Review of Midnight Express (1978) by Anabelle E — 23 Aug 2011

Midnight Express has always been a controversial film, and for good reason. It's biased towards the place it's set, it's an innaccurate true story, it features some disturbing scenes, whether that be violent or sexual, but that doesn't mean a thing because there's no denying that it's still an incredily well made film and one of the, if no the best looks into prison life that any film has ever given us.

Midnight Express is about young American Billy Hayes who's been caught trying to smuggle out 2 Kilograms of Hash while on vacation with his girlfriend. Thanks to his bad lawyers and the Turkish people's hate for foreigners, he's sent to prison where he stays for many years, where his sentence increases each time he's almost out. Ultimately he and his fellow foreigners attempt to escape the prison, catching the Midnight Express back home.

While the plot is incredibly simple, I love it. It's not like other prison movies. Billy isn't wrongfully convicted, he's not some crazy, psychopathic killer, he's just a guy doing his time. The real point of Midnight Express is to try and get into the head of a prisoner and see what prison can do to one, and as you'll see at the end, what it can do is pretty shocking and even disturbing. We ultimately see Billy fall into violent insanity, and every step along the way is just as shocking and entertaining.

Billy is played by Brad Davis, kind of an odd actor. He hadn't really done anything before this and hasn't done anything since, so to see a guy like that in a leading role of an Oscar winning drama is kind of odd. Fame aside, he does a fantastic job, and he really conveys emotion quite well. I'm not a huge fan of him later on the film when he goes crazy, but everything up until then is pure gold. For me the highlights come in the form of 2 supporting actors; Randy Quaid and John Hurt. Randy Quaid is the hopeful one. He's the guy who is always trying to get out, and won't conform to the prison way of life. John Hurt is pretty much the opposite. He's the one who's been in the longest and he's pretty much given up. Living off nothing but drugs now, he's pretty much just slowly wasting away. Hurt is already one of my favourite actors, and in my opinion one of the most underappreciated actors in history, but who knew Quaid could be so good!

Midnight Express is a serious movie, but it's equal part thriller at times, and it cranks up the suspense like few movies can. Even just the opening scene of Billy trying to get on the plane is fantastic. Seeing his paranoid eyes jumping all over, looking at all the police officers everywhere, and hearing that musical score of synthesized heartbeats, it really puts you in his head.

Speaking of the music, it's amazing! It was composed by synth legend Giorgio Moroder, and it shows. The entire thing is 100% synthesizers, and being that this was 1978 they really hadn't gone into mainstream music yet, so they sound fresh, and the frantic music just adds to that. I just love synthesizers, they really are underestimated. They create a sense of atmoshpere like no other music can. Just look at Blade Runner, Scarface, Chariots Of Fire, it's all great. If only they were still used!

Technically, Midnight Express is really a stunning movie. The whole way it's shot is great. I love the use of natural lighting, it gives it a bleak, distant look if you know what I mean. The whole movie is edited, sounds, and looks great. The director Alan Parker really did an incredible job with this movie, but the real highlight is the screenplay written by a young Oliver Stone, more known now for making a bunch of Vietnam war movies, but back in the day he was just a writer and he wrote damn good scripts, and I actually prefer him in this role. The film won him his first Oscar and I think it was well deserved. The movie is now more famously remembered for the infamous and oft-parodied scene where Billy's girlfriend sticks her bare breasts up to the visitation window, but the film has so many other great scenes aswell. From the opening, to the ear biting scene, and the third act as a whole which shows us the insanity ward, it's pure gold. Stone did a kickass job with this movie.

If there's any one real criticism I have for Midnight Express, it's that it could be paced better, but I find almost every prison movie has this same problem. It seems like it's just trying to show his entire prison life and just seeing it skip ahead a year makes us wonder what happened. Somehow The Shawshank Redemption just did it so perfectly, it showing us 20 years in it's 2 hour length and never feeling like it missed a moment.

A lot of people have said that Midnight Express lacks a point. In a way I would agree, the plot is pretty basic and I don't feel any different after seeing it, but it's not really trying to be anything incredible, it's just trying to be the grittiest and most disturbing look at prison life it can be and I think it succeeds at that with flying colours. Midnight Express isn't a masterpiece or even really a classic that many thought it may have been, but it's too damn good to ignore and it's just an amazing movie all around.

I apologize that this review is the shortest I've done in a long time, and if you like my longer reviews they'll keep coming, but the fact is there isn't a whole lot to say about Midnight Express other than that it's damn good and every fan of the genre should see it.