Midnight Express is a 1978 film, based on Billy Hayes book of the same name adapted into screenplay by Oliver Stone.
The movie
On October 6, 1970, after a stay in Istanbul, a U.S. citizen named Billy Hayes is arrested by Turkish police, on high alert due to fear of terrorist attacks, as he is about to fly out of the country with his girlfriend. After being found with several bricks of hashish taped to his body – about two kilograms in total – he is sentenced to a relatively lenient four years and two months’ imprisonment on the charge of drug possession. He is sent to Sagmalcilar prison to serve out his sentence. In the remand centre, he meets and befriends other Western prisoners and quickly prepares an escape plan, which fails. In 1974, after a prosecution appeal(who originally wished to have Hayes found guilty of smuggling and not possession), his original sentence is overturned by the Turkish High Court in Ankara, and he is ordered to serve a 30-year term for his crime. His stay becomes a living hell: terrifying and unbearable scenes of physical and mental torture follow one another, where bribery, violence and insanity rule the prison. Monstrous wardens cruelly force the prisoners to undergo the worst brutalities. Some prisoners work for the prison administration as’informers’. In a fit of madness, Billy bites off the tongue of a prison informant who has notified the warden of his escape plan and also accused one of Billy’s accomplices. In 1975, after being committed to the prison’s insane asylum, Billy again tries to escape, this time by attempting to bribe the warden-in-chief. He ends up accidentally killing the warden, as the latter wanted to rape him, and Billy puts on an officer’s uniform and manages his escape by walking out of the front door. From 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.
There are some differences between the cinematographic and literary versions of Midnight Express. Major liberties were taken with the real events, which have upset viewers. Here are some obvious liberties taken with regard to the book:
In the movie, Billy Hayes is in Turkey with his girlfriend, whereas he was alone in the original story. In the movie, the love story is a main dramatic driving force. The rape scenes are also fictional. Billy Hayes never claimed to be raped by his Turkish wardens or that he ever suffered any sexual violence. He engaged in consensual sex, which is alluded to in the film. Billy Hayes never bit out anyone’s tongue. The endings of the cinematographic and literary versions of Midnight Express differ from one another. While in the narrative, the protagonist is moved to another prison from which he escaped by sea, in the movie this passage has been replaced by a violent scene in which he unwittingly kills the warden-in-chief.
Although the story is set largely in Turkey, the entire movie was filmed in Malta, using local actors along with some Greeks and Armenians playing Turks. The movie was also filmed in Libya. The Turkish government didn’t allow the crew to shoot the film in Turkey.
Its a great movie to wantch but not entirely realistic, that is when in the beginning of the movie they say’based on true stopy’ then why do they have to manupulate it. I am sure if they would have kept the story the same as in the book it would have also been a success. But I really wish that Bollywood does not try to make its remake with Shahid or Hritik or Saif or Salman as it will be unbearable to see such a nice movie turning into a comedy!