The ongoing tradition of Midnight Express!

This week I downloaded the Oscar winning film Argo, Yes I do know downloading films is immoral and technically stealing  However I once paid 20 pounds for me and a girlfriend to watch the painfully awful "blockbuster" Waterworld, so Hollywood was in my debt!

For those that do not know Argo, it tells the story of how six Americans were smuggled out of Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution. The pretense "Based on a true story" is tagged at the beginning of the film, which always sets the alarm bells ringing. My suspicions were confirmed after watching the film. The tag line should have read " Based on a true story, where some people have been added, characters changed, the true story deviates at nearly every scene and the Americans will come out as heroes .” Remember the film U-571, the thrilling story where the Americans captured the enigma coding machine? - actually it was the British and the Polish forces!. Who can forget "Saving Private Ryan", where effectively it is presented that the D-Day landings in Normandy were a solely American affair. Well, Argo doesn't let you down and continues in that wonderful Hollywood tradition history of re-writing history.

Argo Trailer

As the six Americans go on the run around Tehran looking for a safe house to escape the hoards of Iranian revolutionaries, the film cuts to a CIA office in the Pentagon and the line " Brits turned them away" is thrown to the audience. With that line you can hear the popcorn eating, Pepsi swigging movie going public of the USA thinking as one " Those damn Brits after all we did for them in the Second World War"

The truth of course is very different, as back in 1979, British diplomats put their life's in immense danger assisting the six to a safe house in a British compound. As the CIA officer Antonio Mendez, who helped to mount the eventual rescue, recalls in his book, Argo: ‘The British were kind hosts, and offered them a house of their own, fed them a warm meal, even prepared cocktails.’ Slightly different then from “the Brits turned them away”!  Why should we care though, it's just a film! Well a film now, but the worrying fact is that in later years it is not beyond the realms of probability that it will be  considered by students as the definitive history of the events .

As the credits rolled I was amazed to observe that parts of the movie were filmed in Turkey. Amazed because if any country knows the dangers of falsifying true fact for Hollywood's financial gain then it is the beautiful country I reside in now!

Way back in 1978 another Oscar winning film was taking the world by storm. Midnight Express was another Hollywood “Based on a true story” epic that grossed 35 million dollars in the USA alone! The film based on the autobiographic  book of the same name, follows the story of Billy Hayes. Hayes, an American, was imprisoned in Turkey in 1970 whilst attempting to smuggle two kilos of hashish through Turkish customs. Sentenced firstly to four years his sentenced is then raised to thirty years on appeal by the Turkish prosecution department. After five years, whilst imprisoned on an island prison, Hayes escapes by boat and makes it to Greece!

The wording in the trailer speaks volumes

 

Any foreigner that resides in Turkey or any foreigner that has stepped foot on Turkish soil on holiday or business would no doubt have been teased “ Wouldn’t go to Turkey – I saw Midnight Express” usually followed with a snigger and a sharp intake of breath! The reason for this is that Midnight Express is not so much a film but a full blown cultural assignation of a whole nation!. Turks are depicted as violent, immoral, venal, psychopathic and debased. It's understandable to portray violent, dangerous criminals in such an unflattering light, but the film extended this negative ethos to the judiciary, the courts and civil servants and any Turk within the films grasp. Indeed, Midnight Express appeared to indict the entire Turkish nation as hopelessly corrupt, grotesque and “evil. Hollywood has long used certain ethnic group as “villains” – depending upon current events and political trends, Arabs, Mexicans, American-Indians, Germans and Japanese, among others, have fulfilled this role (usually by actors whose own ethnicity did not match the parts they played). However none had as much affect on a nation as Midnight Express had on the Turkish Republic.

Now, one would have to be hopelessly naïve to suggest that the Turkish judiciary system was perfect then or even now come to that or that the Turkish prison system is or was a bed of roses. Which prison service is?. However, the story “based on a true story” sets out , without any fear of libel, to eradicate any positive feeling the world may have had at that time. Although after the 1974 Turkish invasion or peace force, depending which side of the fence you face, the World did not look at Turkey favorably . In fact, in 1978 America issued an arms embargo on Turkey. With this in mind, maybe this is why the director Alan Parker and David Putnam the producer , held no qualms in showing Turkey in this grotesque way.

