Midnight Express - National Hate Film or True Life Story
I recently made the effort to revisit the 1978 film Midnight Express. The film depicts the apparently true story of Billy Hayes incarceration in a Turkish prison for attempting to smuggle hashish out of the country in 1970,
his experiences in prison and his subsequent escape. The film is reviled by the Turks and as I sat there watching it with my Turkish wife I could understand why, the film wheels out grotesque caricature after grotesque caricature of hideously distorted Turkish stereotypes and insulting attacks on Turkish identity. One of the reasons the film is so hated by Turks is that they feel that the movie has done lasting damage to their image abroad, with its extremely negative portrayals of Turkish personalities and not one single portrayal of even a positive character trait let alone a good Turk.
Truth & Fiction
In Turkey the film is often written off as being a film designed to make the Turks look bad and based on lies. This is largely due to the sensationalist depiction of events in the film and the massive deviation from actually events depicted in Billy Hayes book, so let’s take a closer look at some of the deviations:
In reality Billy Hayes was incarcerated in Sagmalcilar prison, Barkirkoy lunatic asylum and Imrali Prison Island from which he would later escape. Sagmalcilar was at the time a modern prison having been built in the 1960’s. In the film Billy’s entire stay in prison takes place at Sagmalcilar prison which was filmed in an old disused army barracks in Malta, It is depicted as a hellish run down nightmare of a place.
In the book of the same name we are informed that Billy is originally given a thirty year sentence this is later commuted to a lesser sentence twice and at the time of his escape he has only three and a half years left. In the film Billy believes he is serving his last 53 days of a four year sentence when the courts suddenly overturn his sentencing and decide on a life sentence effectively forcing him to consider escape. At his sentencing in the film Billy losses it in the dock and delivers this hate filled rant.
“I wish you could be standing where I am standing right now, and feel what that feels like. Because then you would know something that you don’t know Mr Prosecutor .Mercy! You would know that the concept of a society is based on the quality of that mercy, its sense of fair play, its sense of justice. But I guess that’s like asking a bear to shit in a toilet. For a nation of pigs it sure is funny you don’t eat them. Jesus Christ forgave the bastards, but I can’t. I hate, I hate You, I hate your nation and I hate your people, and I fuck your sons and daughters because they’re pigs. You’re a pig, you’re all pigs.”
In the book it’s more like this. “If you decision today must sentence me to more prison I cannot agree with you all I can do is forgive you.”
In the film Billy is portrayed as being under threat of sexual assault by prison guard Hamidou and eventually kills Hamidou when it appears he is going to rape him, he then escapes; he is also seen to refuse sexual advances from a fellow inmate. In the book Billy engages in a consensual homosexual relationship with a fellow inmate, there is a particularly brutal guard called Hamidou who beats the inmates and who is later shot at a cafe by an ex inmate over a grudge. Billy never kills anyone.
In the film Billy’s salvation comes when his ex-girlfriend visits him delivering a photo album with a thousand dollars hidden in the back, Billy is deranged and in poor health he begs her to expose her breasts then masturbates whilst she cries. In the book it is his ex girlfriend who visits and urges Billy to wait for diplomatic and legal ways to be fully explored and not to jeopardise this by attempting escape.
In the film Billy escapes by walking out of the prison dressed as a prison guard after killing Hamidou, in the book he escapes Imrali Prison Island by hiding in a boat. No one dies.
The over dramatisation and sensationalising of Billy’s experiences depicted in the film are legendary and I could go on but I think you get the point already.
Where are all the Turkish actors?
Another perceived problem is the actors, when watching it with my wife she pointed out that some of the Turkish was so bad (particularly the judge) she struggled to understand what they were saying, I asked what she meant and she said they are not Turkish, it is clearly their second language. Closer inspection of the credits reveals a lack of Turkish actors:
Rifki – Paolo Bonacelli
Hamidou – Paul Smith
Yesil – Franco Diogene
Prosecutor – Kevork Malikyan
Chief Judge – Gigi Ballista
Ahmet – Peter Jeffrey
No surprise then that many Turks feel the film is a conspiracy to make them look racially inferior and backwards.
The damage done and subsequent apologies
Arguably the damage once done is impossible to re-tract; the racist overtones of the film are blatant throughout the movie and relentless in their offensiveness leading one reviewer to write "Midnight Express is 'more violent, as a national hate-film than anything I can remember', 'a cultural form that narrows horizons, confirming the audience’s meanest fears and prejudices and resentments’”. It is not hard to conclude that people of limited intelligence will watch this film and draw unfavourable conclusions about Turks as a whole and you have to wonder about the naivety of Oliver stone (screen writer) and Alan Parker (director) at the time they made the film. Oliver Stone has subsequently apologised for over dramatising the script and the real Billy Hayes has publicly declared that he was disappointed with the portrayal of Turkish people in the film and made an apology to the Turkish people saying “The film wasn't what Turkish people deserved," & "I've always loved Turkey”.
Billy Haye’s Midnight Express in his own words.
