Midnight Express (film)
Encyclopedia
Released on October 6, 1978, the soundtrack to Midnight Express was composed by Italian synth-pioneer
Giorgio Moroder
. The score won the Academy Award for Best Original Score of 1978.
Side A:
Side B:
, 95% of film critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 20 reviews.
Negative criticisms focused mainly on its unfavorable portrayal of Turkish people. In Mary Lee Settle
's 1991
book Turkish Reflections, she writes, "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." When the Lights Go Down criticizes the film as well, saying, "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 the film 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 movie – guardian or prisoner – were portrayed as "losers" and "swines" and that "without exception [all the Turks] are presented as degenerate, stupid slobs".
Turkish Cypriot film director Dervis Zaim wrote a thesis at Warwick University on the representation of Turks in the film, where he concluded that the one-dimensional portrayal of the Turks as "terrifying" and "brutal" served merely to reinforce the sensational outcome and was likely influenced by such factors as Orientalism and Capitalism.
(Giorgio Moroder
) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
(Stone). It was also nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
(John Hurt), Best Director
, Best Film Editing
and Best Picture
.
The film was also entered into the 1978 Cannes Film Festival
.
, recorded during the 1999 Cannes Film Festival
, in which he described his experiences and expressed his disappointment with the film adaptation. In an article for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
, Hayes was reported as saying that the film "depicts all Turks as monsters."
When he visited Turkey in 2004, screenwriter Oliver Stone, who won an Academy Award
for the film, made an apology for the portrayal of the Turkish people in the film. He "eventually apologised for tampering with the truth."
Alan Parker, Oliver Stone and Billy Hayes were invited to attend a special film screening with prisoners in the garden of an L-type prison in Döşemealtıas, Turkey as part of the 47th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in October 2010.
Innovator
An innovator in a general sense, is a person or an organization who is one of the first to introduce into reality something better than before. That often opens up a new area for others and achieves an innovation.-History:...
Giorgio Moroder
Giorgio Moroder
Hansjörg "Giorgio" Moroder is an Italian record producer, songwriter and performer based in Los Angeles. When in Munich in the 1970s, he started his own record label called Oasis Records, which several years later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records...
. The score won the Academy Award for Best Original Score of 1978.
Side A:
- ChaseChase (song)Chase is an electronic instrumental by Giorgio Moroder from the Academy Award-winning soundtrack and album Midnight Express , then extended and released as maxi single and made the Hot 100 singles charts in January of 1979, charting as high as #33....
– Giorgio MoroderGiorgio MoroderHansjörg "Giorgio" Moroder is an Italian record producer, songwriter and performer based in Los Angeles. When in Munich in the 1970s, he started his own record label called Oasis Records, which several years later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records...
(8:24) - Love's Theme – Giorgio MoroderGiorgio MoroderHansjörg "Giorgio" Moroder is an Italian record producer, songwriter and performer based in Los Angeles. When in Munich in the 1970s, he started his own record label called Oasis Records, which several years later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records...
(5:33) - Theme from Midnight Express (Instrumental) – Giorgio MoroderGiorgio MoroderHansjörg "Giorgio" Moroder is an Italian record producer, songwriter and performer based in Los Angeles. When in Munich in the 1970s, he started his own record label called Oasis Records, which several years later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records...
(4:39)
Side B:
- Istanbul Blues (Vocal) – David Castle (3:17)
- The Wheel – Giorgio MoroderGiorgio MoroderHansjörg "Giorgio" Moroder is an Italian record producer, songwriter and performer based in Los Angeles. When in Munich in the 1970s, he started his own record label called Oasis Records, which several years later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records...
(2:24) - Istanbul Opening – Giorgio MoroderGiorgio MoroderHansjörg "Giorgio" Moroder is an Italian record producer, songwriter and performer based in Los Angeles. When in Munich in the 1970s, he started his own record label called Oasis Records, which several years later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records...
(4:43) - Cacophoney – Giorgio MoroderGiorgio MoroderHansjörg "Giorgio" Moroder is an Italian record producer, songwriter and performer based in Los Angeles. When in Munich in the 1970s, he started his own record label called Oasis Records, which several years later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records...
(2:58) - Theme from Midnight Express (Vocal) – Chris BennettChris Bennett (musician)Chris Bennett is a Grammy-nominated singer, pianist, songwriter and Jazz performer.Bennett was born in Marshall, Illinois...
(4:47)
Reception
Midnight Express was generally well-received by critics. At the film review aggregator site Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, 95% of film critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 20 reviews.
Negative criticisms focused mainly on its unfavorable portrayal of Turkish people. In Mary Lee Settle
Mary Lee Settle
Mary Lee Settle was an American writer and winner of the National Book Award for her 1978 novel Blood Tie...
's 1991
1991 in literature
The year 1991 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Douglas Coupland publishes the novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularizing the term Generation X as the name of the generation....
book Turkish Reflections, she writes, "The Turks I saw in Lawrence of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia (film)
Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 British film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel through his British company, Horizon Pictures, with the screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. The film stars Peter O'Toole in the title role. It is widely...
