Midnight Express (1978) Midnight tonight on Sky Movies Select (2 wins from 6 noms)
Greasy, sweaty and scuzzy, Alan Parker’s Midnight Express is a brilliantly atmospheric telling of Billy Hayes’s real(ish) event – 5 years spent at the hands of the Turkish penal system in the early 1970s after attempting to smuggle out two kilos of hashish.
Although we know Hayes to be guilty of his crime, Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning (and sometimes jarringly anti-Capitalistic) screenplay sympathises with his struggles to maintain a sane mind amidst the claustrophobia of Istanbul incarceration. A stench redolent of the dank cells and darker corruption is palpable as Hayes and his fellow inmates strive to catch the ‘midnight express’; prisonese for escape.
Newcomer Brad Davis takes the lead role, and while a more accomplished star may have given a more rounded, subtle portrayal, Davis’s anonymity suits the character perfectly. He is an everyman, an average Joe. This trait risked being forgotten had a bonafide big-ticket name of the late 70s (e.g. Pacino, Beatty, Nicholson) been cast and Parker’s decision to avoid this temptation is well-rewarded.
But that isn’t to say that Davis gives a disappointing performance. In a scene where Hayes discusses his offence with his father, he regresses into an infantile state, clutching on to his dad’s lapels like a toddler, wanting to be coddled and cradled to safety. A key scene at the end of the second act, where we see the protagonist finally snap, worn down by ‘the system’, is also a feather in Davis’s cap; one can practically see the transformation behind his eyes. That said, the success of this pivotal juncture owes mainly to Parker’s expertise and a remarkable shot – the camera zooms fully in to Hayes’s bloodstained, yelling face while the viewer hears only Islamic chanting. Quite sublime.
Parker’s wisdom to cast unknown players pays further dividends in John Hurt’s gnarled, drug-addicted prisoner, Max. As cracked-up and feckless as the battered round rim spectacles that he wears, Hurt looks something resembling a Sergeant Pepper era Beatle, but one who has indulged in even more mind bending substances than the Fab-Four themselves – put together. An outstanding supporting performance, Hurt won the Golden Globe and earned the first of his two Oscar nominations, losing out to Christopher Walken’s iconic, Russian Rouletting work in The Deer Hunter.
Giorgio Moroder, the German electronica pioneer and Daft Punk luvvie, picked up an Oscar for his strangely-gelling synth filled Original Score, and perhaps Parker would have taken home the big one but for striking similarities to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest which swept the board two years earlier. Another indictment of cruel and brutal institutionalisation. Midnight Express shares a similarly trapped McMurphyish anti-hero and the haunting screams of inmates as they’re dragged away to some unthinkable, unwarranted basement-based punishment.
But such comparisons should not detract from the grimy excellence of Parker’s Midnight Express; a predictably diverse and evocative addition to the 2013 Bafta Fellow’s phenomenal filmography.
Midnight Express; 1978; Dir: Alan Parker; Stars: Brad Davis, John Hurt, Randy Quaid; 120 mins; 8/10; 2 wins (Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score); 4 further nominations (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Editing)
Bloscars 