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Oh, Billy, I wish I could make it better for you.

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Clip duration: 9 seconds Views: 5966 Timestamp in movie: 01h 41m 17s Uploaded: 07 December, 2022 Genres: drama , crime Summary: Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of Turkey. The Turkish courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express".

Midnight Express

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Brief Synopsis

Cast & crew, alan parker, randy quaid, paolo bonacelli, photos & videos, technical specs.

Busted for attempting to smuggle hashish out of Istanbul, American college student Billy Hayes is thrown into the city's most brutal jail. After suffering through four years of sadistic torture and inhuman conditions, Billy is about to be released when his parole is denied. Only his inner courage and the support of a fellow inmate give him the strength to catch the Midnight Express... and escape his living hell.

Hugh Hudson

Mike kellin, irene miracle, franco diogene, michael ensign, gigi ballista, kevork malikyan, peter jeffrey, zanninos zanninou, michael yannatos, ahmed el-shenawi, dimos starenios, joe zammit cordina, yasher adem, vic tablian, norbert weisser, milena canonero, david castle, rusty coppleman, ray corbett, peter guber, gerry hambling, billy hayes, evan hercules, mary hillman, william hoffer, geoffrey kirkland, bobby lavender, alan marshall, angela mickleburgh, sarah monzani, giorgio moroder, caryn picker, david puttnam, roy scammell, michael seresin, penny steyne, oliver stone, garth thomas, clive winter.

Best Writing, Screenplay

Award nominations, best director, best editing, best picture, best supporting actor.

Midnight Express (30th Anniversary Edition) - Alan Parker's MIDNIGHT EXPRESS - The 30th Anniversary Edition on DVD

Midnight express (30th anniversary edition) - alan parker's midnight express - the 30th anniversary edition on dvd.

Where are you going? Why don't you walk the wheel with us? What is the matter my American friend? What has upset you? Oh! I know. The bad machine doesn't know that he's a bad machine. You still don't believe it. You still don't believe you're a bad machine? To know yourself is to know God, my friend. The factory knows, that's why they put you here. You'll see... You'll find out... In time, you'll know. - Ahmet

For a nation of pigs, it sures seems funny that you don't eat them! Jesus Christ forgave the bastards, but I can't! I hate! I hate you! I hate your nation! And I hate your people! And I fuck your sons and daughters because they're pigs! You're all pigs! - Billy Hayes

I just wish for once that you could be in my shoes, Mr. Prosecutor, and then you would know something that you don't know: mercy! That the concept of a society is based on the quality of that mercy; its sense of fair play; its sense of justice! But I guess that's like asking a bear to shit in the toilet. - Billy Hayes

The best thing to do is to get your ass out of here. Best way that you can. - Max

Yeah, but how? - Billy Hayes

Catch the midnight express. - Max

But what's that? - Billy Hayes

Well it's not a train. It's a prison word for... escape. But it doesn't stop around here. - Max

The second way out, I need you guy's help, and that's under. - Jimmy

You mean tunnel? Are you serious? - Billy Hayes

This is Shagmahr prison, not Stalag 17. - Max

Well that's where you're wrong fuckface, 'cause it's already built! - Jimmy

Although the movie is supposed to be based on and has been credited as a "true story", it has been clearly indicated by Billy Hayes himself 20 years after it's release, that what is presented in the movie is a very exaggerated and fictional version of what's happened to him in the prison in Istanbul, Turkey.

Both Richard Gere and John Travolta were considered for the part of William Hayes.

According to his book, 'Brad Davis' had a drug problem of his own while promoting this film.

Although set in Turkey the movie was actually filmed at Fort St Elmo in Valetta in Malta.

Miscellaneous Notes

Re-released in United States on Video October 20, 1998

Film is based on true incidents.

20th Anniversary video re-release contains a behind-the-scenes "making of" featurette including interviews with Billy Hayes, the man whose real life experience inspired the film.

Released in United States Fall October 6, 1978

Re-released in United States on Video October 20, 1998 (20th Anniversary/Remastered Collector's Edition)

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Movie Reviews

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The real Billy Hayes was arrested by Turkey in 1970, we're told, and imprisoned on a charge of trying to smuggle hashish out of the country. He was guilty. He was sentenced at first to imprisonment of three to five years, but then the Turkish authorities decided to try him on a more serious charge. The new sentence was virtually life imprisonment; the young college student who went into prison would be released, if ever, in late middle age.

Hayes escaped from prison, fled over the border into Greece and, the times being what they were, wrote a bestseller about his experiences. Two years later came 'Midnight Express,' based on his book, starring  Brad Davis  as a narcissistic, selfcentered Hayes, and translating the story into a passion play of violence, sexuality, morality and indignation.

It's the indignation that's hard to take. When Hayes, only 54 days short of his promised freedom, is given a new 30-year sentence, he stands in the prisoners' dock and delivers himself of a long condemnation of all Turks: They are, he screams, "a nation of pigs." Surely not. And although Hayes has had a great misfortune (and penal reform is obviously much in need in Turkey), we have to remind ourselves that Hayes did, after all, decide of his own free will to smuggle the hashish, and thus entered into a tacit contract with the Turkish legal system, a contract in which he stood to gain as well as lose a great deal.

So it's hard to feel much pity for Billy Hayes. He took his chances and lost. It is possible, however, to discover the irony in the fact that Turkey, whose economy is richened by an opium poppy crop that supplies much of the world's heroin, should have such draconian drug laws at home.

