Midnight Express
I'm not a big fan of old movies, but this one has significantly changed my opinion.
Midnight Express is a American-British Turkish movie published in 1978, directed by the Alan Parker, and produced by David Puttnam, and starring Brad Davis, Irene Miracle, Bo Hopkins, Paolo Bonacelli, Paul L. Smith, Randy Quaid, Norbert Weisser, Peter Jeffrey and John Hurt.
It is based on Billy Hayes' (his story broke my heart) 1977 non-fiction book Midnight Express (I am so looking to read it soon) and was adapted into the screenplay by Oliver Stone.
Billy was a young American student sent to a Turkish prison for trying to smuggle hash (hashish) out of Turkey.
He was at the airport in Turkey, and there were the policemen checking the passengers. He was sweating all the time when the policeman was checking his bag, and this is an evidence that Billy is so innocent guy. Then by chance the policeman let him go because he found nothing in his bag, so Billy at that moment felt so happy, but things happened after that.
He took a bus, and while the driver was driving the bus, he stopped because there was policemen checking the cars, and the people.
Billy's heart was beating so fast like a child.
The policeman asked the passengers to get out of the bus to check them, so they all did what he asked expect Billy. He stayed there and hid himself but the policeman saw him and caught him.
While the policemen were checking Billy's bag, and clothes, they found the hash surrounding his chest, so they arrested him,
They cut his hair, hit him so hard, made him feel in deep pain physically and emotionally, made him stand for hours naked.
He was so honest to them, even he was hiding another plastic bag of hash in his shoe, so he gave them everything he was hiding.
In the prison he met a lot of bad people. Terrorists, killers, drug dealers, and so many criminals were in that prison, and many of them don't speak his language.
But he also met good ones, and
people who took care of him and
spoke his language.
But he also met good ones, and
people who took care of him and
spoke his language.
The jailor left him without a blanket or anything that can warm him; he was feeling so cold.
The jailor treated him so badly, and unfairly. And this film shows us how bad the prisons were at that time in Turkey.
They may kill people for no reason, without any mercy for them, this think made him all the time feel so sad, and broken inside.
He tried to escape from the prison many times but he failed, and caught by the jailers many times.
In the prison an homosexual man felt in love with Billy, and they kissed each other after a shower but then Billy left him in the shower after kissing because I think he was confused.
They tried many times to flee from the prison together, and they put good plans, but they couldn't.
In this picture Billy and his friends were trying to put a good plan for fleeing from the prison. And that plan was really good, but one of the prisoners told the jailor about them which made Billy so mad at him, so he hit him so much, and made the blood fill his face.
In 1975 Billy's girlfriend Susan came to visit him. She told him that he has to escape or else he will die in there for ever.
He visit moves Billy strongly. He says Goodbye to his friend Max telling him not to die,and promising him to come back for him.
He bribes the jailor Hamidou into taking him to sanitarium, where there are no guards. Instead Hamidou takes Billy past to sanitarium to another room, and prepares to rape him.
Fighting back Billy kills Hamidou by pushing him backwards. He seizes the opportunity to escape by putting on a guard's uniform, and walking out of the front door.
In the epilogue, it is explained that on the night of October 4, 1975 he successfully crossed the border to Greece, and arrived home three weeks later.
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