Midnight Express (1978)

Midnight Express has been perceived through the years as either a 70’s prison movie classic or as an overcooked melodrama of injustice. Pleeeassse, it’s the former. The film, directed by Alan Parker and penned by first-time screenwriter Oliver Stone, caused quite a stir at its 1978 Cannes Film Festival premiere but divided critics. The studio continued to lack faith in its box office potential due to its harsh themes and almost demanded a very commercialized adventure ending (that was discarded), but audiences found it a sensation anyway. The film was nominated for several Academy Awards including Best Picture and for Director Parker, and won for Best Screenplay by Stone and Best Original Score by Giorgio Moroder.

Parker and Stone have…