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." When the Lights Go Down criticizes the film as well, saying, "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
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
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
David Denby (film critic)
David Denby is an American journalist, best known as a film critic for The New Yorker magazine.-Background and education:Denby grew up in New York City. He received a B.A...
of New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
criticized the film as "merely anti-Turkish
Anti-Turkism
Anti-Turkism, also known as Turcophobia or anti-Turkish sentiment, is the hostility, intolerance or racism against the Turkish people, Turkish culture, or Turkey ....
, and hardly a defense of prisoners' rights or a protest against prison conditions". Denby said also that all Turks in the movie – guardian or prisoner – were portrayed as "losers" and "swines" and that "without exception [all the Turks] are presented as degenerate, stupid slobs".
Turkish Cypriot film director Dervis Zaim wrote a thesis at Warwick University on the representation of Turks in the film, where he concluded that the one-dimensional portrayal of the Turks as "terrifying" and "brutal" served merely to reinforce the sensational outcome and was likely influenced by such factors as Orientalism and Capitalism.
Awards and nominations
Midnight Express won Academy Awards for Best Music, Original ScoreAcademy Award for Original Music Score
The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
(Giorgio Moroder
Giorgio Moroder
Hansjörg "Giorgio" Moroder is an Italian record producer, songwriter and performer based in Los Angeles. When in Munich in the 1970s, he started his own record label called Oasis Records, which several years later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records...
) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay
The Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
(Stone). It was also nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
(John Hurt), Best Director
Academy Award for Directing
The Academy Award for Achievement in Directing , usually known as the Best Director Oscar, is one of the Awards of Merit presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to directors working in the motion picture industry...
, Best Film Editing
Academy Award for Film Editing
The Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...
and Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
.
The film was also entered into the 1978 Cannes Film Festival
1978 Cannes Film Festival
The 31st Cannes Film Festival was held on May 16-30. This festival saw the introduction of a new non-competitive section, 'Un Certain Regard', which replaces 'Les Yeux Fertiles' , 'L'Air du temps' and 'Le Passé composé'.- Jury :*Alan J...
.
Legacy
An amateur interview with Hayes appeared on YouTubeYouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, recorded during the 1999 Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
, in which he described his experiences and expressed his disappointment with the film adaptation. In an article for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is an online newspaper and former print newspaper covering Seattle, Washington, United States, and the surrounding metropolitan area...
, Hayes was reported as saying that the film "depicts all Turks as monsters."
When he visited Turkey in 2004, screenwriter Oliver Stone, who won an Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for the film, made an apology for the portrayal of the Turkish people in the film. He "eventually apologised for tampering with the truth."
Alan Parker, Oliver Stone and Billy Hayes were invited to attend a special film screening with prisoners in the garden of an L-type prison in Döşemealtıas, Turkey as part of the 47th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in October 2010.
In popular culture
- In the The SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
seventh episode of season three, "Treehouse of Horror IITreehouse of Horror II"Treehouse of Horror II" is the seventh episode of The Simpsons third season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 31, 1991. It is the second annual Treehouse of Horror episode, consisting of three self-contained segments, told as dreams of Lisa, Bart and Homer. In the...
" (which aired on October 31, 1991), LisaLisa SimpsonLisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
dreams that the family is vacationing in MarrakechMarrakechMarrakech or Marrakesh , known as the "Ochre city", is the most important former imperial city in Morocco's history...
. When they board the plane to go home HomerHomer SimpsonHomer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
is stopped and searched while grim and suspenseful music plays. Homer's shirt is examined and reveals that he has taped souvenirs to his body as officers hold him at gunpoint in a reference to the film's arrest scene. An officer tells him he must "pay a fine of two American dollars," to which Homer happily replies, "O.K."
- In an episode of SCTVSecond City TelevisionSecond City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...
, one of the skits is entitled "The Midnight Express Special", a TV program set in a Turkish prison. Parodies of famous singers such as John DenverJohn DenverHenry John Deutschendorf, Jr. , known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer/songwriter, activist, and humanitarian. After growing up in numerous locations with his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. His greatest commercial success...
, Anne MurrayAnne MurrayMorna Anne Murray CC, ONS is a Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary styles whose albums have sold over 54 million copies....
(portrayed by Andrea MartinAndrea MartinAndrea Louise Martin is an American and Canadian actress and comedienne. She has appeared in films such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, on stage in productions such as My Favorite Year, Fiddler on the Roof and Candide, and in the television series, SCTV.-Personal life:Martin, the oldest of three...
) and others perform, and each is arrested by prison guards in mid-performance as they believe that the song's lyrics are allusionary references to illegal drugs.
- In the song "Sanctified" by Nine Inch NailsNine Inch NailsNine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
, a sample of Billy's letter-writing voice-over can be heard.
External links
- Midnight Express truth revealed by Alinur (Part 1 – Part 2): Interview with Hayes about the movie at YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. - Script of movie by Oliver Stone (pdf)