Review of Midnight Express (1978) by Kevin J — 16 May 2014

Just no. I went in expecting a gritty prison/courtroom drama and instead I got a twisted, sadistic film that was not at all enjoyable to suffer through. On top of this, its portrayal of the Turkish people as absolutely barbaric and evil. However, even if I did buy that the Turks were this evil, I was unable to root for the protagonist, who I can only assume was intended to be sympathetic, due to his own barbaric and crazed actions, in addition to the fact that he should have been in jail anyways. It is not like he did not commit a crime. It almost felt as if the film was trying to convince us that the Turks were barbaric and evil and were out hunting for innocent Americans to jail. But, no, they were just looking for people smuggling drugs out of the country like Billy Hayes was.

On the positive side of things, the acting from Brad Davis was very good. While I did not enjoy the film, I did enjoy his performance. His performance really elevated this film from being complete and utter trash to just complete trash.