If the film crawled in 35 million dollars in the USA, I would consider that a drop in the ocean to the financial loss in tourism over the years due to the portrayal of  Turkey in the film. In 1980, the Turkish tourism industry reported a drop of 90% in American tourist visiting the Turkish republic. That’s a lot of dollars!. One can only guess at how many dollars have been lost by companies choosing to not invest in that “ evil” country ! The affect though is not just financial, Turkish citizens the world over were painted with the “Midnight” brush – not to be trusted and uneducated! The xenophobic nature of the film, shows Turks as inhospitable uncaring people who would cheat on their own Grandmother to gain an advantage. For those of us that has enjoyed Turkish hospitality it is a sad and disgusting insult!

However, what about the man at the center of all this, Billy Hayes.  Hayes, was just twenty two years old in 1970, a real live Billy the Kid. Young, naïve and immensely stupid. In those illiberal days of 1970, hashish was still seen as a highly dangerous drug and guaranteed to ruin societies if it was allowed to escalate. No more so than in Turkey, although a politically secular country it still held strong Islamic views . One can only question Hayes’s thought process to think he could smuggle two kilograms of drugs through Turkish customs and if caught to only gain a light sentence . He only needed to check his own country, where sentences of 15-20 years imprisonment were common back in the early 70’s for the very offence he committed.

After the films release then a new Billy emerged – Billy the Hero!. After the twisted morality of Midnight Express was screened, Hayes, the American drug smuggler. became a kind of “noble hero” held up having survived against the violence and corruption of the Turks or any society that didn’t fit into American foreign policy at the time . Harping back to Argo, is it just a coincidence that a film that portrays Iranians in such a negative way is released at a time when American / Iranian relations is at such a low ebb?.

After the release, Hayes became the darling of the talk shows, wheeled around the studios of the USA, on display as the man who went through hell and survived. The fact that he attempted to smuggle two kilograms of drugs was secondary to the tales of survival from that hideous place! Billy Hayes is not so much a person these days as a company. The estimated book sales of the original book run into the millions. Further added with the release last year of “Midnight return” As I type this Mr Hayes is in my own country, touring the WH Smiths and Waterstones churning out the endless tales, all based on lies. Incredibly, also touring the UK now is, I kidded you not, “ Midnight Express – The ballet”! The old adage “Crime doesn’t pay” obviously doesn’t extend to Mr Hayes, where crime and falsehoods pay well, very well!

The last Billy though, could well be named after the classic Keith Waterhouse book -  Billy Liar!. After the storm that Midnight Express caused had died down and probably after the cash from his book and film rights had started to wane, Hayes went on a campaign of “ I am disgusted at how the film portrayed Turkey”!. At this stage of his ongoing drama, he decided that he was in anguish at how the Turkish Republic and it’s citizens had been shown.  Full of remorse at how Parker’s movie had dehumanized Turks and a Turkey he now claimed he loved so much and how it was his wish to return and see the beautiful city of Istanbul again. Now, as Mr Hayes held the film rights wouldn’t it be slightly odd, if he never read the film script before a single shot was taken in Malta, where the film was shot, with Italian, Maltese and Greek actors with such awful Turkish that even Turks had trouble understanding them.

With this new direction of humility again Mr. Hayes sat his bottom on TV and radio talk shows across the Good ‘ol USA. Paid of course one would guess!  In a recent online interview (here) for National Geographic to promote his “The real Midnight Express” he was asked the question. “Do you have any regrets?”. The regret of before of his damage to the Turkish Republic seems to have disappeared and no mention is made of it at all. The remorse card obviously worked with Turkey, who invited Billy Hayes back to the Turkish republic in 2007 on a seven day visa. The Turks in doing this showed more restraint than most other nations on an individual that had caused so much racialist contamination on Turkey and it’s culture!. It’s with great irony that after Billy Hayes returned to the USA he directed a play entitled “ The cock and bull story”!

Hollywood films have a terrible and engaging power to influence and shape our minds even on those that regard ourselves as perceptive. Midnight Express made a lot of money for a lot of people and as with Billy Hayes it continues to do so. Ultimately that is all Hollywood really cares about. It feeds, the minds of the gullible in as a dramatic way possible. Doing so in a country that prides itself on fairness of mind and respect for others.  However as film-goers and consumers, we should realize that movies are highly biased and often designed to manipulate the audience. Movies like Midnight Express, especially those which are as well made and entertaining, can not only be harmful but most of all push us to hate nations and the people of those nations. As I guess is the case now with Argo and Iran and it’s people. Sad, very sad!

Westy