Directed by Alan Parker, “Midnight Express” launched the career of Oliver Stone, that of actor Brad Davis, but also attracted the wrath of the Turkish community, collateral victim of this cult work.
October 1970. Turkey is on the verge of implosion. The extreme right and the radical left clash – with, as a consequence, a military coup organized a few months later, in March 1971 – and a cholera epidemic falls on the country. That same month, William Hayes, a 23-year-old American student, was arrested at Istanbul airport. Two kilograms of hashish are taped all around his chest.
First sentenced to four years in prison, he saw his sentence extended to 30 years. If his release was announced by the government in 1978, the prisoner escaped, in 1975, at ease on a boat to reach Salonika, in Greece. “I couldn’t wait any longer. (…) I had to get out of this horrible prison. (…) I am a free man now and I have a whole life ahead of me to enjoy it”, he rejoices in an article from the New York Times dated October 22, 1975, a few days after his escape.
A year and a half later, William Hayes publishes the account of his years behind bars in a book entitled Midnight Express. Unsurprisingly, this same book is adapted to the cinema. The film is directed by Alan Parker, the script is signed by a young Oliver Stone and Brad Davis, handsome with a promising career, plays the leading role.
Presented in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 1978, the feature film caused controversy. Its violence turns viewers around the world and makes it an instant classic. Some see it as a masterpiece, others regard the film as “the CIA-backed American fascist festival scandal“.
In France, Midnight Express attracted nearly six million spectators in theaters, before winning two Oscars in 1979 – Best Adapted Screenplay for Oliver Stone and Best Music for Giorgio Moroder. If success benefits the film crew and William Hayes, Turkey pays a high price for its screen representation.
Screenshot Brad Davis in Alan Parker’s ‘Midnight Express’.
In the columns of New Yorkerin November 1978, the famous critic Pauline Kael writes : “Director Alan Parker’s work is xenophobic and melodramatic, portraying all Turks as beastly, sadistic and dirty..” In the washington postIe journalist Gary Arnold wonders in the eyes of the filmmaker: “Where does Parker’s fanatical animosity against the Turks come from? Does he hold a grudge against Lawrence of Arabia, perhaps?”
On the territory, Midnight Express is banned from cinemas. He even pays for himself the dirty reputation of “Türkiye’s most hated movie”. It took 15 years, in 1993, for it to finally be broadcast on television, without censorship. The representation made of the population and the legal system have a considerable impact on the tourism industry. From a Western point of view, the country’s image is becoming deplorable.
The new popularity of William Hayes, erected as an American hero, pushes the Turkish authorities to issue an international arrest warrant (Interpol) against him, thus preventing him from traveling much abroad.
Screenshot
Brad Davis in Alan Parker’s ‘Midnight Express’.
In 2004, as he prepares to visit Turkey for the first time since the release of the film, screenwriter Oliver Stone admits his mistakes and apologizes. He admits to have “overdramatized” the story, nevertheless drawing on testimonies from several human rights associations.
“For years I heard that the Turkish people were angry with me and I didn’t feel safe here”, he recognizes, before specifying that prison conditions have changed a lot since 1974. The Minister of Tourism at the time, Erkan Mumcu, reacts to his remarks: “The sense of regret expressed by Mr. Stone does not heal the scars of our nation, but it remains important.”
Also in 2004, in an interview for the San Francisco Chronicle, William Hayes disassociates himself, in turn, from the film. He speaks of a “gross exaggeration” and a “unilateral interpretation”. He declares : “The message of Midnight Express is not “Don’t go to Türkiye”. It’s “Don’t be stupid like I was.””
Midnight Express is available on Netflix.