets convicted and sentenced to four years, and stays on his best behavior under the assumption he'll get out in three. But the Turkish courts, under pressure by the Nixon administration, come down exceptionally hard on drug smugglers and Billy's original sentence gets thrown out in favor of a thirty-year stint. His objective now becomes taking the "midnight express," or escaping prison.
First the positives. The film is gorgeously photographed by Michael Seresin, who provided the signature Alan Parker backlit look, similar to that of Ridley and Tony Scott, lending weight and atmosphere to the bleak storytelling. A later passage in particular when Billy is transferred to the wing for the criminally insane is bathed in shadows and diffused light, immersing us in his hopelessness. Shot in actual locations in Malta, this movie feels quite authentic and we feel very much out of our element.
The performances are over-the-top but effective overall. Brad Davis is rather dimwitted but oddly charismatic as Billy; even though we know he's guilty of the crime and shouldn't get special treatment thanks to his father being a US Congressman, we still feel for his plight. Surely pulling a bait-and-switch less than two months from the end of an already served sentence to tack on thirty more years is a draconian act, no? Randy Quaid swings for the fences as Jimmy, another American prisoner whose only crime was stealing two candlesticks from a mosque. His unhinged performance falls just shy of parody and would feel at home in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. John Hurt gives the film's best performance as Max, a heroin addict who's all but succumbed to his own despair but for his few human connections and a stray cat he's taken in.
Now for the not-so-positive. As I said, Midnight Express was well-received overall at the time of its release, but many critics and the real Billy Hayes himself took issue with the portrayal of the Turkish characters. We only get to know them as detached judges and lawyers, a conniving prisoner named Rifki who has no problem ratting out his fellow inmates in exchange for special favors from the guards, and one particularly sadistic guard played by Paul Smith, who takes pleasure in abusing the prisoners. Oliver Stone would later apologize for both the borderline racist portrayal of the Turkish characters and also for straying from the book's truthful depiction of events. Regarding the latter, he'd outdo himself of course in his scripts for The Doors and JFK.
So the question becomes, do the film's positives outweigh its negatives? On the whole I would say yes. The filmmakers set out to create a punishing cinematic experience, plunging the audience into the trauma of being imprisoned in a foreign country (the Turkish dialogue isn't translated for us, thus we're as disoriented as Billy), to share his fear, his pain, and his despair. And they've done so very effectively, at times, apparently, at the expense of an accurate narrative. Yes, Billy committed a crime, and yes he was stupid for even attempting it, but the film does such a good job of putting us in his shoes we get swept up in the experience with him. It's not the life-affirming magic act that is The Shawshank Redemption, but this film is exceedingly well-made.
I'll give Midnight Express ***1/2 out of ****.
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