Midnight Express is one of those movies that springs to mind when I travel. If you've ever taken goods through customs that you shouldn’t have (Cuban cigars, delicious sausages or uncut heroin) a sinking feeling is sure to come as you pass by the agents. At that time, I think of what happened to Billy in the movie. After he's caught, he spends years in a Turkish prison, partakes in the love that dare not speak its name with Randy Quaid (no, not Dennis Quaid... that would be, uh, getting off easy) and has a furious masturbation session with his college girlfriend pressing her bosoms against the glass of the prison visitors booth. The moral was pretty clear: Don’t tape hashish to your body and try to smuggle it out of Turkey.
So it was with some surprise that I saw this item in Page Six today:
YOU'D think that after five scary years in a Turkish prison on a drug charge - the trauma that inspired the 1978 movie "Midnight Express" - Billy Hayes would know better than to go back, especially since he might be a wanted man there. But Hayes is appearing this weekend at the Istanbul Conference on Democracy and Global Security, at the invitation of the Turkish National Police.
Remember, Hayes escaped from prison. He didn’t serve the full term. And he was invited back? What, for spreading the good word about the Turkish prison system?
“Let us show you to your cell—I mean room, Mr. Hayes…”
that movie was racist. oliver stone ingested klio's of cocaine and put it all on the screen.
Bill hayes actually thinks a Turkish prison is far less intense than an american one.. check out his interview...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TweU77cDrgE
Posted by: Kahraman | June 15, 2007 at 04:13 PM