Hayes has a great deal of time to ponder that irony, during an imprisonment that supplies the bulk of the movie. His years in prison are stunningly well seen by the film's director, Alan Parker -- whose last film was the engagingly odd " Bugsy Malone ," in which a cast of children played gangsters. Parker found an old British fortress on Malta to use as his prison, and he populates it with a freemasonry of the world's criminals. There's Randy Quaid , as the totally strungout American; John Hurt , as the pensive British prisoner, absorbed in his drug habit; and Norbert Weisser, as the Swedish kid who becomes Hayes' lover in the year's strangest romantic scene.

The prison scenes are heavy on violence and sadism, orchestrated by a brutal guard whose specialty is beating prisoners across the soles of their feet. The prison's great crime seems to be disrespect to a guard; such other behavior as drug abuse, black marketeering and sexual privateering is treated with benign neglect.

Parker succeeds in making the prison into a full, real, rounded world, a microcosm of human behavior; I was reminded of e.e. cummings' novel The Enormous Room. The movie's art direction is especially good at recreating that world, as in a scene where Hayes and his friends try to escape down an old cistern. And there are visions into the inferno, as in a scene in the madhouse where the inmates circle forever around a stone pillar. The movie creates spellbinding terror, all right; my only objection is that it's so eager to have us sympathize with Billy Hayes.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Midnight Express (1978)

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Midnight Express: The cult film that had disastrous consequences for the Turkish tourism industry

Premiering in cannes this week, midnight return, a new film by sally sussman, explores one of the most controversial movies of its era, article bookmarked.

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It was one of Alan Parker’s greatest movies – a gut-wrenching prison epic with an Oliver Stone script and pounding Giorgio Moroder music. Midnight Express (1978), produced by David Puttnam, won two Oscars and very quickly assumed cult status. What the filmmakers hadn’t anticipated was just how deeply they had offended the Turkish people or the disastrous consequences their film had on the country‘s tourism industry.

Now, Sally Sussman’s new film Midnight Return , which premieres in Cannes today, explores the legacy of one of the most controversial movies of its era.

In Midnight Express , a young American, Billy Hayes (played by the late Brad Davis), is arrested at Istanbul airport with some hash taped to his chest. He is thrown in prison and endures a traumatic time at the hands of sadistic prison guards before managing to escape. The film features some brutal scenes, most notoriously the sequence in which Billy, in huge slow motion close-up, is shown biting out the tongue of the Turkish guard. Parker later acknowledged that he got a little bit carried away with this scene which required the unfortunate Davis to spit out a pig’s tongue again and again.

“I’d never seen a movie, ever, that stuck with me the way that movie did,” Californian-based Sussman recalls of when she first saw Parker’s film as a student at the University of Southern California in the late 1970s. “I just remember leaving that film shaking.”

Sussman went to carve out a career as a writer and producer of soap operas such as The Young And The Restless . By coincidence, her husband Tony Morino, knew Hayes, who became a family friend. “The character of Billy Hayes in the film was passive, much more of victim. The real Billy, in prison for the five years, was a very wily character, always plotting, always planning, always hoping he could escape, which he eventually did.”

There was a reason for the casting of Davis. The studio had originally wanted Richard Gere for the role but the filmmakers realised Gere was too much the hero. For the movie really to work, audiences, had to believe that Billy wasn’t going to make it. That’s why they went for a sensitive actor like Davis.

In the documentary, Parker, producer Puttnam and many others involved in the original production appear on screen as does the real Hayes and two fellow prisoners held with him during his nightmare time in a Turkish jail. Sussman explores the impact of Midnight Express on Turkey and on the life of Hayes. “It [Midnight Express] became a huge part of pop culture and it also had political ramifications,” the director says. “It was probably the most hated film ever in Turkey.”

The prison warders are portrayed as sadistic, lazy and corrupt. The Turkish legal system likewise comes out of the film very badly. Even the warder's children are shown as being overweight and grotesque.

After interviewing all the protagonists behind the film, Sussman has concluded that Midnight Express was made with “no malice” or no intention to offend the Turks. “I can’t believe for one moment that was Alan’s motive,” she says of director Parker. “I think that was what you call an unintended consequence. I think they were creating what they thought was a somewhat loosely based story on Hayes’s life.”

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When Midnight Express was released, it was credited with destroying the Turkish tourism industry almost single-handed and of poisoning relations between Turkey and the West. In the documentary, Parker stands by his work, but Stone expresses his regret at the misunderstanding that arose from the film.

In the documentary, Sussman, her husband and Hayes visit Turkey. Hayes discovers that he is still persona non grata. “He was very emotional being back in Turkey because he really loved Turkey and he always felt bad about its portrayal in the film,” Sussman says. “When he was back there, it was a chance for him to reassure Turkish people that ‘no. I don’t hate you’ …even if they hated him.”

When Hayes visited the places where he had been incarcerated, he had to be accompanied by plain clothes Turkish policemen for his own protection. He didn’t publicise his visit.

Midnight Return is screening in Cannes, just as Midnight Express did all those years ago, when Hayes attended the premiere – and met his future wife Wendy.

Did Hayes hide any marijuana in his socks when he was leaving Istanbul this time round? “He might have … but he didn’t tell me!” Sussman bursts into laughter at the question.

‘Midnight Return’ screens in Cannes this week

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Raw and unrelenting, Midnight Express is riveting in its realistic depiction of incarceration -- mining pathos from the simple act of enduring hardship.

