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Based on a true story that is considerably fictionalized
for the sake of “entertainment”, Alan Parker’s “Midnight
Express” remains a brutal film experience. Billy Hayes (the
late Brad Davis) gets caught trying to smuggle out a couple
of pounds of hash back to the United States on his trip
home. The only problem is that he’s caught by Turkish customs
as he’s leaving. Hayes gets a go to jail card and never
get out “free” after being caught in the black hole of the
Turkish prison system. Hayes did something wrong but not
something that deserved 30 years in prison (which is what
he gets in Turkey) by the U.S. definition of justice at
the time when a higher court reject s the recommendation
of the judge that tries him. Suddenly lost in the black
hole of a foreign justice system that he doesn’t understand
Hays begins planning his escape out of the hell house he
has been thrown into. Unfortunately, day-by-day Hays loses
his sense of hope, reality and sanity as he continues to
suffer humiliation in a brutal prison system that makes
the United States prison system look like a vacation at
Disneyland. ***
Oliver Stone’s screenplay eschews politics focusing
on the humiliation and brutality that Hayes and other prisoners
trapped within the Turkish prison system face. It’s a brilliantly
structured film that immediately has us identifying with
Hayes even though he was doing something wrong. All of us
at one time whether it be at the hands of a police officer
giving us a speeding ticket or a child being punished for
taking something that didn’t belong to them have experienced
humiliation that is out of proportion to the offense that
we’ve committed. It seems that giving authority to someone
hungry for it (and often even those that aren’t)results
in misuse of power and the dehumanization of those they
have authority over. It’s called the bully syndrome where
the power you’ve given someone over you and others causes
a distortion of their sense of self as a means to make up
for a lack of self esteem and distinguish yourself from
those “beneath you”. It’s seen in the work place and has
become the largest problem outside of sexual harassment
that American business currently faces. Likewise, it exists
in other environments as well and Hayes becomes the victim
of this “process”. He essentially becomes less than human
as seen by his captors suddenly giving them permission to
treat him as less than human. ***
One of the strengths of Parker’s film, Davis’ performance
and Stone’s screenplay is that they manage to create a credible
sympathetic character from the very beginning of the film
even though he has committed a criminal act. The film could
easily have gone wrong in less skilled hands but Parker
creates a sense of identification and paranoia that informs
the opening sequence of the film and Parker plays off of
that sense of being out-of-place to force us the audience
to identify with Hayes very quickly. Stone’s screenplay
simplifies the situation somewhat making Hayes into a naïve
American unaware of the ramifications of what he was doing.
That is a bit difficult to believe (when you enter countries
that have harsh drug laws they often have signs up at customs
warning you of the ramifications for example if you travel
to Taiwan they have signs that tell you that importing illegal
drugs into the country is punishable by death—no exceptions.
It’s harsh but it solves a lot of problems for them). ***
Parker’s film is flawed though. Aside from the questionable
and simplified politics of the story, Parker has a difficult
time portraying the passage of time in his film with any
conviction relying on hackneyed methods as he compresses
time into a ridiculously short span on screen. His strategy
works only if you are pulled into the story. There could
have been other ways to tell the same story –for example
the story could have been told with Hayes already in prison
greeting another “new” prisoner and reflecting on similar
circumstances that got him there. If he became one of Hayes’
‘friends” in prison it could have worked integrating a longer
period of time without causing the diffusion of tension.
Throwing together scenes with similar circumstances and
using an injury or difference in the “look” of Hayes could
have expanded on the time frame realistically giving us
these events and allowing us to experience the same sense
of isolation and the loss of humanity that Hayes experienced
without going overboard with flashbacks (much as the structure
of “Citizen Kane” does). Film is a fluid medium and the
sophistication of the audience at following a complex structure
is often underestimated causing a film with as much potential
as “Midnight Express” to rely on clichéd ideas to express
the outcome of very fundamental situations. Combine that
with Stone’s typical approach of using the characters or
situations in a film to mouth simple political monologues
at the expense of richer, more complex and politically complicated
stories (a flaw that exists in a lot of Stone’s films from
“Platoon” to “JFK”)and you have a film that succeeds in
spite of itself. What makes “Midnight Express” so compelling
is the fact that this could happen to ANYONE and it could
even happen here (if you doubt that take a look at the elimination
of due process as part of the post 9/11 landscape involving
terrorism). It’s a familiar story—a stranger in a strange
land lost amid a dizzying array of laws and a language that
he or she doesn’t understand. ***
"Midnight Express" is a fine film for all its flaws
from the simplified politicalized story, to the cliched
presentation of Hayes story using conventional narrative
devices that undermine the unique elements of the story.
It's not something I suspect most viewers will want to watch
more than once even though it had noble intentions. There
are many high profile films that fall into this category
(for example "Schindler's List" is not a movie I had to
see more than once to appreciate its power but I'm glad
that Spielberg made it and Spielberg also managed to avoid
most of the pitfalls that dog Parker and Stone with this
film). ---
Image & Sound:
“Midnight Express” looks surprisingly good in its high
def premiere. Colors don’t pop but they never did for this
movie which is made up of darker and washed out colors.
Skin tones look natural throughout the film. Be aware that
“Midnight Express” is a grainy looking film but it was meant
to look that way to begin with. Luckily, Sony hasn’t over
processing the image or cleaned it up robbing it of its
gritty look. ***
While the 5.1 lossless soundtrack doesn’t quite impress
as much as the image of the film, it’s still quite good
in conveying the sense of isolation that Hayes and the other
characters feel in the film. ---
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