Midnight Express

At one point in time I considered this to be my favourite movie. When I was about 13/14 and beginning to become interested in cinema I watched this movie and then subsequently watched it maybe twice more that month and felt I could confidently say It was my favourite until the next month when I watched something else and decided that was my favourite movie. I probably haven't seen this film in 4 or 5 years so was interested in how much i remembered and whether or not it held up to my early teenage standards or not very much. It absolutely does just about everything in the film is extraordinary. The plot although done before in many prison escape movies is made more interesting by it being an American incarcerated abroad. The writing deservedly won the best adapted screenplay academy award from the book of the same name by William Hayes our POV character. The soundtrack by Giorgio Moroder also won an academy award which when I first saw the movie in my teens was what stuck with me the most. The characters and performances are stellar Brad Davis plays fear, anger and madness perfectly the opening airport scene, his speech when he gets his sentence extended and his breakdown after Max gets taken away are played perfectly with help from the great direction and writing. My beloved John Hurt who turned out my favourite acting performance of all time in The Elephant Man plays Max with perfect malaise and hopelessness. Paolo Bonacelli plays one of the most detestable characters of all time in Rifki.Paul L. Smith, Rany Quaid, Norbert Wiesser and many others give brilliant supporting performances which really make the movie what it is. Truly the blueprint for what a 5 star movie should be.