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April Showers: Midnight Express (1978)

I've always been  a little bit  a lot perplexed by the famous shower scene in Alan Parker's  Midnight Express  (1978). I'm not exactly sure why it's in the movie.  Midnight Express  strongest asset is arguably its expressive physicality and gritty tactile quality; you feel like you're right there in the grotty hellish Turkish prison, sweating and suffering along with Billy Hayes (Brad Davis). But the sexual vibes coming off of the movie are at times unfathomable. Is it gay? Is it bi? Is it straight? Is it just horny? Or is its ambiguous eroticism simply a by-product of casting a star as carnally charismatic as  Brad Davis  in the lead role? As warm up to the famous shower scene we get a montage detailing the friendship of Billy and Erich (Norbert Weisser) a fellow prisoner. They've been in this hellhole for years. We see them do yoga togethe and bathe each other. They even duet on a private meditation mantra ...

Monastery. Cloister. Cave. Prison

They lock eyes while chanting this repetitive phase. Billy drops his head with sadness at the word "prison" and we dissolve to a shot of the intimate friends showering together. In the steam Erich tenderly grabs Billy's soapy hand, slides his hands up Billy's body and pulls him slowly into a passionate kiss, though the steam obscures a lot of what's happening.

Billy hesitates and then reciprocates, though the steam obscures most of their kissing

This scene has always confused me on a basic human level, sexual orientation being beside the point. I'm gay but if you threw me in a prison for years and my only option for human tenderness was sex with a girl I liked who was into me? I wouldn't shake my head and walk away. I'd be... 'how often, when, where and what position? Let's go!' Another 1978 picture, the elusive but strong G irlfriends  has an oddly parallel sequence: the lead character's new female roommate begins to caress her shoulder and tries to kiss and undress her. Our heroine gently pushes the misguided girl's hand away and quietly says "no." I can only come to the reductive conclusion that in '78 this was exactly the way liberal Hollywood felt about the gays -- tolerated them, kinda dug them on an one-on-one basis, but were still totally weirded out by them. The sequence in   Girlfriends   is a throwaway and doesn't interrupt the movie's flow. In the case of  Midnight Express , the sequence is given a lot of weight and the filmmakers seem to be letting their own sexual prudishness get in the way of narrative logic. There's nothing wrong with changing material from book to screen, don't get me wrong, but if Billy wasn't going to have sex with Erich, why was their foreplay still included in the movie?

Reader Comments (16)

I know! This is such a weird scene in such an otherwise sensibly made movie. It's sexy, but like you said, what's the point in showing such a tender near-moment? I'd love to get a director's commentary on it. "We needed the audience to know our protagonist wasn't into men. But we also wanted to get a little wet and wild. The trick was finding the right place to draw the line..."

Nice write-up, I'll have to check it out. Not least because these narrative beats remind me of a 1930s autobiography about a POW in Turkey who did yoga in his prison cell. Rather than cutting out same-sex contact (which was likely but not mentioned in the book version either), the film version (The Lives of a Bengal Lancer with Gary Cooper) found it necessary to cut all the yoga stuff, which became the author's claim to fame. Oh, those unspeakable prison desires and how they change (or at least, what is unspeakable) over time...

But, to put this in perspective of the times.................this was a HUGE step forward in the depiction of gay characters and gay sex in film. While the character of Hayes may have turned Erich down, he did not strike out at him, did not run screaming to the hills, did not shun him going forward...... There was no punishment for Erich except being turned down. It showed that a gay man and a straight man could be friends without issues. It was very important in moving acceptance of gay characters forward. The critical success of the film was icing on the cake.

It didn't take long for word to get out about the truth either which was another positive.

This film was made only 7 years after the Stonewall riots. and 3 years before Cruising with Pacino. It was the first major film role for Davis who had only done television. It was very risky, both for the producers, the actor and the studio. It might seem silly to have rewritten the scene to you youngsters, but it meant a lot those of us who saw it first hand.

i think the politically correct expression is "cocktease"

Excellent comment, Henry. Thank you for the insights.

"There was no punishment for Erich except being turned down"

Well yes but you fail to mention that he's being turned down by prime Brad Davis! BRAD DAVIS!!! Prime Bad Davis!!! That's more punishment than any human being's ever deserved. ;)

@JA: But who gets to even shower with Brad Davis?

JA--Paul Outlaw. Who gets to even make out with Brad Davis? And you know it happened more than once.

An excellent film. Oscar nod for Best Pix, Oscar win for Best Screenplay. Alas, no Oscar nomination for Brad Davis.

@brandz--Alas, no Oscar nom for Davis. It was 1977. He kissed a boy and he liked it.

(At least enough to look guilty when he walked away.)

Henry -- i appreciate your perspective on this. I imagine it was a revelation at the time but because they pulled their punches from the truth, narratively today it hasn't aged well because it doesn't make much sense.

This was the first time I ever saw two men about to make love on the big screen...maybe it's time for a re-make but who would play Billy- ( Brad Davis was beautifully perfect)

It seems that the whole homosexual experience the real Billy Hayes had was played down in the movie... according to Irene Miracle that is... Read my interview with her at http://retroladyland.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/its-long-time-till-midnight-interview.html

I was just 11 years old (and male) when I went to see MIDNIGHT EXPRESS with my father back in 1978.... I found the scene rivetingly arousing and yet,sitting there right next to my dad... man, awkward as a MF'er!! Now, much later into life, and learning of the real Billy Hayes' open bisexuality does make one suspicious about the fact that it obviously remained a necessary historical factual alteration for Parker, the film's producers and the studio heads, like `Alright... It's okay that we portray a montage of moments like that between these characters, but that, ultimately, Hayes MUST be filmed rejecting these sexual advances, remaining safely heterosexual for the on-going and complete support of all audience members until the film ends!' and, as a 50 year old bisexual man, to that end, I call a most dutiful and well-earned response of `Bullshit!!'

