Түн ортасындағы экспресс (Tún ortalyqtağı ekspress)

1978 prison drama film directed by Alan Parker
the 1924 film

Midnight Express is a 1978 prison drama film directed by Alan Parker and adapted by Oliver Stone from Billy Hayes's 1977 memoir of the same name. The film centers on Hayes (played by Brad Davis), a young American student, who is sent to a Turkish prison for trying to smuggle hashish out of the country. The film's title is prison slang for his escape attempt. The cast also features Irene Miracle, John Hurt, Bo Hopkins, Paul L. Smith and Randy Quaid. Upon release, Midnight Express received generally positive reviews from critics. Many praised Davis's performance as well as the cast, the writing, the direction, and the musical score by Giorgio Moroder. Hayes and others criticized the film for portraying the Turkish prison men as violent and villainous and for deviating too much from the source material. The film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director for Parker at the 51st Academy Awards in 1979, and won Best Adapted Screenplay for Stone and Best Original Score for Moroder. It also won six Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture – Drama and BAFTA Awards for Best Direction, Best Editing and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (for Hurt).

On vacation in Istanbul, Turkey on 6 October 1970, American college student Billy Hayes straps of hashish bricks to his chest. As he and his girlfriend Susan are about to board a plane back to the US, Billy is frisked by soldiers (who are on high alert for terrorist attacks) who discover the drug. Billy is then arrested by the police and strip searched. A shadowy American — whom Billy nicknames "Tex" for his thick Texan accent — arrives and accompanies Billy to a police station and translates for him. Billy claims he bought the hashish from a taxicab driver. He offers to help police locate the driver in exchange for being released. At a nearby market, Billy points out the driver to police, who arrest him, but they have no intention of releasing Billy. He attempts to escape, only to be recaptured at gunpoint by Tex. During his first night in Sultanahmet Jail, a freezing cold Billy sneaks out of his cell and steals a blanket. He is later rousted from his cell and brutally beaten by chief guard Hamidou for the theft. A few days later, Billy awakens in Sağmalcılar Prison, surrounded by fellow Western prisoners Jimmy (an American who stole two candlesticks from a mosque), Max (an English heroin addict), and Erich (a Swedish drug smuggler). Jimmy warns Billy that the prison is dangerous for foreigners and says no one can be trusted, not even young children. Billy meets with his father, a US representative, and a Turkish lawyer to discuss his situation. During Billy's trial, the prosecutor makes a case against him for drug smuggling. The lead judge is sympathetic to Billy and gives him a four year sentence for drug possession. Billy and his father are devastated, but their Turkish lawyer insists it is a good result because the prosecutor wanted a life sentence. Jimmy wants Billy to join an escape attempt through the prison's subterranean tunnels. Billy, due to be released soon, declines. Jimmy goes alone and is caught, then brutally beaten. Fifty three days before his release, Billy learns the Turkish High Court in Ankara has overturned his sentence after an appeal by the prosecution. The prosecutor who originally wanted Billy convicted of smuggling rather than the lesser charge of possession finally had his way. Billy has been resentenced to serve 30 years. In desperation, Billy accompanies Jimmy and Max to try to escape through the catacombs below the prison. They give up after running into endless dead ends. A particularly sycophantic prisoner, Rifki, who routinely acts as an informant in exchange for favors, notifies the guards about the escape attempt. Hamidou suspects Jimmy of being responsible for what happened during the first escape attempt. Jimmy is taken away again for punishment and is never seen again. Billy's imprisonment becomes harsh and brutal: terrifying scenes of physical and mental torture follow one another, and Billy has a breakdown. He brutally beats Rifki, killing him. He is sent to the prison's ward for the insane, where he wanders about in a daze among the other disturbed prisoners. Max is sent there, too. He is seen running from guards for an unknown infraction and is grabbed by Hamidou and severely injured. In 1975, Billy's girlfriend Susan visits him. Devastated by Billy's condition, she tells him he must get out or die. She leaves him a scrapbook with money hidden inside to help Billy escape. Her visit strongly helps Billy to regain his senses. Billy says goodbye to an almost dead Max, telling him to stay alive and promising he'll come back for him. Max awakens and is somewhat conscious. Billy tries to bribe Hamidou to take him to the prison hospital, but instead Hamidou forces Billy to a room, then tries to rape him. Billy becomes infuriated. They struggle until Hamidou is killed after being pushed into the wall, his head impaled upon a coat hook. Billy dons the guard's uniform and bluffs his way with his Turkish language skills, walks out of the front door and runs to freedom. The epilogue shows that in October 1975, Billy crossed the border to Greece and arrived home three weeks later.

