Pushing the Boundaries: Midnight Express (1978) 4K Restoration
Director: Alan Parker Run Time: 121 min. Rating: R Release Year: 1978
Starring: Bo Hopkins, Brad Davis, Irene Miracle, Paolo Bonacelli, Paul L. Smith
Country: United Kingdom, United States
Language: English, Turkish, French
About the film:
The 1970s: Pushing the Boundaries
A Film Center retrospective on the most groundbreaking films to come out of the 1970s.
See more Pushing the BoundariesWinner of the 1979 Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Adapted Screenplay.
Based on the harrowing true story. Busted for attempting to smuggle drugs out of Istanbul, American college student Billy Hayes is thrown into the city’s most brutal jail. After suffering through four years of sadistic torture and inhuman conditions, Billy is about to be released when his parole is denied. Only his inner courage and the support of a fellow inmate give him the strength to catch the Midnight Express… and escape his living hell.
“a masterpiece of exploitation cinema”
—Adam Smith, Empire
About the filmmaker:
Alan Parker was an English writer, director, and producer who began his career in advertising as a copywriter, but we on to revolutionize the world of advertising through his commercial writing and directorial work. In 1975, Parker’s career formally moved into filmmaking when he wrote and directed his first feature film, Bugsy Malone. The film was an instant success, receiving eight British Academy Award nominations and five British Academy Award wins. Parker’s career included a number of Academy Award nominated films including Midnight Express (1977), Fame (1979), and Mississippi Burning (1988). In all, his films have won nineteen BAFTA awards, ten Golden Globes, and ten Oscars.
Parker’s sophomore film was the controversial Midnight Express (1977), which won two Academy Awards and garnered six additional nominations, including one for Parker as Best Director. The film received six Golden Globe Awards and four awards from the British Film Academy.
A founding member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain, Parker has lectured at film schools around the world. His contributions to the British film industry have been formally acknowledged by a number of organizations, but most notably Parker was awarded with a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the British film industry in 1995, and he received a knighthood in 2002.
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