lets say that we are in 1978 LGBT task wasn't popular and not acceted by a majority of the population even in Europe and usa ,even criminalised in some countries and could be punished to a death sentence it was really fatal to be caught guilty of sodomite's matter even not openly admited LGBT community in brief It was almost a taboo, done in hidden sight. I think that april shower's scene wasn't introduced foolishly in fact it was calculated not by chance that the director was been mentioning of sex sign softly to get inside the viewer's inconcience preparing them to get ready by steps to get into the final goal first scene was touching his girlfriend tits in the bus their to the airport second secen when hanged up to be beaten on his feet for stealing blanket the ( cruel) prison's head was been liking his lips once talk walk with the Billy then open his legs afer done on the ground third scene talk about homo as being strictly forbidden but done by almost of them ( Turkish ) as the first chance they get to fifth scene beating up the teenages for raping some boy sixth scene david and Billy showering each other then the main scene that was totally unexpected and out of logical chronic of the film it was unnecessary for the story because the story itself was amasing but the of showing two man showering each other naked having warm moment wasn't fit for the 70's and i think that was a special action to push and hurry up the matter of making people more familiar with such kind of scene and in the end artistically the movie was really great but the narrative wasn't innocent at all the director would t give impression that Muslim people are very brutals liars unhuman stone cold feeling because after each specific scene showing some cruel brutal deeds or dishonest behaviour was been followed by the ( azan) known as Muslim prayer 's speech call for three times why i don't know . also the movie is full of hiden messages that addresses our deep inconcience

