MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (1978) C widescreen 120m dir: Alan Parker

w/Brad Davis, Randy Quaid, Bo Hopkins, John Hurt, Paul Smith, Mike Kellin, Norbert Weisser, Irene Miracle, Paolo Bonacelli, Michael Ensign

From The Movie Guide: "Riveting from the word go. The acting is superb, the direction is excellent, and [Giorgio] Moroder's score is exhilarating. Based on the true life story of Billy Hayes (who later became an actor), it begins as he (played by Davis) and girlfriend Susan (Miracle) are about to leave for home after a trip to Turkey. On the alert for drug smugglers, officials at the airport catch Hayes with blocks of hashish taped to his body. In a brilliantly tense scene he is herded at gunpoint to a room where he is stripped and interrogated, then taken to a fierce Turkish prison. Here comfort means a night when someone isn't brutally raped or beaten. Hayes meets many of the other inmates, including a few Westerners in there for the same drug raps: American Jimmy (Quaid), Englishman Max (Hurt), and Scandinavian Erich (Weisser), a gay man with whom Hayes has a brief sexual liaison. Billy's father (Kellin) attempts to get his son out of jail, but the Turkish legal system is bent on making him an example to other potential smugglers. In a sensational courtroom scene Hayes berates his captors with an obscene lambasting of the judges, most of whom don't speak English and have no idea what he's saying. He is sentenced to more years than he thought he's get and, once remanded to the jail, makes plans to take the 'midnight express,' i.e. escape.

"All the performances are top-notch. Quaid's portrayal of the slightly deranged American is outstanding; Hurt, as the addicted Englishman, is a study in understatement; Weisser is totally believable; and Smith must rank a close second to Hume Cronyn's Captain Munsey in BRUTE FORCE for sheer evil in a prison official. But the standout is Davis, who is given the task of displaying just about every emotion known to man. MIDNIGHT EXPRESS is occasionally a bit too stylish for its own good, something that may have been an indulgence on the part of director Parker. He is, nonetheless, a talent to be reckoned with, and both he and editor [Gerry] Hambling won British Film Academy Awards for their work."

MIDNIGHT EXPRESS won two Oscars: Best Adapted Screenplay (Oliver Stone, based on the book by Billy Hayes and William Hoffer) and Score (Moroder). It was also nominated for Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Hurt), and Editing (Hambling).