Midnight Express

Theatrical release poster

John Hurt

Mike Kellin

Randy Quaid

Bo Hopkins

Paul L. Smith

Paolo Bonacelli

Peter Jeffrey

Michael Ensign

This article is about the film. You may be looking for the book or the soundtrack album.

***Midnight Express*** is a 1978 American/British/Turkish prison drama action adventure film from Columbia Pictures, based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Billy Hayes and William Hoffer. It was directed by Alan Parker, starred Brad Davis, Irene Miracle, Paul L. Smith, Randy Quaid, Mike Kellin, Bo Hopkins, and John Hurt, and was adapted into the screenplay by Oliver Stone.

Hayes was a young American student sent to a Turkish prison for trying to smuggle hashish out of Turkey. The film deviates from the book's accounts of the story, especially in its portrayal of Turks, and some have criticised this version, including Billy Hayes himself. Later, both Stone and Hayes expressed their regret about how Turkish people were portrayed in the film. The film's title is prison slang for an inmate's escape attempt.

The film was released on October 6, 1978. Upon release, it received generally-positive reviews from critics. Many praised Davis's performance as well as the cast, the writing, the direction, and the musical score by Giorgio Moroder. However, Hayes and others criticized the film for portraying the Turkish prison men as violent and villainous and for deviating too much from the material source.

The film grossed over $35 million worldwide against budget of $2 million.

## Plot Synopsis

### Prologue

On October 6, 1970, on holiday in Istanbul, Turkey, American college student Billy Hayes straps 2 kg of hashish blocks to his chest. While attempting to board a plane back to the United States with his girlfriend, Billy is arrested by Turkish police on high alert for fear of terrorist attacks. He is strip-searched, photographed, and questioned.

After a while, a shadowy American, who is never named but is nicknamed "Tex" by Billy for his thick Texan accent, arrives, takes Billy to a police station, and translates Billy's English for one of the detectives. Billy says that he bought the hashish from a taxicab driver and offers to help the police track him down in exchange for his release. Billy goes with the police to a nearby market and points out the cab driver, but when they go to arrest the cabbie, it becomes apparent that the police have no intention of keeping their end of the deal with Billy. He sees an opportunity and makes a run for it, only to get cornered and recaptured by the mysterious American.

### Sağmalcılar Prison

During his first night in holding at a local jail, a freezing-cold Billy sneaks out of his cell and steals a blanket. Later that night, he is rousted from his cell and brutally beaten by chief guard Hamidou for the theft.

He wakes a few days later in Sağmalcılar Prison, surrounded by fellow Western prisoners Jimmy Booth (an American who is in for stealing two candlesticks from a mosque), Max (an English heroin addict), and Erich (a Swede, also in for drug smuggling), who help him to his feet. Jimmy tells Billy that the prison is a dangerous place for foreigners like them and that no one can be trusted, even young children.

### On Trial

Billy meets his father along with a US representative and a Turkish lawyer to discuss what will happen to him. Billy is sent to trial for his case during which the angry prosecutor makes a case against him for drug smuggling. The lead judge is sympathetic to Billy and gives him only a four-year sentence for drug possession. Billy and his father are horrified at the outcome, but their Turkish lawyer insists that it is a very good result.

Jimmy tries to encourage Billy to become part of an escape attempt through the prison's tunnels. Believing that he is to be released soon, Billy rebuffs Jimmy, who goes on to attempt an escape himself. Caught, he is brutally beaten. Then Billy finds out one day in 1974 that his sentence is overturned by the Turkish High Court in Ankara after an appeal by the prosecution. The prosecutor originally wished to have him found guilty of smuggling and not the lesser charge of possession. He is shocked to find out that he now has to serve 30 years to life for his crime.

### Breakdown

Billy goes along with a prison break that Jimmy has masterminded. Billy, Jimmy, and Max try to escape through the catacombs below the prison, but their plans are revealed to the prison authorities by fellow-prisoner Rifki. His stay becomes harsh and brutal: terrifying scenes of physical and mental torture follow one another, and Billy has a breakdown. He beats up and bites out Rifki's tongue and is sent to the prison's ward for the insane, where he wanders in a daze among the other disturbed and catatonic prisoners. These scenes are moving and show Billy's profound pain.

### 1975 - Girlfriend visiting

In 1975, Billy's girlfriend, Susan Kahre, comes to see him. Devastated at what has happened to Billy, she tells him that he has to escape or he will die in there. She leaves him a scrapbook with money hidden inside as "a picture of your good friend Mr. Franklin from the bank" in the hope that Billy can use it to help him escape. Her visit moves Billy strongly, and he regains his senses.

