Midnight Express / Turkish prison cliche

knigh+

knigh+

.
Joined
Apr 14, 2006
Messages
1,030
Location
Shipless Anchor
Turkey and Turks are often misrepresented by Hollywood movies (perhaps due to large number of Greeks and Armenians in the US), and the disgusting climax of this Turk-bashing was the movie named Midnight Express. It was such an effective mud-throwing instrument that you can still find mentions of "Turkish prison" in the movies and series of our time.

Of course, as usual it is all crap.

Here is an interview with the real life prisoner-hero in that racist excuse of a movie.

Part1 (the first 30 seconds or so is in Turkish, so just wait for the english)

Part2

He has had many interviews before this one, always discrediting the movie, but of course none of it ever finds its way into the misguided Hollywood culture.
 
As a side note: The only American movie I have seen in which Turks are not pictured in a negative light is Jackie Chan's "Accidental Spy". In that one, there are good Turks, bad Turks, and Turks minding their own business. In everything else, Turks are introduced as psychos.
 
In the movie Lawrence of Arabia there are some funny Turks too... :mischief:
 
Midnight express is a UK movie. The UK has aproimate parity between greek and turkish populations, in fact slightly in favor of the turks.
 
GinandTonic said:
Midnight express is a UK movie. The UK has aproimate parity between greek and turkish populations, in fact slightly in favor of the turks.
Click to expand...

I didn't know Oliver Stone was British :mischief:

The movie cast and crew are full of Greeks and Armenians by the way.
 
Only good thing about this movie is that when someone learns that I am Turkish, they have this fear in their eyes,
they think I can chop their heads off only with my left hand and they never mess with me.:)

They always do whatever I tell them to do.:D
 
All I can say is I never understood why Midnight Express sided with a convicted drug dealer. Dude, you don't want to go to a Turkish prison? Maybe you should not try to smuggle 5kg of hashish across the border!
 
Movie characters do not have to be real, although the white cell prison system in Turkey was very real, and still it is far away from the EU one.

The greek character in Lock, stock & two smoking barrels was not very greek, but cool ;)
 
knigh+ said:
As a side note: The only American movie I have seen in which Turks are not pictured in a negative light is Jackie Chan's "Accidental Spy". In that one, there are good Turks, bad Turks, and Turks minding their own business. In everything else, Turks are introduced as psychos.
Click to expand...

Find me one movie where the Romanians are presented as good, and not as very bad, corrupted or backwards. ;)
 
In Hollywood movies Spaniards make good bad guys too. There is even a book with that tittle.
 
varwnos said:
Movie characters do not have to be real, although the white cell prison system in Turkey was very real, and still it is far away from the EU one.
Click to expand...

I am not claiming Turkish prisons are vacation spots either, all prisons are bad. But our prisons aren't many orders of magnitude worse than other prisons, the way the movie depicts it.

And also, the guy was in Imrali prison, which is one of the better ones. They used to send there politicians, including prime ministers, after military coups. Today it hosts only Abdullah Ocalan.

If the movie was a normal one, Turkey could even turn Imrali island into a tourist location, just like Americans did with Alcatraz. :)

On a side note: Turkish prisons today are better than those in 70s, which were much better than what the movie depicts, and they are rapidly being upgraded to EU standards (as everything else).
 
This is not a bad guy movie though.
Of course there are lots of movies were Spaniards, or Romanians are bad guys but there is a huge difference.

When I meet with an American in the US, 50% of them say exactly this, after they find out I am Turkish:

-Have you watch Midnight Express?

I mean there are thousands of different replies I get from the other 50%, but the other half exactly asks this.
(I don't think this is an issue for Spaniards or Romanians.)

After this racist comment, I kindly explain that -No, I am not gonna kill you right now nor I am gonna rape you. :lol:
I guess this is because movie is really strong and says "based on a real story".
 
No, it's not an issue for Romanians, the first thing I get asked is "Do you know any vampire? Have you been to Dracula's castle?" . :lol: Well, maybe it's not as bad, but certainly annoying.
 
ArneHD said:
Lets face it, just about EVERYONE who isn't american is made to look like a bad guy.
Click to expand...

Sarcasm on?

My input on this is that theres very few turkish hollywood movies to begin with anyway.

Its not turkish but have you guys ever seen "jewel of the nile"?
 
Mirc said:
Find me one movie where the Romanians are presented as good, and not as very bad, corrupted or backwards. ;)
Click to expand...

You have a bunch of innocent villagers in Dracula and Frankenstein movies perhaps?

And Kate Beckinsale's character in Van Helsing.

But yes usually you guys turn up to be bloodsucking monsters in horror movies.

others said:
In Hollywood movies Spaniards make good bad guys too.
Nah, the english are the bad guys more often than anyone else.
Lets face it, just about EVERYONE who isn't american is made to look like a bad guy.
Click to expand...

I disagree. There are also good Spanish or British (or many other) characters in movies. But Turks are (or have been until very recently) some form of embodiment of absolute evilness. And this incessantly repeating misdepiction not only sticks to non-Turkish minds, but also hammers "everybody hates you" into Turkish minds. Then you get a nationalistic mistrust of other countries. Then you get people saying "nah, those racists were hating us anyway" everytime some small difficulty is encountered in the EU talks, or there is some disagreement with USA over Northern Iraq.

Yes lately Jackie Chan made Accidental Spy in which he gets arrested and the Turkish cops are nice to him, and in Germany there is a cop series with one of the cops being Turk. But as Azkonus said, the dominant image has been set by Midnight Express, and it will take many movies to bring it to at least some balanced position.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom