Word: true
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...stage was apparently designed by an AT&T engineer who, having done his best for the world of telephone booths, decided to grace the world of theater; perhaps a troupe of leprechauns could work a dance number in there, but normal human beings have noticeable difficulties. The same holds true for the rest of the scenes: it is simply impossible to fit more than four people comfortably on that platform, which can only hurt a musical such as this, relying as it does on a large cast. Perhaps an extraordinary director and choreographer could have overcome these physical difficulties...
Although based on the outlines of a true story, "Midnight Express" is more akin to fantasy, albert a nightmarish one. How else can one explain the wholesale brutality of the Turkish characters, the unreal prison conditions, and the imaginary arbitrariness of the Turkish judicial system, not to mention Billy Hayes' unbelievably easy escape? Not one technique is spared to impress on the audience the repulsiveness of Turkey. Violent scenes are accompanied by Turkish folk music as if to show the necessary relationship between the two. Even the normally beautiful Istanbul skyline is transformed by the camera into somber and gloomy...
...concerned, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion (reluctantly since I have a Cambridge PhD) that Harvard graduate work, at least in my field, is rather more rigorous than what one finds at Ox-bridge and, generally, a better preparation for university teaching. It is true that Ox-bridge PhD candidates are given a great deal of independence, but very few of those I was with at Cambridge considered this "exhilarating." I think we though of it more in the way of benign neglect. Peter Dale Senior Tutor, Adams House
...Having finally broken the bonds of propriety, I, like a proper Victorian gentleman, reserved my screwing for sluts and kept my true loves on a pedestal...
...only rarely spreads to his direction and writing. Like the rest of the film, the star is at his worst when he lays on calculated doses of sentiment and sensitivity; at such times, Stallone seems more in touch with imagined demands of the box office than his own instincts. True, his sloppy side eventually buries the movie, but deep within Paradise Alley you can hear an original comic voice struggling to burst out. - Frank Rich