''Midnight Express'' is a 1977
nonfiction
Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...
book by
Billy Hayes and William Hoffer about Hayes' experience as a young American who was sent to a
Turkish prison. The US had declared a "War on Drugs" in the early 1970s, and Hayes was made an example of for trying to
smuggle
Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.
There are various ...
hashish
Hashish ( ar, حشيش, ()), also known as hash, "dry herb, hay" is a drug made by compressing and processing parts of the cannabis plant, typically focusing on flowering buds (female flowers) containing the most trichomes. European Monitoring ...
out of Turkey. When his sentence was extended to 30 years, he decided to make his escape.
The book was adapted by
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Stone won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as writer of '' Midnight Express'' (1978), and wrote the gangster film remake '' Sc ...
and directed by
Alan Parker
Sir Alan William Parker (14 February 1944 – 31 July 2020) was an English filmmaker. His early career, beginning in his late teens, was spent as a copywriter and director of television advertisements. After about ten years of filming adverts ...
into a 1978 feature
film of the same name that
took many liberties with the book.
After reading the book, Australian country music singer
Shane Nicholson recorded an album and title track, ''
Bad Machines'', which was inspired by the book.
Editions
*Dutton, 1977. (First edition)
References
1977 non-fiction books
Autobiographies adapted into films
Law enforcement in Turkey
Turkey–United States relations
Works about cannabis trafficking
Memoirs of imprisonment
Cannabis in Turkey
E. P. Dutton books
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