Midnight Express is single-minded in its brutal manipulation of the audience: this is a clear-cut case of the use of film technique split off from any artistic impulse.

| Sep 18, 2023

Its strict adherence to facts isn’t necessarily as potent as the cinematic cautionary tale that it generates, though the depicted events will surely inspire further research into Hayes’ genuine plight.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Aug 9, 2023

Just another prison break movie... but I liked it.

| Aug 11, 2022

Brutal, dated prison drama has drugs, language, stereotypes.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 3, 2021

The score by Moroder is infectious and chest rattling...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 7, 2020

My attitude remained philistine throughout.

| Jul 10, 2019

It's a film that probably wouldn't be made today, but it taps into a potent fear: losing your liberty far from home.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 22, 2018

Parker succeeds in making the prison into a full, real, rounded world, a microcosm of human behavior;

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 16, 2018

The prison scenes are nightmarish and unforgettable.

| Original Score: B- | Mar 20, 2016

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

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 15, 2011

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

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 22, 2009

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]

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 21, 2009

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

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 19, 2009

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

| Original Score: B | Mar 26, 2009

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.

| Original Score: A | Feb 21, 2008

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

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 8, 2008

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

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 5, 2005

All modern-day jail flicks owe it a debt.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 7, 2005

harrowing and involving

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 13, 2005

Grim, nightmarish, unforgettabe prison tale

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 19, 2004