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Midnight Express

• Billy Hayes , an American college student, is caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey and thrown into prison.
• On October 6, 1970 while boarding an international flight out of Istanbul Airport, American Billy Hayes (Brad Davis) is caught attempting to smuggle two kilos of hashish out of the country, the drugs strapped to his body. He is told that he will be released if he cooperates with the authorities in identifying the person who sold him the hashish. Billy's troubles really begin when after that assistance, he makes a run for it and is recaptured. He is initially sentenced to just over four years for possession, with no time for the more harsh crime of smuggling. The prison environment is inhospitable in every sense, with a sadistic prison guard named Hamidou (Paul L. Smith) ruling the prison, he who relishes the mental and physical torture he inflicts on the prisoners for whatever reason. Told to trust no one, Billy does befriend a few of the other inmates, namely fellow American Jimmy Booth (Randy Quaid) (in for stealing two candlesticks from a mosque), a Swede named Erich (Norbert Weisser), and one of the senior prisoners having already served seven years, an Englishman named Max (Sir John Hurt), the latter two also in for hashish-related charges. One prisoner not befriended is Rifki (Paolo Bonacelli), who wields power in the prison as the unofficial eyes and ears for the guards. As Billy, his family and his girlfriend Susan (Irene Miracle) attempt through legal and diplomatic channels for Billy's release, Max tells him that the only way out is to "catch the midnight express" (escape), which is what Jimmy is continually trying to do. When Billy's situation changes, he becomes more desperate in every sense of the word. It seems as if Billy has only two options: to let the prison ultimately figuratively then literally kill him, or to somehow regain control of his life through whatever means available. — Huggo
• Istanbul, Turkey, 6 October 1970. With nearly two kilos of hashish blocks strapped to his torso, American college student Billy Hayes finds himself sentenced to four years for smuggling drugs. As the helpless young inmate tries to get used to the cruel reality within the thick walls of the impenetrable prison, Billy struggles to complete his full sentence by enduring unspeakable abuse. But faced with unmet promises and Ankara's grave need for a scapegoat, Hayes' only hope of survival is one last appeal. This, or catch the Midnight Express. — Nick Riganas
• On October 6, 1970, American college student Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of Turkey. The Turkish courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than thirty years in prison. The prison environment is inhospitable in every sense, with a sadistic prison guard named Hamidou ruling the prison, he who relishes the mental and physical torture he inflicts on the prisoners for whatever reason. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express". — Murray Chapman <[email protected]>
• This movie is based loosely on Billy Hayes' book Midnight Express about his five year experience in the Turkish prison system. The movie was exaggerated for dramatic effect. October 6, 1970. Opening scene has a xenophobic soundtrack of machine guns, Muslim prayer cries, and synthesizer music and a glimpse of Istanbul, Turkey during twilight with shots of the Bosphorus Strait, a mosque, and the downtown area with seagulls flying about. It is portrayed as a very spooky, forbidding place. While finishing up on his vacation in Istanbul, American college student Billy Hayes (Brad Davis) is in his hotel room and straps several pounds of hashish (about two kilograms) to his body. The film's soundtrack consists of an increasing heartbeat. Billy is at the airport, nervous at being caught smuggling, goes to the washroom to wet his face and attempt to relax himself, and makes his way with his girlfriend, Susan (Irene Miracle), through customs. Billy perspires heavily, noticed by the middle aged, chain-smoking customs agent who checks his bag. After his bags are searched, both Billy and Susan board a shuttle bus to their plane. Billy smiles and is relieved, thinking he is out of danger. However, as the bus pulls up to the plane, he notices that a large detachment of armed police and soldiers have taken up positions just outside the plane. Unable to detach and discard the hashish, and sweating heavily, Billy is arrested on the spot when he is frisked by a young Turkish policeman and his comrades, who immediately point their guns at Billy, thinking he may be dangerous. Billy is taken back to security and searched, his bags being thoroughly searched and all items such as cigarettes, camera film, and toothpaste are searched and destroyed. He is forced to stand around in his underwear. Afterward, the Turkish security chief of the airport makes Billy stand for several press photographs of him holding the confiscated drugs with the smiling customs officers and then slaps them around after Billy reveals more hash in his boots they didn't find. A little later, Billy is forced to stand naked with the customs officers staring and grinning at him. An unidentified southern American man (Bo Hopkins), presumably an agent with the DEA, walks in. (Note: the mysterious American is never named, but Billy refers to him as 'Tex' due to his strong Texas drawl.) "Tex" is calm and kind with Billy and takes him to a local police station where he is is interrogated. Tex translates for a local Turkish detective whom offers Billy freedom if he points out who sold him the hash. Tex takes Billy downtown the next morning to the bazaar where he claims to have purchased the hash and tells Billy that recent terrorist airline hijackings have made the Turks much more fanatical about airport security and that the potency or type of drug that Billy was caught with doesn't matter: the Turkish government wants to appear tough on smuggling. Billy tells them he only intended to sell the hash to his friends. Billy is at the restaurant that seems to be a popular place with young American hippies where the sale happened. Unfortunately, Billy panic and tries to run from his security escort. He is quickly caught by Tex himself, whose previously friendly attitude suddenly changes for the worse as he his holding a gun to his head. During his first night in holding, Billy has his hair cut short and is put into a filthy cell by a trusty, Rifki, (Paolo Bonacelli) whom refuses to give him a blanket for warmth because he's not selling any at the time. Another prisoner tells Billy that his cell door is unlocked and that Billy can find blankets in another cell. Billy sneaks out of his tiny cell and takes two of them, one for himself and one for the other prisoner. He is later rousted out of his cell by the Rifki and taken to a filthy room where he's turned over to Hamidou, the huge and imposing captain of the guard. Hamidou trusses Billy's ankles in the air and hits the soles of his feet repeatedly with his club for stealing the blanket. Billy's feet swell immensely and he is left in horrific pain. The next morning, a small group of prisoners, Jimmy (Randy Quaid), a towering and hot-tempered American, and Erich, a kindly Swede, get him on his feet and walking (they tell him his feet will continue to swell and his recovery will be longer if he doesn't move around). Jimmy was sentenced for attempting to rob a mosque and Erich was busted for smuggling about 100 grams of hash and given a 12-year sentence. Jimmy is quite sure Billy will receive a stiff sentence, but Erich remains optimistic that he just needs a good lawyer. Jimmy shows Billy around how to navigate the minefield of the prison and, being a foreigner, not to trust any of the Turks, especially the children there who rat out prisoners to Rifki, who passes on the information to Hamidou. The prison resembles an old barracks from the 1800's. Billy is introduced to Max (John Hurt), is a bespectacled, introverted, unkempt, 30-something junkie uninterested in small talk that injects himself with "gastro" a stomach medicine with codeine. Max has been in prison the longest for drug dealing (seven years and counting), while Erich has already served four years and Jimmy around three. Billy and Erich are conversing with him to get a lawyer and Max is in a haze telling Billy about the Turkish justice system and that all Turkish lawyers are crooked and that he just needs to escape the best way he knows how, catching the "Midnight Express", a train that doesn't stop at the prison. He refers to him a lawyer named Yesil that got off a Frenchman for smuggling 200 kilos. A few weeks later, Billy's father (Mike Kellin) arrives and embraces him, forgiving his mistake and introduces him to Stanley Daniels (Michael Ensign) of the American Consulate and his requested lawyer Yesil to defend him. Yesil is a fat, shifty, greasy-haired, chain-smoking, ever-smiling man with gold teeth that promises Billy to get him the right court and judge and not to worry. Their goal is to get bail for Billy and a fake passport to get him across to Greece to leave. Billy appears before a local Turkish court in front of a panel of three judges to hear his case. Billy's shifty and uninterested lawyer does little to combat the