When I think about movies that involve entrapment, or jail, I remember this movie.
Midnight Express came out long before I was alive (1978) and I'm not sure how my parents came across it, but I first saw it when I was about ten years old and I didn't know what to make of it: In the first ten minutes some guy gets arrested going through Turkish airport customs for attempting to smuggle hashish strapped to his chest. My first question was, why was he trying to take that stuff with him if they were going to search everything on him? And most of all, doesn't he know that drugs are bad? I had a hard time finding sympathy for him, especially the part soon after he is told that if he identifies the person who sold it to him he will be released, he tries to make a run for it. It is at this point they shave his head and throw him into a Turkish prison, and that's where the main chunk of this movie takes place. This man is named Billy Hayes, and this is his (true) story. Watching this when I was young, I remembered all kinds of images, like Billy getting beaten for taking a blanket, his friend beaten to a pulp for trying to escape, a lot of people getting a good thrashing by the same head prison guard, who you quickly learn to hate in this movie. I didn't really understand why this guy was so mean to everybody but I knew one thing: I never wanted to see Turkey after this movie. I was only a child, but apparently everybody felt this way, because this movie killed Turkish tourism so much that it was banned in Turkey from it's release until about ten years ago. Check out this article:
It discusses how the real Billy Hayes regrets the movie because the message most viewers walk away with it is, "Don't go to Turkey", instead of "Don't be an idiot and smuggle drugs" but it also tells of how many Americans to this day steer clear of Turkey because of this film. Turkey even issued a warrant for Billy's arrest, interestingly enough not after he escaped from prison, but after this movie was released. However, despite this anti Turkey slogan, everybody agrees that this movie is shot and directed beautifully. Watching this movie today I feel it hasn't aged a bit, it still brings out the same emotions as when I was younger and I always find myself rooting for Billy. A true gem of filmmaking.
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