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Although he had previously helmed a few advertising jobs-for-hire and the gimmicky kid-musical Bugsy Malone, you can trace director Alan Parker’s stylistic beginnings back to the Oscar-nominated Midnight Express — a dark and dour prison melodrama penned by none other than future auteur Oliver Stone. Bugsy Malone notwithstanding, Midnight Express is the first movie that had all the makings of “an Alan Parker film” — from the stark realism and violence inherent in the Turkish prison to the idea of one man struggling to break free from the shackles of injustice — it’s the type of story that Parker loves to expound on (and sometimes exploit) for the sake of drama. Like most Parker films, Midnight Express was also the subject of heated controversy when first released. Having been advertised as being “based on a true story,” Stone’s Oscar-winning screenplay adaptation of the novel by real-life prisoner Billy Hayes played fast and loose with the facts. While the real-life Billy Hayes initially cooperated with the filmmakers and was supportive of the film project, he later recanted and said he was ultimately disappointed with the movie. And the Turkish government also took umbrage with how they were portrayed in the film as well — a stark stereotype for which writer Oliver Stone later made a public apology. Of course, a little controversy never deterred Alan Parker — in fact, it would become par for the course with him on future projects such as Pink Floyd The Wall, Angel Heart, Mississippi Burning and Evita, to name just a few.

Parker’s film version of Midnight Express, as written by Oliver Stone and loosely based on the real-life exploits of Billy Hayes and his published memoirs co-written with William Hoffer, begins in October 1970 when Hayes (Brad Davis) is about to leave Istanbul, Turkey after a brief stay. In the opening scenes we watch as Hayes methodically wraps bricks of hashish in tin foil and then tapes them to his chest and torso in an effort to smuggle the valuable drug out of the country. Of course, Hayes’ obvious nervousness raises the suspicions of Turkish authorities and just as he’s about to board the plane a group of soldiers pat him down and discover the hidden contraband. Leaving his girlfriend Susan (Irene Miracle) to board the plane back home, Billy is taken into custody and brought before the Turkish court. Having found he attempted to smuggle over two kilograms of the drug out of the country, Hayes is initially sentenced to serve four years and two months in one of the country’s harshest prisons. When he first arrives he befriends a group of other Westerners also incarcerated with him — a drug-addicted Englishman named Max (John Hurt), a homosexual Scandanavian named Erich (Norbert Weisser), and a fellow American named Jimmy (Randy Quaid) with emotional problems. But Hayes soon learns that being held captive in this strange, foreign land isn’t going to be a cakewalk … especially when the hulking prison guard Hamidou (Paul Smith) seems intent on constantly tormenting and torturing Billy.

Saddled with an incompetent and uncaring Turkish public defender, Billy’s four-year-plus sentence — which would have been sufficient for simple possession — is now expanded to a whopping 30 years since the government has determined he planned to sell and distribute the drug back in the United States and they now want to make an example of him for other would-be “tourists.” Working with the American embassy and consulate, Billy’s girlfriend Susan and his frantic father (Mike Kellin) try to pull all the strings they can to get Billy’s sentence reduced — but to no avail. Meanwhile, the conditions inside the Turkish prison escalate to such a point that Billy fears he may not be able to take it much longer. Not only does Hamidou frequently assault and rape Billy, but he intentionally beats him and tortures him, hanging him by his feet and clubbing his bare soles with a bat. Add to that the filth, violence, inedible food and unsanitary conditions, and Billy decides he needs to find a way out well before his unthinkable 30-year sentence is up. As such, he hatches an escape plan to take the “midnight express” to freedom with his fellow inmates. While most of his small-knit group is willing to help and cooperate, they also fear the potential repercussions involved and note that no one has successfully escaped from the prison and lived to tell the tale.

When Hamidou senses Billy is becoming a potential troublemaker, he has him transferred to a separate and more isolated section of prison for those with mental and emotional problems. Effectively cutting Billy off from his support system of friends, the only mate he now has any direct contact with is the Englishman Max, who also gets a one-way ticket to the whack-job ward. Inhumanly patient and persistent, Billy bides his time amidst the insane inmates, blankly staring back at them and falling in line with them as they literally walk in circles around a “wheel” in a crude form of daily exercise. When Billy discusses his latest plan to escape with Max, another inmate overhears the discussion and reports what is said to Hamidou, who confronts Billy about it. Furious and frenzied, Billy goes ballistic and denies the whole thing, attacking the snitch and beating him senseless until he ultimately bites out the informant’s tongue in a fit of rage. Defeated and nearly broken, Billy is subjected to even more cruel and unusual punishment but one night as Hamidou prepares to once again have his way with him, Billy fights back and accidentally kills the hulking brute. Seeing this as his one and only final chance to escape, he dons the prison guard’s uniform and puts on a brave face, casually walking his way to freedom. In the end the movie is not so much about the violence and deplorable conditions within the Turkish prison system, but one man’s amazing resilience and never-ending will to survive.

Replete with every conceivable cliché and plot device that now defines a “prison movie,” Midnight Express is nevertheless an effective and poignant melodrama cemented with raw and unnerving performances from the entire cast. Leading the way is the late Brad Davis in a wonderfully realistic and often disturbing turn as Billy Hayes. Parker has said how lucky he was to have cast Davis in the role and how his performance essentially made the movie. But the supporting cast is equally adept, too, with a stellar turn from John Hurt in his Oscar-nominated role; a young and vulnerable Randy Quaid playing an atypically reserved character; and the talented character actor Norbert Weisser opting to only allow glimpses into his character’s nature without resorting to obvious and flamboyant affectations. While much has been made about both the “fictional” elements Stone embellished for the film version and its unblinking depiction of graphic violence, it all works to the movie’s overall benefit and helps build a consistent tone of dread and despair — something that Alan Parker was more than willing to capitalize on. Like one of his best-known future projects — Pink Floyd The Wall — Midnight Express can best be described as a movie that is “unrelentingly grim” and yet “compulsively watchable.”

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