Midnight Express

Alan Parker’s film comes from Billy Hayes’s 1977 memoir, adapted by Oliver Stone. Permission to film in Istanbul was denied, so production moved to Malta; the prison on screen is the lower part of Valletta’s Fort Saint Elmo. The 51st Academy Awards brought 6 nominations and 2 wins: Stone for a screenplay based on material from another medium, Giorgio Moroder for original score. It lost Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor and Film Editing. The 36th Golden Globes gave 6 wins from 8 nominations: drama picture, John Hurt, Stone, Moroder, plus new star of the year for Brad Davis and Irene Miracle. The 32nd BAFTAs gave 3 from 6: Direction, Supporting Actor for Hurt, Editing for Gerry Hambling. Stone came to Turkey in 2004, his first visit since the film appeared, and apologised for over dramatising the screenplay. Hayes said that year that the film casts every Turk as a monster, with not one good Turk on screen. Turkey banned it after Cannes; the ban ended on 6 April 1993, when the private channel HBB aired it uncut. A good fit if you want an adaptation read against its source, with what its writer and the man who lived it said later. Not for anyone expecting a balanced picture of Turkey and Turkish people; its own writer did not defend that.