He says goodbye to Max, telling him not to die and promising to come back for him. He then tries to bribe Hamidou into taking him where there are no guards, but Hamidou takes Billy to another room and prepares to rape him. Billy is clearly afraid and powerless, but he is still fighting back. He suddenly and inadvertently kills Hamidou by pushing his head/skull onto a coat hook that sticks out of the wall.

### Epilogue

That is clearly the miracle he has been waiting for four years. 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.

## Deleted Scenes & Censorships

In one scene, during Billy Hayes and Susan Kahre's visit, in which they were separated by a glass window, Susan Kahre undresses her top and presses her breasts against the window (an iconic scene in the movie). This was removed from the 1980 Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment red border clamshell VHS/Betamax release and TV airings due to nudity. Also, there was originally going to be a scene where she gets arrested for exposing her breasts. This was removed for unknown reasons, possibly to save time.

On the aforementioned red border clamshell VHS/Betamax, these edits were made:

1. All of the swearing is dubbed/skipped.
2. The chicken is not shown when Billy makes a run for it leaving the Turkish Bazaar.
3. When Billy Hayes is naked during a strip-search after his arrest, we only see his face on screen. Also, Tex's line, "Would you like to put your clothes on?", was deleted.
4. All of the nudity and violence scenes were censored.
5. See above on the removal of one scene during their visit.

To watch the film with these edits, click here.

## Home media

The film was first released on VHS and Betamax by Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment in November 1979 as one of their 22 launch titles. It was released on DVD in 1998 and Blu-ray Disc in 2009.

## Cast

* Brad Davis as Billy Hayes, an American college student who was arrested for drug smuggling.
* Irene Miracle as Susan Kahre, Billy Hayes's girlfriend who visits him in prison.
* Bo Hopkins as "Tex", a shadowy American who was never named. He was given the nickname "Tex" because of his Texan accent.
* Paolo Bonacelli as Rifki, the fellow prisoner at the Sağmalcılar Prison.
* Paul L. Smith as Hamidou, the prison warden who fights with Billy.
* Randy Quaid as Jimmy Booth, an American prisoner who was in for stealing.
* Norbert Weisser as Erich, a Swedish prisoner who smuggled drugs like Billy.
* John Hurt as Max, an English heroin addict.
* Kevork Malikyan as the Prosecutor
* Yashaw Adem as the Airport police chief
* Mike Kellin as Mr. Hayes
* Franco Diogene as Yesil
* Michael Ensign as Stanley Daniels
* Gigi Ballista as the Judge
* Peter Jeffrey as Ahmet
* Michael Yannatos as Court translator

## Differences between the book and film

Various aspects of Hayes' story were fictionalized or added to for the movie. Of note:

* In the movie, Billy Hayes is in Turkey with his girlfriend when he is arrested, but in the original story, he is alone.
* Although Billy spends 17 days in the prison's psychiatric hospital in 1972 in the book, he never bites out anyone's tongue, which, in the film, leads to him being committed to the section for the criminally insane.
* The book ends with Hayes being moved to another prison on an island from which he eventually escapes by stealing a dinghy, rowing 17 miles in a raging storm across the Sea of Marmara, traveling by foot and by bus to Istanbul, and then crossing the border into Greece. In the film, that passage is replaced by a violent scene in which he unwittingly kills the head guard who is preparing to rape him. (In the book, Hamidou, the chief guard, is killed in 1973 by a recently-paroled prisoner, who spots him drinking tea at a café outside the prison and shoots him eight times.) The attempted rape scene itself was fictionalized; Billy never claims in the book to have suffered any sexual violence at the hands of his Turkish wardens but engages in consensual sex while he is in prison. The film, however, depicts Hayes gently rejecting the advances of a fellow prisoner.
* There is a fleeting reference to The Pudding Shop restaurant in the bazaar. It was/is not there - it is on Divan Yolu.

## Reception

*Midnight Express* got positive reviews from audiences. It holds a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 7.7/10.

## Production

Although the story is set largely in Turkey, the movie was filmed almost entirely at Fort Saint Elmo in Valletta, Malta, after permission to film in Istanbul was denied. Ending credits of the movie state: "Made entirely on location in Malta and recorded at EMI Studios, Borehamwood by Columbia Pictures Corporation Limited 19/23 Wells Street, London, W1 England."

A made-for-TV documentary of the film, *I'm Healthy, I'm Alive, and I'm Free* (alternative title: *The Making of Midnight Express*), was released in 1977, and is seven minutes long. It features commentary from the cast and crew on how they worked together during production, and the effort it took from beginning to completion. It also includes footage from the creation of the film, and Billy Hayes' emotional first visit to the prison set.