Midnight Express Movie Review
-
Positive Messages
Few positive messages with crime, violence, and corruption all prominent. However, courage, perseverance, and never giving up, no matter how hard things get, are also major themes.
-
Positive Role Models
Billy Hayes is caught and imprisoned for attempting to smuggle drugs. Although his sentence is severe, he shows little remorse. He does show courage and perseverance in the face of adversity. Local Turkish officials shown as untrustworthy, violent, and corrupt. Limited roles for women. Little diversity among the main cast.
-
Violence & Scariness
Character is stripped by airport officials. Bags emptied out, property smashed and destroyed by airport security. Character is regularly beaten by prison guards — bloody wounds shown and also suffers lasting personal injury. Character casually slaps another on the back of the head. Kids beaten by an adult on suspicion of committing a crime. Character attempts to strike a prison guard with a stick. Regular threats of violence with profane language. A cat is killed off camera but its dead body is seen. Extended fight between two inmates includes one’s arm being cut with a knife and the other having their tongue bitten off. Reference to and suggestion of rape. A prison guard is impaled on a clothing rack and killed.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid’s entertainment guide.
Get started
-
Sex, Romance & Nudity
Characters are seen shirtless. Mention of sexual relationships between prisoners. Two characters kiss while showering together in prison. A character exposes their breasts while visiting an inmate, who in turn masturbates while attempting to touch and kiss them through security glass.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid’s entertainment guide.
Get started
-
Language
Language used includes “f–king,” “motherf—-rs,” “f–k,” “f–kface,” “a–hole,” “Christ’s sake,” and “bastard.” Racist language toward Turkish people, describing them as “pigs,” “bastards” and threatening to “f–k your sons and daughters.” Turkish food described as “s–t.”
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid’s entertainment guide.
Get started
-
Products & Purchases
Character intends to smuggle and deal drugs for personal gain. Characters purchase duty-free goods at an airport along with other local products to take back to the United States. Cigarette branding shown on carrier bag. Prisoner brought food, toiletries, and cigarettes by family member, given money to help them survive.
-
Drinking, Drugs & Smoking
Characters attempts to smuggle drugs across an international border. Character is seen with drugs strapped to them after being stripped to their underwear — claims that the drugs are for personal use, rather than for dealing. Characters smoke while working. Prisoners smoke cigarettes and hashish in prison.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid’s entertainment guide.
Get started
-
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Midnight Express is a prison drama with strong violence, drugs, and bad language. The movie is loosely based on the true story of Billy Hayes (Brad Davis), an American student who was caught attempting to smuggle hashish out of Turkey in 1970. There are few positive messages but characters do show endurance after receiving lengthy prison sentences. But they show little or no remorse for their wrongdoing. Violence features throughout, with several incidences of prison guards beating prisoners. The most graphic incidents include a prisoner biting out another inmate’s tongue and a guard’s skull being accidentally impaled on a clothing rack. Kids are also beaten by an adult with a bat, although the strikes he inflicts are off-camera. Rape is referenced and suggested on numerous occasions. There is some male nudity and Billy’s girlfriend, Susan (Irene Miracle), exposes her breasts during a prison visit, with Billy reacting by masturbating and trying to touch them through the security glass. Some of the prisoners have sexual relationships — a shower scene depicts two prisoners kissing. Swearing is strong and frequent and is often used when issuing threats. There is also racist and derogatory language used toward the Turkish characters who are genuinely portrayed as sadistic and corrupt. There is smoking throughout, both of cigarettes and hashish.