charges brought by an angry prosecutor, who wants Billy charged with more than possession: If Billy is charged with smuggling over mere possession, his sentence will be heavier. After the three judges deliberate for an uncertain amount of time, Billy is sentenced to serve a prison term of four years and two months for possession of hashish at the Sagmalcilar Prison. Billy and his father appear devastated while his defense lawyer argues that it is a good thing because the judges (sympathetic to Billy) turned down the prosecutor's request to convict Billy for smuggling or impose a life sentence in order to make an example of him. Billy's father gives him a care package of snacks, cigarettes, writing paper, toiletries, and loses his temper that he's unable to get him out of prison. He warns Billy not to do anything stupid and that they can play with his sentence. They tearfully depart. Over the next several months, Billy slowly adjusts to prison life. Jimmy gets stabbed in the buttock for treating a Turkish prisoner badly during a volleyball game. Another time later, Billy and others witness the prison warden beat four of the young boys on their soles of their feet, believing them to have raped a new young inmate, with the warden's two pudgy sons looking on as a warning about what happens if they ever break the law. Billy is also given the truth about Rifki, the trustee, who informs on other prisoners for unheard-of privileges and favors and has a special distaste for foreigners. Rifki also sells watery tea, low-grade hashish, steals from his fellow inmates, and seems to have an unlimited (for incarceration) supply of money to bribe the poorly paid guards. When Max offends Rifki, the informant kills Max's pet cat. In June of 1972, Billy meets with his lawyer Yesil again with Yesil assuring him of convincing Turkish officials to lose his records before the high court in Ankara can review his case for the right amount of money. Billy is bored and uninterested at Yesil's visit, feeling it's all empty promises. Jimmy shows Billy and Max blueprints to the prison of catacombs. They believe they can access them through a wall in the kitchen and go underneath or simply climbing over the wall. Max dismisses Jimmy's idea as foolish and Billy does not want to risk trying to escape fearing that if he's caught it will add time to his sentence. An angry Jimmy decides to go ahead with it himself, being caught and badly beaten with a leather strap by Hamidou and sent to the sanitarium. In June of 1974, Billy's friend, Erich, is granted transfer to prison in his home country, more than likely leaving there after a short term because of Sweden's lenient laws, and leaves the prison after serving around eight years. During their time together the two form a strong bond to combat their feelings of isolation and depression. Erich tries to start a physical relationship with Billy, but Billy gently turns him down. Billy farewells with him and marks down his prison time to 53 days. While helping Jimmy clean up one morning, Jimmy informs Billy that while he was recovering from the severe injuries he suffered from Hamidou, he was taken to a ward in the prison hospital where the guards were more lax in their duties. Suddenly, Billy is informed that his case will be reviewed again. Thinking he's being let go early for good behavior, Billy rushes to meet with Stanley Daniels, the representative from the US ambassador's office in the Turkish capital city of Ankara. However, Daniels has bad news; the High Court in the Turkish capital of Ankara has heard a different argument from the prosecutor who has appealed the four-year term verdict, and is seeking to charge Billy with smuggling hashish and make an example of him. Since double-jeopardy law does not exist in Turkey like it does in the US, any accused can be tried more then once for the same crime on appeal or should new evidence surface. At another courtroom hearing, a distraught Billy rails against the three judges, the prosecutor, his own lawyer, the Turkish legal system, and the nation of Turkey itself. Speaking through a translator, with a mixture of anger and pity in his voice, the chief judge tells Billy that his hands are tied by Ankara and has no choice but to give him a life sentence. Billy is given a minimum sentence of 30 years, with time already served, for smuggling hashish. A saddened Billy sits in his cell with a sense of hopelessness that night, but now wants to go forward with Jimmy's original plan of escape. The stones used as walls in their section's kitchen are cemented in place with mortar that has weakened greatly in the dank conditions. Jimmy, Billy and Max discover two such stones and are able to remove them, finding a shaft behind them that leads to a system of flooded catacombs under the prison. The three of them spend two nights and hours searching for an escape route. However, once they do go underneath, it turns out the Turks have long since blocked off every tunnel. The three give up and replace the stones. Rifki finds their secret in the kitchen the next morning after their unsuccessful escape attempt and immediately tells Hamidou. Hamidou suspects Jimmy of being responsible after what happened the first time and drags him off for punishment again, and is never seen from then on. Billy and Max figure out a revenge scheme: they find Rifki's stash of hidden money and destroy it by burning part and boiling the other part. In retaliation, a raid is performed by Hamidou and Rifki plays a charade with Hamidou and frames Max for hashish possession. Hamidou has Max dragged off for punishment like Jimmy was. Billy snaps and savagely attacks Rifki in the washroom, chasing and beating the traitor until he bites out the man's tongue. Billy is taken away by guards, beaten, and sent to the prison's insane asylum. In October 1975, Billy has now been reduced to a catatonic and unkempt shadow of his former self in the prison's ward for the insane where he wanders in a daze among the other disturbed prisoners, many of which look mentally incapacitated. His activities seem to consist solely of walking in a circle around a pillar with other prisoners. Max is running from guards for an unknown infraction and is grabbed by Hamidou, thrown across the place and severely injured. One day a prisoner, named Ahmet, a convicted child rapist and college-educated philosopher tries to talk to him about "bad machines" to no avail. A group of men are doing their morning Muslim prayers and the guards hit the inmates with their sticks waking them up out of bed. Billy is hit, howls out of sleep, and horrified, making it evident he is suffering badly from PTSD. After five years, Billy is visited by Susan, who tells him that US senators are trying to work on his case to get him out, pleads with him to put himself together and get out of there unless he wants to die, and passes him a photo album of his family and tells him it has a picture of his "good friend, Mr. Franklin, from the bank". Susan, feeling devastated at Billy's horribly bedraggled state, also opens her blouse so Billy can masturbate. A guard takes him away, leaving Susan even more devastated. The next morning, Billy is walking the pillar in the opposite direction, which Ahmet tells him is forbidden in the Muslim code. His words seem restore some of Billy's sanity and Billy tells him that he himself is the man that makes the machines. Ahmet walks away horrified. Billy goes into the filthy sanatorium washroom and inspects the album closely, finding numerous $100 bills hidden inside the cover lining totaling around $2,000 in cash. He passes by an almost dead Max to hold on and stay alive. Max wakes up and is somewhat conscious. Billy sees Hamidou taking a restraining belt off a now dead inmate and about to leave. He approaches Hamidou with part of the money and tries to bribe his longtime enemy to take him to the sanitarium that Jimmy had spoken about. Hamidou accepts Billy's bribe but drags Billy past the entrance to the sanitarium, to a large dressing room filled with guard uniforms, with pegs set into the walls. Hamidou beats Billy, yells about how he's fed up with him, and attempts to rape him when Billy suddenly rushes Hamidou and pushes him forcefully backwards. Hamidou, flailing and trying to regain his footing, slams into the wall, driving a clothes peg into the back of his head, dying instantly. For a short time, Billy considers shooting the dead man with his sidearm but decides not to. Billy dresses himself in a guard's uniform and reclaiming his money, walks through the prison unnoticed to the front door. As he walks down the stairs, another guard stops him and throws him the keys to the door telling him (in Turkish) to remember to lock up when he checks out. Billy walks out to the street, slowing down only briefly when a police jeep rushes past him. He runs away, the frame freezing on him as he takes a victorious leap. A title card tells us that on the night of October 4, 1975, Billy was able to cross the Turkish border into Greece and flew home to the United States three weeks later. The final shots of the film before the closing credits show Billy reuniting with his family and Susan. In the original version, it was stated after having shown the movie to the Cannes film festival, there was a demand for exchange of prisoners in Turkey to be brought to America.

