Midnight Express

Midnight Express (1978)

Runtime: 121 minutes

Directed by: Alan Parker

Starring: Brad Davis, Randy Quaid, John Hurt, Paul L. Smith, Irene Miracle

From: Columbia

The movie is more than just one famous song, although to me that's the best aspect of this picture: 

Note to self: If I ever visit the country of Turkey, DO NOT smuggle drugs.

I have known of Giorgio Moroder's legendary Chase-which is actually not the theme song to the movie, despite popular belief-for years and so have I the storied pro wrestling tag team that took their name from this movie, usually used Chase as theme music, and is one of the best teams in history. Considering all that, it's a surprise I hadn't seen the movie until now.

This is based on a true story (although loosely, as I'll elaborate upon) of how in 1970, an American known as Billy Hayes was arrested in Istanbul for attempting to smuggle hashish out of the country. It was only two kilos but the Turkish courts threw the book at him and he has to spend a few decades locked up. He befriends some people there (including Randy Quaid and John Hurt) and the idea of escaping suddenly doesn't seem so bad.

Technically this is an enjoyable film as the Moroder score as a whole is great (it's more than just Chase that is memorable), the performances as a whole are fine-if devolving into histrionics at times-and there are several horrifying moments. Problem is, the script-from Oliver Stone!-is not as truthful as the book... insert your own comments about Stone if you so desire. The movie paints Turkey and the Turkish in a rather bad light due to the aforementioned horrifying moments, and apparently that is inaccurate to what Hayes wrote in his book... they were not quite so awful and there was no, ahem, prison rape going on. Hayes was not happy about that and even with the passage of time, Stone admitted that he goofed. You can imagine how Turkey reacted to this movie's version of the facts.

To me that does sour somewhat this movie, which is a shame. At least I can laugh at such things as Billy's dad being played by Mike Kellin, who I best know for being Mel, the sleazy and not too competent head of Camp Arawak in the infamous Sleepaway Camp. Also, I now know that Taken 2 was "inspired" (or more like, ripped off) this movie's ending for the way they concluded that lousy film.