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.