Although the story is set largely in Turkey, the movie was filmed almost entirely at Fort Saint Elmo in Valletta, Malta, after permission to film in Istanbul was denied. The end credits state the movie was made entirely on location in Malta. However, background shots of Istanbul were taken by a small crew pretending to be making a cigarette commercial. A made for television documentary about the film, I'm Healthy, I'm Alive, and I'm Free (alternative title: The Making of Midnight Express), was released on January 1, 1977. It is seven minutes long, and features commentary from the cast and crew on how they worked together during production, and the effort it took from beginning to completion. It also includes footage from the creation of the film, and Hayes's emotional first visit to the prison set.

The film screened at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival. It opened at the Odeon Haymarket in London on Thursday, 10 August 1978 grossing $3,472 in its opening day, a Columbia Pictures record in the UK. It opened in New York on 6 October 1978 before opening nationwide in the United States on 27 October.

The film was first released on VHS and Betamax by Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment in 1979. It made its DVD debut in 1998. A 30th Anniversary DVD of the film was released in 2008, and a Blu ray was released in 2009.

According to the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 29 reviews with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Raw and unrelenting, Midnight Express is riveting in its realistic depiction of incarceration mining pathos from the simple act of enduring hardship." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Roger Ebert gave Midnight Express three stars out of four in a review that concluded, "The movie creates spellbinding terror, all right; my only objection is that it's so eager to have us sympathize with Billy Hayes." Gene Siskel gave the film two and a half stars out of four and called it "a powerful film, but we leave the theater thinking it should have been more so. It was for that reason that I was persuaded to read the book, which is where I found the story I had been expecting to see on the screen." He also thought that Brad Davis "is simply not up to the lead role. He appears unsure of himself and, like the film itself, he overacts." Arthur D. Murphy of Variety wrote, "Acceptance of the film depends a lot on forgetting several things," namely that Hayes was smuggling drugs. Nevertheless, he thought Davis gave "a strong performance" and that "Alan Parker's direction and other credits are also admirable, once you swallow the specious and hypocritical story." Charles Champlin, of the Los Angeles Times, was positive, writing that the film "has a kind of wailing, arid authenticity and enormous power. It is strong and uncompromising stuff, made bearable by its artistry and the saving awareness that Hayes, at least, slipped free and lived to tell the tale." Gary Arnold, of The Washington Post, described the film as "outrageously sensationalistic" and "loaded with show stopping fabrications," and wrote of the protagonist that "there's never a compelling reason for sympathizing with the callow boy he appears to be from start to finish."

Midnight Express was also criticized for its unfavorable portrayal of Turkish people. In her 1991 book Turkish Reflections: A Biography of Place, Mary Lee Settle wrote: "The Turks I saw in Lawrence of Arabia and Midnight Express were like cartoon caricatures, compared to the people I had known and lived among for three of the happiest years of my life." Pauline Kael, in reviewing the film for The New Yorker, commented, "This story could have happened in almost any country, but if Billy Hayes had planned to be arrested to get the maximum commercial benefit from it, where else could he get the advantages of a Turkish jail? Who wants to defend Turks? (They don't even constitute enough of a movie market for Columbia Pictures to be concerned about how they are represented.)" One reviewer, writing for World Film Directors, wrote: "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'." David Denby of New York criticized Midnight Express as "merely anti Turkish, and hardly a defense of prisoners' rights or a protest against prison conditions." Denby said also that all Turks in the film – guardian or prisoner – were portrayed as "losers" and "swine", and that "without exception [all the Turks] are presented as degenerate, stupid slobs". Norman Stone described it as a "brilliant, but quite misleading, film".

The film was made for $2.3 million and grossed over $35 million worldwide. In 1978, the Turkish government unsuccessfully attempted to prevent the film from being screened in Israel.