Do you think that movies like "Midnight Express" affected the image of Turkey abroad?

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Crazy Turkish Guy

- Billy Hayes is in Turkey with his girlfriend, where he was alone in the original story.In the book, The love story is a main dramatic driving force.
-The rape scenes are also fictional. Billy Hayes never claimed to be raped by his Turkish wardens or that he ever suffered any sexual violence. He engaged in consensual sex, which is alluded to in the film.
-Billy Hayes never bit out anyone's tongue.
-The endings of the cinematographic and literary versions of Midnight Express differ from one another. While in the narrative, the protagonist is moved to another prison from which he escaped by sea, in the movie this passage has been replaced by a violent scene in which he unwittingly kills the warden-in-chief.
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Midnight Express is 'more violent, as a national hate-film than anything I can remember', 'a cultural form that narrows horizons, confirming the audienceâ€™s meanest fears and prejudices and resentments...

Author who criticized the movie's inaccurate portrayal of the events.....
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The Turks I saw in Lawrence of Arabia and Midnight Express were like cartoon caricatures, compared to the people I had known and lived among for three of the happiest years of my life.....

Author who criticized the movie's inaccurate portrayal of the events....
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This film was complete bull****...I admit, I'm not a lawyer but I know damn well that calling the judges "pigs" and threatening to sodomize their sons is not a good way to convince the court to set you free after trying to smuggle several bricks of hashish....

When the screen-writer visited Turkey in 2004, Oliver Stone, who won an Academy Award for his adaptation, apologized for the film, expressing regrets...

yuksel g

i did see the movie there was a lots lies was in there lots of untrue stories they made it up.
they want to make it exated .to make more money .
i heard the orijinal man's confersation on the tv..he said himself they was all lie..so you see? don't believed ever think you heard..in this world people do any think for money you know, i know and we all know it isnt new story....

Alison V

I saw this film 3 weeks ago for first time. It made Turkey look very bad and i believe allot of it was made up. Although i was not around in 1973 when the film is set, i believe Istanbul was never like this at that time. Also the writer was the prisoner in the film so I'm sure he made much of it up to make turkey look bad because he seemed to consider himself innocent, which he indeed wasn't as he did try to smuggle drugs out of the country. So this film annoyed me as the director decided to make the prisoner look almost innocent where as for me he deserved what came to him.

Ipek K

I have seen it years ago. It is just a cheap thrill movie which is not filmed in Turkey therefore none of the actors are Turkish and the language resembles Turkish with a very bad accent.

If a person forms an opinion about my country just by one prison movie where the guy who is supposed to be the one prisoner admitted that it was mostly fiction, I can only call that person ignorant and wouldn't care less about his opinions really.

Oh, BTW, there is one point in the movie which is completely true:
If one is dumb enough to try to smuggle 5 kilograms of hash which is wrapped to his body into Turkey via customs, he goes to prison, duh!! :D

I haven't seen La Pasion Turca. Maybe you can tell us a little more about it . i.e the story, the director and the artists so I can do a little research about it and maybe get a chance to watch it:)

denyocan

SUE

so you think any prisoner would rather want to be in an American prison???

so what do you think? would they prefer Guantanamo or Abu Guraib? Today the most barbaric prisons in the world are those in Iraq under the American control.

Didn`t you see the torture pictures taken in the American prisons in Iraq? and unlike midnight express, they were not fiction.

ev pandasÄ±

SUE says
"...they don't always have a whole lot of respect for prisoners, as they do in the US. (often, prisoners and criminals have more rights than their victims have)..."

If a person were to base his thoughts about the movies he watched, he would never ever want to be in a U.S. prison. Unless he was a black loving, fun seeking homosexual...!
So that brings us to a fork. Either SUE never watched any "hollywood " made movies including some prison scenes in it, or she is such an idiot..! I bet on the latter...
And about midnight express, both the writer and director says they regret for making such a brutal image of Turks in the movie. They admit that they have exeggerated...
It's the dumpest movie Oliver Stone has made.

Totally Blunt

Wow. That's a handsome Yaman. Thanks for the link. I'll remember it when I'm out to buy a DVD.

Ã‡etin

hi Salva,
same as all the big lies , this movie affected badly the image of TÃ¼rkiye in "Western countries" not other sides of the World.
btw to understand the realty about "Midnight Express" movie ,everybody can watch these videos:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pHjLMnGkedU
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_JTRs8e-FRk

Alana Awareness

I just saw the movie myself
recently. It is based on a true
story, but like the answerer
above me said the writer could
of exaggerated many of the details.
As far as the affects, it should
leave viewers scared straight.
Not that prisons there are that
disgusting, and Americans are
treated so unjust,but that committing
a crime and going jail in any country
would be a nightmare. I think that
was the message it sent.

boatlady

The movie was not really based on a true story several years ago the guy who the movie was about admitted that he had made it all up.

Yes he was arrested here in turkey but that was the only true part,

Movies are for entertainment and most people do not take them as fact do you believe every movie about America not they are for entertainment purposes.

SUE

I have never seen the movie you mention...Wait...Ana BelÃ©n can ACT!?? She plays the lead? I'm going to have to search this one out!

Yes, I think that Midnight Express affected the image of Turkey here. I think that EVERYONE in America who has seen the movie (it's really old, now, so I wonder how many young people are really familiar with it) and have no other real knowledge of Turkey, probably take this to be the ONLY way to view the country. Fortunately, most of us realize a) that it's really old and things change, and b) that it's only one guy's experience, and that there is much else to see.

I do think that it is an important warning, though about how foreign prisons can be, as in, they don't always have a whole lot of respect for prisoners, as they do in the US. (often, prisoners and criminals have more rights than their victims have). And also about how foolish it is to carry illegal substances, and how such a minor offense can totally ruin a vacation, or one's European Adventure.

There's another story...don't think it has been made into a movie, but it was a big news story some years ago, about some young man who was arrested in Singapore or Bangkok and had some horrific experiences. It's really important to stay within the law while on vacation, and to know what those laws are, because, as they say, "ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law."

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