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Midnight Express (1978)

tomatometer

95

Average Rating: 7.8/10
Reviews Counted: 21
Fresh: 20 | Rotten: 1

No consensus yet.

No Reviews Yet...

Release Date: Sep 20, 1978 Wide

audience

88

liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 28,625

My Rating

Movie Info

Midnight Express is a harrowing tale of a naïve American caught in a nightmare of his own making thousands of miles from his home. Billy Hayes (Brad Davis) is an American tourist visiting Turkey with his girlfriend Susan (Irene Miracle) when he's caught by customs officials trying to smuggle a large amount of hashish out of the country. The crime would normally carry a sentence of four years, but officials decide to make an example of Billy, and he draws a 30-year sentence despite the promises

R, 2 hr. 1 min.

Mystery & Suspense, Drama

Oliver Stone

May 22, 2001

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Cast

All Critics (23) | Top Critics (1) | Fresh (23) | Rotten (1) | DVD (13)

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

August 15, 2011 Full Review Source: Oscar Guy | Comment
Oscar Guy

a brutal and brutalizing film whose effects have diminished little in the decades since its controversial theatrical release in the late 1970s

July 22, 2009 Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | Comment
Q Network Film Desk

Strong stuff indeed...swells proportional sight and sound subjectively to convey Hayes' nightmarish experience but also hypes up a story that probably doesn't need the help. [Blu-ray]

July 21, 2009 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | Comment

Despite the familiar plot, there are some excellent performances.

July 19, 2009 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

A solid prison film that feels so real that if you heard a voiceover you'd swear it was a documentary.

July 19, 2009 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Horrific scenes of prison brutality and powerful acting by Brad Davis as the American Billy Hayes help make up for the shortcomings in Alan Parker's sensationalistic tale and Oliver Stone's factual inaccuracies and narrow stereotyping of the Turks.

March 26, 2009 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

Despite the negative hullabaloo "Midnight Express" provoked for its brutal characterization of Turkish prison officials, director Alan Parker's rendering of Oliver Stone's exploitation screenplay is a stick of pure cinematic dynamite.

February 21, 2008 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | Comment
ColeSmithey.com

Director Alan Parker's right. His 1978 riveting prison drama still holds up.

February 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Film-Forward.com | Comment
Film-Forward.com

Searing and unforgettable. A harrowing descent into a real-life hell that's so relentlessly intense it will leave you feeling drained.

October 5, 2005 Comment
Fantastica Daily

All modern-day jail flicks owe it a debt.

August 7, 2005 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | Comment
Filmcritic.com

harrowing and involving

May 13, 2005 Comment
Shadows on the Wall

Grim, nightmarish, unforgettabe prison tale

October 19, 2004 Comment

Suffers from the kind of excess -- and hyperbole -- writer Oliver Stone brought to his own films as director.

March 10, 2004 Comments (4)

Intense, but somewhat false 'true' story distinguised by Parker's direction.

January 29, 2004 Comment
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Alan Parker's Midnight Express works like a hammer lock on the viewer's mind.

January 24, 2004 Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | Comment
Spirituality and Practice
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Midnight Express

Yeah it was pretty good. The acting was amazing and there were a lot of suspenseful moments. Does anyone really understand the meaning of BASED ON A TRUE STORY?? The original story for this movie was interesting already, so I don't understand why they changed a bunch of things around. So much in this movie is so

December 16, 2011
Japes
J P

Super Reviewer

A damning, swift kick to international justice systems, dealing with a young drug-smuggler (Brad Davis) who is dealt more than what he should be in his sentence to a Turkish prison, where he encounters torture on a daily basis and insanity creeping in ever so slowly. This is a phenomenal drama that rests firmly on the

November 10, 2011
Dan Schultz

Super Reviewer

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