Midnight Express

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Having lived, worked and travelled extensively in Turkey for many many years I can't believe I waited so long to read this. "Midnight express" is a commonly used phrase amongst many of us who've lived in the remote parts of Turkey. Even now it's a sort of watch word for remembering to toe the line and avoid situations which might lead to incarceration. Billy Hayes' story has infiltrated its way into popular culture. This true story about bravado and courage of a 15 year old girl, should be a read aloud in every household! Written in simple narrative, the story is easy to understand for young readers. This is a great story to talk about character development and teach about personality traits. It also makes a great conversation starter for teaching children about all the other people who build their careers around saving lives. At another courtroom hearing, a distraught Billy rails against the three judges, the prosecutor, his own lawyer, the Turkish legal system, and the nation of Turkey itself. Speaking through a translator, with a mixture of anger and pity in his voice, the chief judge tells Billy that his hands are tied by Ankara and has no choice but to give him a life sentence. Billy is given a minimum sentence of 30 years, with time already served, for smuggling of hashish. BILATERAL AGREEMENT FOR REPATRIATION OF FOREIGN NATIONAL PRISONERS TO COMPLETE SENTENCING IN OWN COUNTRY / 091243Z MAY 75, U.S. State Department, Ankara, May 1975

Over the next several months, Billy slowly adjusts to prison life. Jimmy gets stabbed in the behind for treating a Turkish prisoner badly during a volleyball game. Another time later, Billy and others witness the prison warden beat four of the young boys on their soles of their feet, believing them to have raped a new young inmate, with the warden's two pudgy sons looking on and him warning them about what happens if they ever break the law. So how horrific was it? Was he beaten? What kind of penury and squalor did he encounter? Was the punishment fitting to the crime? David Denby of New York criticized Midnight Express as "merely anti-Turkish, and hardly a defense of prisoners' rights or a protest against prison conditions." [21] Denby said also that all Turks in the film – guardian or prisoner – were portrayed as "losers" and "swine", and that "without exception [all the Turks] are presented as degenerate, stupid slobs". [21]

Siamo ai livelli di Papillon; anche questo è una storia vera: William Hayes, uno studente americano, cercò di contrabbandare hashish fuori dalla Turchia nel 1970. Condannato a quattro anni e 2 mesi prima e all'ergastolo poi, nel durissimo carcere di Sagmacilar, riuscì a scappare nel 1975 in Grecia per poi fare ritorno a casa. Admittedly there are many better written books on Turkey to peruse, including Istanbul: The Imperial City, Lords of the Horizons A History of the Ottoman Empire, Inside the Seraglio: Private Lives of the Sultans in Istanbul and many others besides, but Billy Hayes story is famous and compelling because of the sheer fascinating horror afforded by life in a foreign jail. It's a weird form of voyeurism after the fact (he gets out - no this is not a spoiler). Also the production of an award winning Hollywood movie, generated from Billy's transcontinental woes and bookish rememberings also helps lodge certain events in the public cinema-going psyche. Oliver, whose films are frequently criticized for straying from the truth, claims that if he knew the full story, he would not have taken the job — the job that won him his first Academy Award and dramatically advanced his career. Yeah, right. He says that his sense of truth was offended. Where was his sense of truth when he substituted what I actually said to the Turkish Court during sentencing, which was that I couldn’t agree with them, all I could do was forgive them, with his rabid screed against Turkey, having my character call them “a nation of pigs” and vowing to “f**k all their sons and daughters”? This scene, along with Oliver’s completely concocted scene where I kill a Turkish guard, which I did NOT do, led to the Turkish government issuing an Interpol warrant against me that stood for the next 20 years. Not issued when I escaped or when my book came out, but when they heard Oliver’s ranting words coming from my character’s mouth in the film. Not that it mattered to him, apparently. I have read it; it is not bad, but Billy Hayes admitted that the book was slightly exaggerated and dramatized. In the book he alleged that when he was first apprehended, he was beaten. He did not allege other beatings. When the movie was made, it included not only brutal treatment — there is a particularly savage scene in the movie when the young American bites the lip of a Turkish prison official who was abusing him. I don’t think any of those incidents ever occurred.

Midnight Return: The Story of Billy Hayes and Turkey. Documentary directed by Sally Sussman Morina, 2016, (01:22:35-39) Expreso de medianoche es quizá una de las narraciones autobiográficas más crudas con las que me he topado. Un joven norteamericano detenido en una cárcel turca por tráfico de drogas. Sometido a la brutalizad de un contexto que le resulta ajeno y, en primera instancia, inverosímil. Hayes was imprisoned at Sağmalcılar prison in Istanbul [4] after having spent one night in Sultanahmet Jail. [5] Following an incident in prison, he was transferred in 1972 to Bakırköy Psychiatric Hospital, described as a 'lunatic asylum'. On several occasions, the United States Department of State pressured Turkey to transfer sentencing to the United States; however, Turkish foreign minister Melih Esenbel stated that the US was not in a position to dispute a sentence issued by a Turkish court. [6] He stated privately to officials that a release might be possible on humanitarian grounds, if Hayes' physical or mental health was deteriorating, but in a private consultation, Hayes stated to US diplomats that his experience at Bakırköy was highly traumatic, and he did not have confidence that the hospital would certify him for early release; [6] Hayes also stated that he felt attempts to win early release would jeopardize his prospects of being transferred to a more desirable half-open prison. On May 12, 1975, the Turkish Constitutional Court declared amnesty for all drug offenses, which shortened Hayes' sentence from life to 30 years; he was transferred to İmralı prison on July 11, 1975. Quest'estate ero in Svizzera, gironzolavo tra le bancarelle di Lugano e da lontano ho visto la copertina di questo libro, non sapevo neanche che prima del film ci fu il libro, potevo immaginarlo certamente, ma ci sono delle cose che dai per scontato e basta. Ammetto che ho tenuto da parte questo libro per un po' perchè avevo una paura folle che mi offuscasse uno dei miei film preferiti. Ma come ormai è regola poteva essere il libro inferiore al film? Certo che no, perchè se il film è maraviglioso, il libro è stupendo e ci sono voluti solo due giorni per leggerlo.Kate knew that the engine and the railroad men had fallen into the raging river. She knew that she simply had to go and get help to save the men. Not just that, now that the bridge had gone under, she must find a way to stop the Midnight Express carrying large number of passengers from passing the Moingona station. Awards Winners". wga.org. Writers Guild of America. Archived from the original on 2012-12-05 . Retrieved 2010-06-06. Billy Hayes, author of the autobiographical book “ Midnight Express,” on which the film directed by Alan Parker and written by Oliver Stone was based, disagreed with several of the assertions made in Stone’s new book, “Chasing the Light.” In fact, my escape, as portrayed in the film, is also complete fiction. I didn’t kill a guard and prance out of prison. I escaped from Imrali Island prison by rowboat in a storm, traveled across half of Turkey and swam the Maritza River to freedom in Greece.