Line #3 YMMV/MidnightExpress


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3	* AdaptationDisplacement: The film these days is better known than the book.
4	* AwardSnub: Despite being nominated, Creator/JohnHurt did not get the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, even though he did win the Golden Globe and BAFTA. Creator/BradDavis was also overlooked.
5	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
6	** Music/GiorgioMoroder's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViN2bRGrBx8 theme]] (used in Coast to Coast AM) and his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkeDj2FVK4U&fmt=18 haunting electronic score.]] It was the first 100% electronic score to be awarded an Academy Award.
7	** "Chase" in particular had a pretty prominent place in pop culture.
8	* CompleteMonster: [[WardensAreEvil Hamidou]], the brutish and abusive chief guard of the [[HellholePrison hellish]] Sağmalcılar prison, uses his job as a mean to frequently beat, torture and rape the inmates. When the American Billy Hayes steals a blanket during his first night in prison to cover himself from the cold, Hamidou sadistically beats him and then hangs him upside down in order to [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape him]]. He forces his two sons [[ForcedToWatch to watch him]] while he [[WouldHurtAChild tortures some young boys]] by hitting them on their feet with his stick. When Jimmy, one of Billy's friends, is caught trying to escape, Hamidou beats him so bad he causes him a severe hernia and makes him lose a testicle. Toward the ending Billy tries to bribe him to into taking him to the sanitarium. Hamidou takes the money, but he brings him instead in another isolated room where he prepares to beat him and rape him once again.
9	* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: Some of Max's dryly sarcastic comments are worth a chuckle. Like when Jimmy shows him a map of the prison: "It's too bad you didn't have a xerox machine."
10	%%* HarsherInHindsight: Seeing Randy Quaid playing a prisoner, now that he really is a fugitive.
11	* MemeticMolester: The book and movie made "Turkish prison" synonymous with [[PrisonRape sexual abuse]].
12	* NauseaFuel: In a fit of rage, Billy bites off a piece of Rifki's tongue in a kiss, and spits it out onto the ground.
13	* TearJerker:
14	** When Billy's father finds out about the sentence, loses it, and tells Billy he loves him. Anyone who has a loving father can feel the pain.
15	** The scene where Billy reconvenes with his girlfriend. You can see the absolute devastation of the characters and it's probably the most powerful moment in the film.
16	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The real life Billy Hayes recounted in his book that he was later moved to an island prison, where he escaped by stealing a boat during a storm, and using false identities, traveled all the way from Istanbul to the fortified Greek border. The entire escape is reduced to a quick text epilogue in the film.
17	* ValuesDissonance: The film's downright racist portrayal of the Turks as AlwaysChaoticEvil brutes and use of [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign foreign-sounding gibberish]] would never be tolerated in a mainstream film nowadays.

Context YMMV / MidnightExpress