Title: Midnight express /
Authors: Parker, Alan, 1944-2020; Puttnam, David, 1941-; Marshall, Alan, 1938-; Stone, Oliver,; Moroder, Giorgio; Davis, Brad, 1949-1991,; Hurt, John, 1940-2017; Miracle, Irene,; Quaid, Randy, 1953-; Bonacelli, Paolo, 1939-; Hopkins, Bo,; Columbia Pictures; Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection.
Year: 1978
Subjects: Hayes, Billy.; Imprisonment; Escapes; Prisoners Turkey Istanbul Drama.; Self-preservation Drama.; Prison sentences Turkey.; Drug traffic; Prison violence Drama.; Smuggling Turkey Istanbul Drama.; Prisons Turkey Istanbul Drama.; Hashish; Police corruption.
Abstract: Apart from its one dimensional portrayal of Turkish guards and prisoners, Alan Parker's film is a relatively accurate adaptation of Billy Haye's prison memoir Midnight Express. Hayes had successfully smuggled hashish from Turkey to the United States several times before he was finally caught and given a life sentence for drug trafficking. Oliver Stone's adaptation of Hayes' memoir inflates the violence and conflict within the Turkish prisons, portraying both Turkish inmates and guards as sadistic brutes. The brutality depicted in the film negatively impacted Turkey's tourism industry for years. Billy Hayes spent five years in the Turkish prison system before he devised a means of escape. A former life guard, he was able to swim off the island where he was imprisoned and then eventually make his way to an unguarded section of the Turkish frontier, where he crossed a river into Greece. Oliver Stone changed this ending for a more dramatic one in which Hayes kills a sadistic prison guard and then exits the prison gates wearing the guard's uniform.