MIDNIGHT EXPRESS apology

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 2:08pm

Billy Hayes, the American whose harrowing ordeal in a Turkish prison on drug charges led to the book and the film Midnight Express, has returned to Turkey to participate in "an international security conference" and to "mend fences over the damage the movie caused to the country's image abroad."

Might seem like an odd item, but it’s huge news for us Turks: purportedly based on fact, Midnight Express ruined Turkey’s image in the West for over a generation — many would say unfairly. Hayes admits now that "the image the movie created of Turkey and the Turkish people 'was not fair to them or true to my experience. . . I always wanted to come back to Istanbul to correct the wrongs that Midnight Express did."

It’s worth noting that the film’s most notorious scenes were not in the original book. Hayes was never raped in prison; instead, according to his book, he engaged in consensual sex with another inmate. Nevertheless, the damage was done. Telling Americans you were Turkish during the '80s was basically an invitation for a whole host of Midnight Express references, including all sorts of rape jokes. (Ironically, rape in prison appears to be much more of an issue in American prisons than in Turkish ones, but try making that point during the gung-ho '80s.)

As for the film’s screenwriter, one Oliver Stone, he apologized several years ago. Producer David Puttnam actually admitted the facts presented in the film and the book were false way back in 1984. No word yet on whether director Alan Parker, has anything to say.

(Obligatory bit of shameless self-promotion: you can read about my own inadvertent run-in with Oliver Stone over Midnight Express here.) — Bilge Ebiri, nerve.com


Mr. Stone, Your Turk is Ready

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 2:26pm

in other news john boorman, burt reynolds, john voight, james dickey, ronny cox and ned beatty have apologized to the state of georgia for deliverance. at the press conference beatty was quoted in his apology as saying, "squeeeeeeeee, squeeeeeeeeee!"