University of South Carolina Libraries
Elliso j||^Hk^:::-:; .SB Harlan Ellison . . . 'Midnigh M ? ? brutal bi By David Baker Gamecock Film Critic One of the press releases abc Midnight Express says that it Alan Parker's "first major stuc film." Perhaps someone shot inform the folks at Columfc Pictures about "Bugsy Malonc tho lnathcnma l/i/l/lin i/iiv tvu VH0VHIV I\lUUiU 111 Ui3 1 v Parker directed for Paramount 1976. I'd do so myself, but I susp Columbia executives alreai know, and are trying to ke Parker's name clear of such abomination. My own feelings are that th should publicize the fact th Midnight Express is Parkei second feature, so that audienc can see how much more skillful has become since the first. Inde< Midnight Express should pro to be the conversation piece of t season, even though (or perha because) some of it is a bit t gruesome for most tastes. THE MOVIE is based on wY orlc? noil uit auo LOU uit u UL oivi y ui D1 Hayes" from the book "Midtii^ Express" by Hayes and Willie Hoffer. The story begins on Oct. 1970, when the 20-year-old Hay< who was just about to gradiu from Marquette University, w arrested in Istanbul, Turkey 1 the possession of two kilos hashish. Sentenced to five years in t sordid Sagmalciler prison, he w forced to suffer the countlc inhumanities of the Turkish per n a dari \ . ns?M*<7 1% N" gaggM** '* ~ . who else does God? it Express' it powerful system. He was beaten, whipped, stflrvpH and frri7t?n hnf ho noimr >ut fought back or tried to break out is until the despicable Turks changed lio his five-year sentence to life, ild The film's depiction of every >ia single Turk as brutal, perverted and sadistic is probably its biggest al flaw. No opportunity is missed to in incite the audience to hate the ;ct entire Turkish nation. Such racism dy does nothing to enhance the ep movie's believability, for if all an Turks were as disgusting as the film would have us believe, they ey would have killed one another off iat long ago, and Hayes' ordeal would r's not have happened in the first :es place. he id, AFTER HAYES' sentence ve change, almost every scene in the he film underscores his fierce desire ps to escape. He stops permitting the oo guards to hassel him, and he stops putting up with the deviant behavior of one of the other inlat mates, a prison informant. lly Hayes' new-found jht aggressiveness culminates in a im bloody fist fight that ends with him 7, biting out the tongue of the other es, inmate. This scene is nowhere to be *te found in the book. ras for The film veers from the book in of many other sequences, too. In the book, Hayes reveals that he exhe perienced a homosexual as relationship with a Swedish jss prisoner. In the film however, tal Hayes rejects the sexual advances - ng, ori; By Skot Garricl Assistant Entertainment Harlan Ellison is not a science dealings with Star Trek and l%is pc and His Dog were divergent state j %?.A 11 i TT 1 mil i- i inch ma i narian jo, in son is uniui readers of American novelists writers. He is quite popular amoi and British readers, but his following is the science fiction tt His best-known works, as a rule person thrust into an unrealistic s boundaries of ultra-realism, he 1 dealing with horror, drama, mysti fiction. It is not fair to say that deal with a certain topic or gen scripts out a story and worries i later. His presentation at the Russe Wednesday night was the most or have ever seen at a university. Th tenuous title such as "Harlan El Attitudes Toward Hollywood am but the talk had no boundaries. ELLISON IS A QUICK THU tendency to jump from one s whimsically. He would be speal topic such as religion (which wa times during the night), and sudd< a related story or anecdote. He had a tendency to ramb! managed to stray back to the fo feature gave the lecture a feeling the talk he gave was a talk he had before. Ellison read two new stories tJ shortly, and gave in-depth backgr to write them. There was an answer session throughout the le call on one of the numerous intei . .....jjaat-w.-.. Mmmii >?*?&>. -^ja ' ji I BHMBBBMBBflMWIk. jt Davis (right) ar\ of the Swede and remains celibai throughout his years in prison. Some characters in the book ai combined in the film, while sorr are deleted from the mov auogemer. several episodes ai transposed, the plot is sirnplific and the character of Hayes 0 least during the film's first half) made considerably more dull the in the book. Apparently, tl filmmakers reasoned that it wou be easier for the audience identify with a character who hi no strong idiosyncracies. THE DELETION of Haye i questions, the Editor touched on c -fiction writer. His California an pular movie A Boy and Maurice at mass popularity. "Reminds i own among serious Embassy," I i and short-story finally held 1 ig many American involving liiir largest apparent at foreign pol irong. dirty car, anc , portray a realistic love applesai ituation. Within his story's hilari has penned stories The short t jry and yes, science as he caper his stories actually imitations of re ? he generally and bellowin about classification lecture that I 11 House Ballroom descrintioiw! ,'gZli^eH0,1,11 never reaU: lison Speaks onTis ^h|?^ence ir i Science Fiction," ""Ellison ha magazines, a works and b 4KER, and has a Visions"volui ubject to another As such, hi ting on a "heavy" although ther s mentioned many Among his fr ;nly be reminded of while Leon I and Irwin Shi le, but he always Toward th rgotten topic. This Ellison sumr of originality; that write. "To b< never given anyone thwhile writ* creative typi hat will be released being. If you ound on what it took the things ab open question-and- look right at 1 cture. Ellison w ould for other peo Togators, digest the a very good \d fellow prisoner... te positive experiences in the pi heightens his squeamishness re hysteria to the point that he st le to be little more than a cry) ie who is desperate to escape I *u~ - ? c uic cuiumca ui a ciausiropn id crib. at It isn't until the very end ol is movie that the Billy Hayes ol in book begins to shine through, le even his escape, grueling to Id point of being heroic in the boc to reduced to nothing more thi as grisly accident in the film. My carping about discrepancies between the n 8' and the book is not mean >cturer j ;n proceed to loosely answer them. He | Lilts, Southern rednecks starting cults, d the Southern redneck cults out there, [ n w^^.. n^^L. [' oessmger s ne of the story about the Brazilian le said at one point. When the crowd lim to it, he related a hilarious story iself, Brazil, dictatorships, his attempts icy, an expensive embassy dinner and a 1 a silver bowl full of applesauce. "I just ice," he informed the crowd during the ous peak. >lack-haired man was certainly at ease ed about the stage, doing nefarious Nazis, drawling examples of rednecks g impersonations of God. Here was a had everything. Who else does God? SAD HARLAN" is a well-known >f the famous writer, and although he y expioaea Wednesday night, ms 1 his beliefs foretold what his rage might [ is been editor of numerous fiction is well being editor of several collected t ooks, such as his notorious*'Dangerous nes. b b has met many of today's top writers, I e are some that he particularly dislikes. ' iends are Isaac Asimov and Ben Bova, h Iris (whom he refers to as Leon Urine) *w are high on his hate list. g| e close of the night's lengthy lecture, narized his feelings on what it takes to e able to develop into any kind of wor- t sr," he explained, "and not just some st, you have to dig down to the core of can take that innermost molten core of out vou that vou fear the most* if von oah _?w?? 7?? jjj do \ <-> . p B the book was better rison minimize the film's effect in any and way. I say the movie first, and jems found it so powereful that I felt aaby compelled to read the book. The from book was even more devastating, lobic making me want to see the film again. Unfortunatelv. the second f the viewing was not kind to Midnight f the Express, as after reading the But book, the movie seemed pale in the comparison. >k, is an a SCREENWRITER Oliver Stone must take the blame for the film's the not being able to measure up to the lovie it to See Express, page 13