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Midnight express.

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Brad Davis (The Player, Chariots of Fire) and John Hurt (Contact, Alien) star in this riveting true story of a young American's nightmarish experiences in a Turkish prison and his unforgettable journey to freedom. Busted for attempting to smuggle hashish out of Istanbul, American college student Billy Hayes (Davis) is thrown into the city's most brutal jail. After suffering through four years of sadistic torture and inhuman conditions, Billy is about to be released when his parole is denied. Only his inner courage and the support of a fellow inmate (Hurt) give him the strength to catch the MIDNIGHT EXPRESS ... and escape his living hell.

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From ‘Midnight Express’ to Discovering the Allure of Turkey

By Michael T. Luongo

• Feb. 25, 2015

Many movies inspire visits to a country. Not so “Midnight Express,” adapted by Oliver Stone from Billy Hayes’s memoir recounting his 1970 arrest and imprisonment for attempting to smuggle hashish onto a flight from Istanbul to New York and his escape in 1975.

Mr. Hayes, 67, an actor and writer, lives in Southern California with his wife, Wendy West, whom he met at the movie’s Cannes Film Festival premiere in 1978.

For the last two years, they have been traveling for the one-man play “Riding the Midnight Express With Billy Hayes.” Following are edited excerpts from a conversation with Mr. Hayes.

Q. “Midnight Express” was probably not the greatest promotion for Turkish tourism, and it still comes up in conversation.

A. Brilliant film, powerfully made; everyone gave it their heart and soul. It has no good Turks, and the images of Turkey are horrific, and to this day, Turkey is still dealing with this. I was the most hated man in Turkey, because of the sentencing scene in the movie, screaming at the court, “You’re a nation of pigs!” The pain that Turkey went through following the movie, economically, emotionally. People lost their jobs.

You’ve been back since and even participated in a Turkish government ceremony in New York.

It is such a weight off the shoulders that I am around and to have me raising the Turkish flag on Wall Street (for Turkish Independence Day, Oct. 29, 2014). Now Turks are kind of amazed that I am a real person instead of just this mythical thing. In 2007, I was back in Turkey, doing a press conference during the Second Istanbul Conference on Democracy and Global Security, organized by the Turkish National Police and the Turkish Institute for Police Studies, which was good publicity for Turkey. Billy Hayes talking about how the film does not represent the country. The best thing that could happen is images of Billy Hayes walking down the streets of Istanbul free. That says it: “He’s O.K., we’re O.K.”

What is your favorite thing about Istanbul, back then and now?

I loved the hash. You ask me, I am going to tell you. And the Galata Bridge, where you see the whole city. Fishermen used to come up with their catch. I also really love the people. They have an energy about them. The history of the city, with those thousand-year-old walls, such an exotic place, with winding, cobblestone streets. In 2007, there was the healing energy of talking to Turkish media, having the Turkish cops take me around. I would love to bring the show there, but there is so much going on politically now.

Why should Americans visit Turkey?

Istanbul is an amazing city. Then you go out into the country, places like Cappadocia, and down south, along the coast. There’s a hospitality element, always people saying, “Join us.” There are a lot of countries that may not be the best places for Americans right now, but Turkey is not one of them. They love Americans there. They always did.

How did your play develop, and what are the plans for 2015?

My producer, Barbara Ligeti, developed it for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in 2013. We did London, Scotland, Barrow Street Theater in New York, and we were in Rochester’s Downstairs Cabaret Theater . March 25 to April 12 I am at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. We are still talking about other locations.

One of the jails you were in is now a Four Seasons.

I only spent one night there, the Sultanahmet Jail, before being transferred. We walked by in 2007. The guard was like, “Americans, have you been here before?” I said, “It’s a really long story.”

You’re a baby boomer. What is it like now traveling at retirement age?

New places, with new people. It’s like I am 18 or 19 again, and loving being on the road. Retirement? I don’t know what retirement is.

What’s your routine for staying fit while traveling?

All I need is Wendy and my yoga mat, and I can go anywhere. If I can’t go on stage, the show doesn’t go on. So I really am into keeping healthy. The vitamins, the food. I am really aware when I travel of not hurting things. I don’t want to be taking drugs for things. It’s a little bit ironic.

Your story is every parent’s worst nightmare about their young adult children traveling.

I get so many parents telling me, “We make our kids watch your movie.” My life at the very least is a cautionary tale.

The Truth Behind “Midnight Express”

DILLON:  I was the Country Director from summer, 1971 to the summer of 1974. It was shortly after my return to Washington that the issue of Americans in Turkish prisons broke. I can remember it very well. I was sitting in my office in January or February 1972, when I got a phone call from a woman, who told me that the last time she had seen her daughter had been on Thanksgiving 1971. She had come home and then had left to visit a friend somewhere in the south. The woman said that she had never heard from the daughter again and she was very concerned. She called me because she had just heard on the radio that four Americans — a young man and three women — had just been arrested trying to cross the border between Syria and Turkey and she was certain that her daughter was one of three Americans. I asked how she knew that. She said that she couldn’t explain it, but she was absolutely certain that her daughter was among the group arrested. I asked her if she had heard any names; she hadn’t. Had she heard any other information which would lead her to the conclusion? No.

