Midnight express / Columbia Pictures presents a Casablanca Filmworks production ; an Alan Parker film ; screenplay by Oliver Stone ; produced by Alan Marshall and David Puttnam ; directed by Alan Parker.
Edition:
30th anniversary ed.
Publisher:
Distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Copyright Date:
2008
Description:
1 videodisc (ca. 121 min.) : sd., col. ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 booklet ([28] p. : ill. ; 19 cm.)
Originally released as a motion picture in 1978. Based on the book by William Hayes with William Hoffer. Originally produced as a motion picture in 1978. Special features: Commentary with director Alan Parker [optional audio feature]; The producers [featurette] (26 min.); The production [featurette] (25 min.); The finished film [featurette] (24 min.); Photo gallery [slide show] (13 min.); Previews (6 min.). Booklet is an essay, Anatomy of a film: The making of "Midnight Express" by Alan Parker. Brad Davis (Billy Hayes), Irene Miracle (Susan), Bo Hopkins (Tex), Paolo Bonacelli (Rifki), Paul Smith (Hamidou), Randy Quaid (Jimmy Booth), Norbert Weisser (Erich), John Hurt (Max), Mike Kellin (Mr. Hayes), Franco Diogene (Yesil), Micheal Ensign (Stanley Daniels), Gigi Ballista (Chief Judge), Kevork Malikyan (Prosecutor), Peter Jeffrey (Ahmet).
Contents:
Packing -- Security check -- Strip search -- Not afraid -- Chicken out -- Blindfold -- Peacocks -- "It's not a train" -- Sitting tight -- With good time -- Turkish revenge -- Cat call -- Blueprint -- Tortured -- Another way out -- Istanbul blues -- Like butter -- Breaking out -- Dead end -- No shape to kill -- Bad news -- Insane -- Circle walk -- Girlfriend visits -- Wrong way -- Photo album -- Bribe -- Key to freedom.
Summary:
This film is based on a true story. William Hayes, a naive young American vacationing with his girlfriend in Istanbul, Turkey, tries to smuggle a couple of kilos of hash out of the country. He is caught, thrown into a Turkish prison, and subsequently raped, tortured, and forced into the brutality that defines the inmates' constant struggle for survival. There are other foreigners there, many for smuggling, and word is that the only way out of the jail is by dying, or taking "the midnight express." Max, his friend and fellow inmate swears, "That train doesn't run around here.".
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.