Word: expression
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...experiences of a would-be American dope smuggler in the hellish prisons of a Middle Eastern country and his eventual escape make up the plot of Alan Parker's shattering new film, Midnight Express, but to so limit the description of the movie is something akin to samming up Citizen Kane as the filmic biography of a newspaper magnate. Like all extraordinary movies based on real people or actual events, Midnight Express has boldly transcended the limits of its true-life story to bring forth a larger-than-life refinement. The five-year incarceration of Billy Hayes becomes an inspiring...
There is a raw, uncontrolled quality about Midnight Express that accounts for the film's magnetic pull on the viewer. The violence is graphic and uncompromising, mindful of no boundaries imposed by discretion or "good taste," whatever that might be. Brad Davis' performance as Billy reinforces this no-holds-barred quality, and in virtually any type of movie, the acting job he delivers might have served as an embarassing distraction. But Midnight Express was just the right film for a newcomer like Davis willing to throw himself into the lead role with precisely that lack of restraint. His grimaces, anguished...
...supporting cast of Midnight Express complements Davis's performance by providing appropriate counterpoints to his character and acting style. Randy Quaid in particular shines as Jimmy Booth, the slightly psychotic American imprisoned for stealing two candlesticks from a Turkish mosque. Like the other actors in the movie. Quaid has taken on a challenging role, a character whose overwhelming survival instincts constantly inspire new getaway plans while a consuming cynicism eats away any remaining humanity left in him. Jimmy Booth's tough-as-nails bearing clashes with the injured pride of Billy when they first meet in the prison courtyard...
...this serves as a prelude to what is perhaps the most emotionally exhausting scene of Midnight Express. After the passage of half a decade, Billy's girl friend Susan (Irene Miracle) visits the prison to give Billy a photo album which conceals several $100 bills. The scene is relentlessly painful, especially when an almost incoherent Billy insists that Susan shed her blouse to give him the first glimpse of a woman's breasts in five years, even if it is through a pane of glass. Yet by some minor miracle, the brief encounter has the desired effect on Billy...
There is no question that Midnight Express is a manipulative film. The fervid indictment of the Turkish nation delivered by Billy ("For a nation of pigs, it's funny you don't eat them.") has occasioned protests of the film from Ankara and Turkish students living in the United States. Other touches added by Parker only underline the anti-Turkish prespective of the film: subtitles seem to have been deliberately omitted, thereby inflicting an incomprehensible gibberish on anyone who does not speak Turkish; the swarthy faces of Turksih prision guards and interrogrators often fill the screen, making them...