Review of Midnight Express (1978) by Rameez K — 24 Sep 2012
Hugely underrated.
Oliver Stone's screenplay here is brutal and unforgiving. The film gets more violent as every act progresses.
The film portrays Turkish people, as the Russian people are portrayed in nowadays. As the bad guys, the brutes, the jerks, the slimes. You name it.
The story is centered around Billy Hayes, who is caught smuggling Hashish at the Turkish airport. The film chronicles his time in jail, which is close to 4-5 years. The people he meets, the experiences he has, the violence which occurs there and the jail system. There in, lies the strength of the film, every character Billy meets is very interesting and each character branches the story into a different direction.
If you're a film buff, then in films, you can kind of predict what will happen, to some extent. I mean it's a rarity nowadays to see the bad guy win at the end.
The bad guy does not win in this film, but boy is it unpredictable and shocking. There's a big shocker every 15-20 minutes in the film.
5/5 - 10/10.
P.S. If they ever make a remake. Guy Pearce would totally fit the main character of Billy Hayes, and they can re-cast John Hurt again, let's be honest, John Hurt of 1978, looks a pinch off of the John Hurt of 2012. Makeup fixes all!
Fantastic film. Check it out!
This review of Midnight Express (1978) was written by Rameez K on 24 Sep 2012.
Midnight Express has generally received very positive reviews.
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