Midnight Express

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Midnight Express

R

1978

2h 1m

Drama

Biography

Crime

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

90%

Tomatometer

31 Reviews

88%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

Billy Hayes (Brad Davis) is a young American caught by Turkish police while attempting to smuggle hash out of Istanbul. He's tried and sent to prison for four years, where he endures all manner of privation and abuse. As he finishes up his time, he's shocked to learn that the Turkish High Court has added a further 30 years to his sentence. He is now thoroughly demoralized, and his life in prison grows increasingly unbearable until he concludes that escape is his only option.

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Critics Consensus

Raw and unrelenting, Midnight Express is riveting in its realistic depiction of incarceration -- mining pathos from the simple act of enduring hardship.

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Pauline Kael

The New Yorker

09/18/2023

Midnight Express is single-minded in its brutal manipulation of the audience: this is a clear-cut case of the use of film technique split off from any artistic impulse.

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Jay Scott

Globe and Mail

08/11/2022

Just another prison break movie... but I liked it.

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Ed Potton

The Times (UK)

06/22/2018

4/5

It's a film that probably wouldn't be made today, but it taps into a potent fear: losing your liberty far from home.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Jul 6

3.5/4

An emotionally gripping drama.

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Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

08/09/2023

6/10

Its strict adherence to facts isn’t necessarily as potent as the cinematic cautionary tale that it generates, though the depicted events will surely inspire further research into Hayes’ genuine plight.

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Alistair Lawrence

Common Sense Media

03/03/2021

2/5

Brutal, dated prison drama has drugs, language, stereotypes.

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Russ G

Dec 9

A very effective film; so effective that you won't want to view it a second time!

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Don V

@bondo150 Nov 29

It defined the hell of a Turkish prison whil portraying the humanity needed to survive such a terrible place

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Shaun R

@Shaun666 Oct 17

What a film!!! If this isn’t an education in not f’in about abroad, then I don’t know what is. I watched this at a young age and never forgot it and it’s something I think about to this day everytime I go abroad. Still as powerful now as it’s ever been. It catches the filth of the place and the pain endured more than most films put together.

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Jack M

Aug 30

Parker succeeds in making the prison into a full, real, rounded world, a microcosm of human behavior;

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thiago s

@Thiagostone Aug 18

Filme mais ou menos para bacaninha, o roteiro é fraco, as cenas são mais ou menos, a história é mais ou menos, o elenco é mais ou menos, e ninguém ajuda a melhorar o filme, os personagens são fracos, e o filme deveria ter cenas bem melhores e relevantes, só do meio para o final, que o filme começou a ficar mais ou menos para bacaninha, e o final é bacaninha.

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EE D

Jul 24

The movie opens up slowly as for me it was annoying to see how a kid who decided to do a stupid thing wasn't happy about the outcome but after that when we see what's happening in the Turkish jail i did start to root for him

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Synopsis

Billy Hayes (Brad Davis) is a young American caught by Turkish police while attempting to smuggle hash out of Istanbul. He's tried and sent to prison for four years, where he endures all manner of privation and abuse. As he finishes up his time, he's shocked to learn that the Turkish High Court has added a further 30 years to his sentence. He is now thoroughly demoralized, and his life in prison grows increasingly unbearable until he concludes that escape is his only option.

Director: Alan Parker
Producer: Alan Marshall, David Puttnam
Screenwriter: William Hayes, William Hoffer, Oliver Stone
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Production Co: Columbia Pictures
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Biography, Crime
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 1, 1978, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 16, 2012
Runtime: 2h 1m
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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