But she turned out to be right. Her daughter had been one of four Americans arrested. Their van had been found filled with hashish. They were apparently on their way to Germany through Greece and were going to take a ferry boat from Turkey. In any case, from then on, I was deeply involved. In fact, later on, when I became the DCM [deputy chief of mission] in Ankara, the four were still in jail. I was there when they were finally released in the late ‘70s…

I saw Hayes’ father at the Department several times; it was very sad. The father spent all of his savings; he mortgaged his house on Long Island; spent all of his money on various schemes to spring his son, even though we advised him not to waste his money. But he was a sucker for any slick character who would come along and promise that for a certain amount of money, he could promise to get his son released. Of course, none of these schemes ever worked.

When Hayes got back to the U.S., he indicated to someone in my office that he was greatly upset and ashamed at what he had done to his family, who he had more or less bankrupted. He was approached by a freelance writer [William Hoffer] and offered a way to earn back some of the money that had been wasted on trying to get him released. The writer and the young man collaborated on a book that was named “Midnight Express”.

I have read it; it is not bad, but Billy Hayes admitted that the book was slightly exaggerated and dramatized. In the book he alleged that when he was first apprehended, he was beaten. He did not allege other beatings. When the movie was made, it included not only brutal treatment — there is a particularly savage scene in the movie when the young American bites the lip of a Turkish prison official who was abusing him. I don’t think any of those incidents ever occurred.

The movie also strongly implied that our own DEA played a major role in fingering Hayes; I don’t think that was true either. It was not alleged in the book and I never saw any reports that even hinted at such a possibility. Our Istanbul staff was very sympathetic towards Billy Hayes. Furthermore, DEA was not interested in tracking down individual young American hashish smugglers abroad. It was interested in large operations which would eventually impinge on drug imports into the U.S.

But both the book and the movie were very damaging to U.S.-Turkish relations. Americans, as with most people, are only too willing to blame foreigners for their problems. The drug problem was already headline material at the time; President Nixon had declared “war” on the drug trade. I really shudder at those words now.

In any case, here was an opportunity for us to blame others; we blamed them for producing opium and then we blamed them for the harsh treatment of young Americans caught smuggling. The Turks saw us as hypocrites because on the one hand we beat them over the head and shoulders constantly about drugs, but when Americans were arrested smuggling the stuff we applied massive pressure to release them on the grounds that it was damaging to the relationship with the United States. It was a very troublesome issue. It was one that various Congressmen loved to posture about and we were always caught in between. You were talking to the Turks either about tightening up their drug trafficking surveillance or about releasing Americans who had been caught in the smuggling act. We had a hard time dealing with the problem.

Charlie Wilson’s Warpath

“austria is free” post-war vienna escapes the soviet bloc, ping pong diplomacy, april 1971 — opening the road to china, one reply to “the truth behind “midnight express””.

This seems a credible. Midnight Express was one of my favorite movies as a young man under 12, seeing the movie over and over on HBO. But I have since come to be disappointed in Oliver Stone’s hyper-dramatizations, made on the basis of “creative license,” what with the JFK movie (compared to ABC News/Peter Jennings “Beyond Conspiracy”) and really having a hard time enjoying the memories now that it seems clear the entire Midnight Express movie was all just good directing, and nothing more.

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20 Things You Didn’t Know About Midnight Express

There's even more behind this controversial tale of one man's desperate escape from captivity.

The prison break movie, Midnight Express, is an exaggerated story based on the real-life arrest of an American tourist. While on vacation in Turkey, Billy Hayes, was arrested for possession of hashish and originally sentenced to four years. Towards the end of his sentence, Billy was retried for smuggling and was condemned to serve life behind bars.

While desperately trying to survive the harsh environment of Istanbul’s Sagmalcilar Prison, Hayes and a few fellow inmates made attempts to catch the midnight express (prison slang for escape). Hayes ended up spending a total of five years incarcerated before fleeing to Greece at the end of 1975.

Oliver Stone’s first blockbuster hit is now forty-two years old. It helped Stone, and director, Alan Parker, cement themselves as new and ambitious filmmakers in Hollywood and set a precedent for future prison break movies. Despite its age, the seminal movie’s ruthless exploration of life in prison still hits hard. It is also still not without controversy.

20. Dawson’s Field Hijacking

At the start of Midnight Express, we see American traveller Billy Hayes psyching himself up in an airport bathroom before he attempts to smuggle a shedload of hashish on board. Hayes’ attempt at making a quick buck through his friends back in the States is suddenly thwarted when a security guard pats Billy down before boarding. Immediately, the young American has a militia pointing their guns at him.

This may seem like simple Hollywood exaggeration. However, during September 1970, four aeroplanes had been successfully hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine members. On flights departing from Brussels, Zurich, Bahrain, and Amsterdam, PFLP members had managed to take over the control of the planes with the help of handguns, grenades and other explosive devices. Airports around Eurasia were on red alert, and security was extra tight.

Hayes’ decision to strap the hashish to his body made it appear more like a suicide vest, and that explains the initial overreaction from airport security.

I am a freelance writer with an interest in wrestling, culture, music, podcasts and literature. Currently working in projects involving creative regeneration.