No Talking Tuesday # 230

February 21st 2012



This Tuesday found me back in the screening room at work watching Alan Parker's Midnight Express. The cautionary real life story of what happened to one helpless American tourist who tried to smuggle hashish out of Turkey and was caught by the local authorities. Let me just say this, the movie made it perfectly clear to me that I don't ever want to go to jail in a middle eastern country. Never ever ever ever ever.

The script is Oliver Stone's first writing credit and is amazingly sharp. The performances are emotionally exhausting to watch (in a good way) and the whole film from beginning to end is so psychologically penetrating and unnerving in such a focused well tuned way that I was very impressed. I have to say the snitch beat up scene is one of the most visceral scenes of violence I've ever seen filmed.

No list.