There is an interview with Billy Hayes about the truth of the film Midnight Express.

Click here to see it

I watched that film....the way he descirbes it in that interview I think they over dramatized everything.

That film is so creepy. I wonder how much is actually true. Yani I know that (most) turkish prisons are bad, especially at the time the film is supposed to take place, but I also know that Hollywood tends to overdramatizise.
My hubby saw it and he wasn't so surprised, actually...

Stands to reason it was dramatised and at the time it upset the Turks quite a lot. But all in all, putting that aside it is one of the most brilliant films of all time! The young actor who played the lead, died of aids several years ago.

And also the prison is now an excusive hotel, The Four Seasons I believe.

He would have never served 30 because Ecevet let them all out....
I'm sure turkish prisons are harsh even today. Its just too bad that sentencing seems to be so light. Like this guy that bombed a McDonalds in Trabzon. How does he get less than a year? Crime in istanbul the last few years has become worrysome...

I just admire your capability of finding such topics about Turkey for discussion.
How is the prisoner's condition in your countries? Do they live in 5 star luxury hotels?
Do you like always finding such awful themes about Turkey and discuss them here, in this site? Don't you care that we are also humans, we have honor too as you are? Do you think that how much it hearts us when you start such a discussion? And how much it wounds our pride.
Please, just a little care!..

Metahan,
It seems all you do is cry and complain. The people at this site are here because they love Turkey. Rarely if ever have I seen her insulted.

All I can say to you is be a man and grow up. You are an embarassment to your people...

unfortunately nationalism sometimes takes the form of chauvinism in Turkey.

Your patriotism is rather endearing. Maybe we criticise our own countries too much?

Just a comment away from all the discussion here, cuz dont have time to read rest of discussion... but see how a smuggler escapes a sentence of life in jail and wite a book that he later turns it into a film, damn cool. but so many behind it. such a person can lie, or even make up things to make the story interesting, and he can write anything he want. um, so, hmm, wht to say now... how about i watch movie first .. oh i forgot, it's on delivery already

There is no intention to attack Turkey here. Pointing out social injustice should be done anywhere it happens. I am not talking about Turkey specifically here. However, Turks, Americans, English, Spanish, Mexicans etc. (only done for example purposes), and all others should be willing to take a look at their own country through the eyes of others sometimes. Because often others can see what we ignore. While we deplore Hollywood's exaggerations at times, often it is Hollywood that has brought international attention to social issues. There is good and bad in all!

Screenplay by OLIVER STONE.

From Netflix: "High-profile films such as Wall Street, JFK and Nixon sparked debates among critics and historians but earned many awards, while Stone's later films (Natural Born Killers, U Turn, Any Given Sunday and Alexander) were criticized for their excess."

I thought this thread was about a bloody film, and how it over dramatised a situation, not to start another "you are all critising Turkey" which of course no one is. So can we all move on please before this thread gets locked.

Well...there does seem to be an extreme sensitivity on the part of many people here to *anything* that criticizes Turkey in any way.

On the other hand:

Prison in Turkey is not pleasant. There is still plenty of abuse of prisoners. There was even more then. I have several friends who were tortured in prison. I don't know anyone who was tortured in prison in the U.S. Though recently Americans cannot afford to be too smug on that count...

The guy was after all smuggling drugs out of Turkey. If you are going to do something like that, you better damn well know the consequences. If you do, and you get caught, it's a bit late to complain about how bad prison was.

It's Hollywood. They always exaggerate things. They made Billy Hayes into some sort of hero. They conveniently showed him as "too much a man" to have a relationship with the Swedish guy (the truth was quite different), simply because they wanted to gain sympathy of an American audience who was overall turned off by something like that. And of course they turned the prison guards into "larger than life" monsters. Cause that's what Hollywood does.

ıts over dramatized film..