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Midnight Express - Tony H - 12-28-2011
Because I have watched "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" several times, Netflix apparently thinks I like movies about people being detained against their will. This includes films about institutionalization "Girl, Interrupted" and films about home invasion and now prison films.
Midnight Express is from the 70's I believe and I had never seen it, but damn...it is creepy enough to keep me from wanting to get locked up in a Turkish prison.
It is brutal, horrifying and based on a true story. The acting is top notch, the story of attempting to escape makes for an intense thriller and the tale of surviving under extreme conditions makes for great drama. It's many genres rolled into one but it is never boring and packs quite an emotional punch as well.
Has anyone else seen this?
Midnight Express - cobalt - 12-28-2011
I saw it years ago. Yeah...it's brutal, that's an exact description of it.
Midnight Express - The Mad American - 12-28-2011
Tony H Wrote:Because I have watched "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" several times, Netflix apparently thinks I like movies about people being detained against their will. This includes films about institutionalization "Girl, Interrupted" and films about home invasion and now prison films.
Midnight Express is from the 70's I believe and I had never seen it, but damn...it is creepy enough to keep me from wanting to get locked up in a Turkish prison.
It is brutal, horrifying and based on a true story. The acting is top notch, the story of attempting to escape makes for an intense thriller and the tale of surviving under extreme conditions makes for great drama. It's many genres rolled into one but it is never boring and packs quite an emotional punch as well.
Has anyone else seen this?
Yeah I have seen this, and very horrifying. I may be incorrect but it seems it won some awards when it came out. And the phrase "Worse than a Turkish Prison" must have originated from this movie.
I actually really liked this movie for the same reasons you mentioned. very good acting and really horrible story. Add to that it is based on a true story and yikes.
The beginning when he is trying to smuggle made me so freaking anxious, I remember that vividly. I think I was sweating as much as he was. When I used to have to travel to foreign countries for my job and I was heading to airport security I always thought of that scene. Don't ask me why because I was never trying to smuggle anything out but it always popped into my head. Especially when I would be "detained" for additional questioning.
Midnight Express - Tony H - 12-28-2011
The Mad American Wrote:Yeah I have seen this, and very horrifying. I may be incorrect but it seems it won some awards when it came out. And the phrase "Worse than a Turkish Prison" must have originated from this movie.
I actually really liked this movie for the same reasons you mentioned. very good acting and really horrible story. Add to that it is based on a true story and yikes.
The beginning when he is trying to smuggle made me so freaking anxious, I remember that vividly. I think I was sweating as much as he was. When I used to have to travel to foreign countries for my job and I was heading to airport security I always thought of that scene. Don't ask me why because I was never trying to smuggle anything out but it always popped into my head. Especially when I would be "detained" for additional questioning.
You should read reviews with the real guy on whose account the book and film were based. Billy Hayes. He said the film made all Turkish people look bad and he said he loves the people as a whole, he just hates their court and prison system. Also, interestingly enough, he said in real life he had smuggled drugs out of the country 4 times prior to getting busted on his 5th trip. He said he deserved to be in jail for possession, but not a life sentence that was handed to him.
He seems like an interesting guy though and even apologized to the people of Turkey for the affect the film had on the decline of tourism to the country. He returned for the first time in 2007 and publicly apologized.
Midnight Express - Medusa - 12-28-2011
I never saw this one but it brings to mind a movie (might have been a TV movie) that I saw back in the 70's or 80's that was similar. Maybe someone here can tell me what it is.
A young man (college student I think) is talked into trying to smuggle drugs out of Turkey by some other guy. They both are caught at the airport because the kid is all sweaty and nervous and the guards all catch on. In the movie drug smuggling is a death sentence and the whole rest of the movie is his mother coming to Turkey and talking to US reps and stuff to get her son out of the death sentence. I thought the mother was played by Julie Christie but when I look her up on IMDB nothing like this comes up. In the end both the guys were put to death and the mother had to live with that. That's all I can remember of it.
Any suggestions?
Midnight Express - Scott Miller - 12-28-2011
One of the first R-rated movies I ever snuck into. At the time I was expecting an action flick so I was disappointed but saw it again a few later and thought it was pretty damn scary. Isn't it one of Oliver Stone's first films as a director?
Midnight Express - PicardRex - 12-29-2011
Tony H Wrote:Because I have watched "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" several times, Netflix apparently thinks I like movies about people being detained against their will. This includes films about institutionalization "Girl, Interrupted" and films about home invasion and now prison films.
Midnight Express is from the 70's I believe and I had never seen it, but damn...it is creepy enough to keep me from wanting to get locked up in a Turkish prison.
It is brutal, horrifying and based on a true story. The acting is top notch, the story of attempting to escape makes for an intense thriller and the tale of surviving under extreme conditions makes for great drama. It's many genres rolled into one but it is never boring and packs quite an emotional punch as well.
Has anyone else seen this?
I remember watching this movie as a kid, that'll tell you something about me right there, I was haunted by it for pretty much the rest of my life. The insane asylum part was the thing that did it, I don't know why, but for years afterwards I dreamed myself in Billy's position. Having recently watched it, I can now appreciate it for how well done it is and not just for the haunting memories that it left me with.
Upon investigation of the movie, I have a tendency to do that with movies I like, it turns out, surprise surprise, that some of it was fictionalized for the movie. As you may or may not know, it was based on a book by Billy Hayes about his stay in the prison. Most of the movie is fairly accurate, 3 major differences though stick out, which supposedly made Hayes disappointed with the film. First, there was no rape attempt, nor real mistreatment by the guards, which was one of the things which made the movie so contraversial as it was viewed as a anti-Turkish movie. Secondly, he engaged willingly, in homosexual sex, I suppose the studio figured the audiences weren't ready for that yet. Lastly, the prison he escaped from wasn't the same prison depicted in the movie, he was transferred and escaped from the second prison.
All that being said, I find the movie to be an interesting film.
Midnight Express - Kenji - 12-29-2011
I also saw this movie, a loooooooong time ago. When I was teenager, maybe...?
And I think "women version" Midnight Express is Brokedown Palace. Thailand's prison also horrifying.
Midnight Express - Tony H - 12-29-2011
Scott Miller Wrote:One of the first R-rated movies I ever snuck into. At the time I was expecting an action flick so I was disappointed but saw it again a few later and thought it was pretty damn scary. Isn't it one of Oliver Stone's first films as a director?
Oliver Stone wrote the screenplay, I don't think he directed it though.
Midnight Express - The Mad American - 12-29-2011
Scott Miller Wrote:One of the first R-rated movies I ever snuck into. At the time I was expecting an action flick so I was disappointed but saw it again a few later and thought it was pretty damn scary. Isn't it one of Oliver Stone's first films as a director?
Tony H Wrote:Oliver Stone wrote the screenplay, I don't think he directed it though.
Yep, Stone did the screenplay but Alan Parker directed it. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077928/
I actually think Oliver Stone was a much better writer than a director.