An interview with Billy Hayes, first thirty seconds is in Turkish but the rest is in English, subtitles throughout.
.
his experiences in prison and his subsequent escape. The film is reviled by the Turks and as I sat there watching it with my Turkish wife I could understand why, the film wheels out grotesque caricature after grotesque caricature of hideously distorted Turkish stereotypes and insulting attacks on Turkish identity. One of the reasons the film is so hated by Turks is that they feel that the movie has done lasting damage to their image abroad, with its extremely negative portrayals of Turkish personalities and not one single portrayal of even a positive character trait let alone a good Turk.Truth & Fiction
In Turkey the film is often written off as being a film designed to make the Turks look bad and based on lies. This is largely due to the sensationalist depiction of events in the film and the massive deviation from actually events depicted in Billy Hayes book, so let’s take a closer look at some of the deviations:
In reality Billy Hayes was incarcerated in Sagmalcilar prison, Barkirkoy lunatic asylum and Imrali Prison Island from which he would later escape. Sagmalcilar was at the time a modern prison having been built in the 1960’s. In the film Billy’s entire stay in prison takes place at Sagmalcilar prison which was filmed in an old disused army barracks in Malta, It is depicted as a hellish run down nightmare of a place.
In the book of the same name we are informed that Billy is originally given a thirty year sentence this is later commuted to a lesser sentence twice and at the time of his escape he has only three and a half years left. In the film Billy believes he is serving his last 53 days of a four year sentence when the courts suddenly overturn his sentencing and decide on a life sentence effectively forcing him to consider escape. At his sentencing in the film Billy losses it in the dock and delivers this hate filled rant.
“I wish you could be standing where I am standing right now, and feel what that feels like. Because then you would know something that you don’t know Mr Prosecutor .Mercy! You would know that the concept of a society is based on the quality of that mercy, its sense of fair play, its sense of justice. But I guess that’s like asking a bear to shit in a toilet. For a nation of pigs it sure is funny you don’t eat them. Jesus Christ forgave the bastards, but I can’t. I hate, I hate You, I hate your nation and I hate your people, and I fuck your sons and daughters because they’re pigs. You’re a pig, you’re all pigs.”
In the book it’s more like this. “If you decision today must sentence me to more prison I cannot agree with you all I can do is forgive you.”
In the film Billy is portrayed as being under threat of sexual assault by prison guard Hamidou and eventually kills Hamidou when it appears he is going to rape him, he then escapes; he is also seen to refuse sexual advances from a fellow inmate. In the book Billy engages in a consensual homosexual relationship with a fellow inmate, there is a particularly brutal guard called Hamidou who beats the inmates and who is later shot at a cafe by an ex inmate over a grudge. Billy never kills anyone.
In the film Billy’s salvation comes when his ex-girlfriend visits him delivering a photo album with a thousand dollars hidden in the back, Billy is deranged and in poor health he begs her to expose her breasts then masturbates whilst she cries. In the book it is his ex girlfriend who visits and urges Billy to wait for diplomatic and legal ways to be fully explored and not to jeopardise this by attempting escape.
In the film Billy escapes by walking out of the prison dressed as a prison guard after killing Hamidou, in the book he escapes Imrali Prison Island by hiding in a boat. No one dies.
The over dramatisation and sensationalising of Billy’s experiences depicted in the film are legendary and I could go on but I think you get the point already.
Where are all the Turkish actors?
Another perceived problem is the actors, when watching it with my wife she pointed out that some of the Turkish was so bad (particularly the judge) she struggled to understand what they were saying, I asked what she meant and she said they are not Turkish, it is clearly their second language. Closer inspection of the credits reveals a lack of Turkish actors:
Rifki – Paolo Bonacelli
Hamidou – Paul Smith
Yesil – Franco Diogene
Prosecutor – Kevork Malikyan
Chief Judge – Gigi Ballista
Ahmet – Peter Jeffrey
No surprise then that many Turks feel the film is a conspiracy to make them look racially inferior and backwards.
The damage done and subsequent apologies
Arguably the damage once done is impossible to re-tract; the racist overtones of the film are blatant throughout the movie and relentless in their offensiveness leading one reviewer to write "Midnight Express is 'more violent, as a national hate-film than anything I can remember', 'a cultural form that narrows horizons, confirming the audience’s meanest fears and prejudices and resentments’”. It is not hard to conclude that people of limited intelligence will watch this film and draw unfavourable conclusions about Turks as a whole and you have to wonder about the naivety of Oliver stone (screen writer) and Alan Parker (director) at the time they made the film. Oliver Stone has subsequently apologised for over dramatising the script and the real Billy Hayes has publicly declared that he was disappointed with the portrayal of Turkish people in the film and made an apology to the Turkish people saying “The film wasn't what Turkish people deserved," & "I've always loved Turkey”.
Billy Haye’s Midnight Express in his own words.
An interview with Billy Hayes, first thirty seconds is in Turkish but the rest is in English, subtitles throughout.
.
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