The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, December 01, 1978, Page Page 10, Image 10
Elliso
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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