Midnight Express (1978, Alan Parker)
This story based on his "true story" (after 20 years of release real Billy Hayes admitted that was very oversized and fictional version of his agony) about naive young American (Brad Davis) caught on the airport in Turkey with drugs and imprisoned as an example for 30 years is really well done. This was the 5th film by British/American director Alan Parker, who also directed Pink Floyd The Wall (1982), Angel Heart (1987), Mississipi Burning (1988) and his latest success The Life Of David Gale (2003) and first Oliver Stone's screenplay. This film was milestone in their careers, but also showed talent of actor Brad Davis, talent that he, in my opinion, didn't make the most of. One of the reasons for that is the fact that he was one of first persons in movie industry with AIDS contraction (diagnosed in 1979), but he kept this illness as secret because of fear of exclusion and anti-AIDS hysteria in the 80's. Although he presented himself as heterosexual (he supposed that he was infected by AIDS either through shooting cocaine or heterosexual contact), it is "suspicious" that he played gay men so much time in his career. I watched Querelle (1982, R. W. Fassbinder) in which mad him some kind of a gay icon, and I found that he played similar roles in some theatrical roles. So there is doubts that he was really "the first heterosexual actor to die of AIDS"; moreover, his closest friends (except his widow) claimed that he was bisexual.
This movie won 2 Oscars: for screenplay (totally deserved) and for original music by Giorgio Moroder. For me, music score is the worst thing in this movie. This totally synthesized music sounds very dated and for me, it is unappropriate in this movie. That over-dramatic melodies and over-emphasized sounds are silly and because of that I would decrease my rating to 8 out of 10.
2 comments:
The synthesized music sounds very dated?
It was 1978 and that music was at that time really non so dated :-)
I don't know if you really listened to the soundtrack... there are of course some strange sounds but melodies such as "the Love Theme" and "Theme from Midnight Express" are quiet nice.
"The Chase" was a international hit and its bassline was used by many other artits for decades!
just my 2 $
Ok, I accept your opinion and it's true that it was at that time very "revolutionary". According to some sources, it was the first completely synthesized music ever to won Academy Award. So I wouldn't say that it's historical importance is questionable, but today, it sounds very, very dated for me. Some similar movie music don't (like Chariots Of Fire, The Killing Fields etc.).
However, thanks for your good and worth comment. I hope you'll see this blog at future.
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