"Midnight Express" (Midnight Express) is an old American film, produced by Columbia, USA, released in 1978, and released last year 30th Anniversary Edition. This film fully shows the mentality of some Americans facing the world: Americans are the most noble, others are bastards, and American citizens seem to be the highest-ranking citizens in the world.
This movie is based on real people and real events, and the incident took place in 1970. American young Billy traveled to Turkey with his girlfriend. When he left Turkey and returned to the United States, Billy tried to take drugs out of the country and was arrested at the airport by the Turkish police. Billy carried a total of 2 kilograms of drugs, and he had to be tried by Turkish law. Before the case was heard, Billy tried to escape custody and was re-captured. It should have been more guilty, but Billy's father came from the United States and began to spend money to rescue him.
The film first created an atmosphere. In Turkish prisons, many Westerners are detained, mostly for drugs, stealing things, and raping children. However, the film gives the audience the impression that the Turkish law is a bastard law and the sentence is too heavy. Originally, this was a sovereignty issue of other countries, but from here on, the film adopted American standards to evaluate others. As long as it does not meet American standards, it is barbaric and bastard. In a case where an American youth was sentenced to whipping in Singapore many years ago, President Clinton personally intervened in Singapore’s judicial decision. In the case of Singapore, the President of the United States personally intervened in judicial judgments. Such behavior is not allowed in the United States. However, outside the United States, the power of the United States can do this. Double standards are very obvious.
In "Midnight Express", this double standard is also reflected. Billy's father came to Turkey and hired a local Turkish lawyer. The lawyer said that he must find a suitable court and a suitable judge to hear and decide the case through the relationship. Although the film is hesitating on this plot, it is clear that Billy's father spent money to bribe relevant judicial officials in Turkey. The United States often criticizes judicial corruption in other countries, but for the sake of an American, they invest in corruption and aggravate judicial corruption in other countries, instead of accepting fair judgments in other countries' laws. Judicial corruption in other countries is unfavorable to the United States, it is the target of the United States' accusations; judicial corruption in other countries is acceptable if it is beneficial to the United States. In the film "Midnight Express", which is based on real examples, this double standard is very clear. However, film creators are not criticizing Americans for double standards, but feel that such double standards are justified for Americans.
So, how will Turkey’s judicial corruption treat Billy? Will Billy’s misdemeanor be deliberately convicted of a felony? The film shows a sinister and thin Turkish prosecutor in a facial makeup. The reason for vilifying the Turkish prosecutor is only because the prosecutor strictly abides by Turkish law and prosecutes Billy for drug smuggling. If convicted, according to Turkish law, Billy will be sentenced to life imprisonment. Therefore, prosecutors who enforce the law impartially do not deliberately aggravate Billy's crimes. The film also uses facial makeup to show a chubby Turkish judge. Because of his private "communication" relationship by lawyers, he shows Billy's "like". As long as corruption and perverting the law are beneficial to the United States, the United States does not oppose it. As a local court, the "kind" judge rejected the crime of "drug smuggling" charged by the insidious prosecutor and only found Billy as "drug possession". Therefore, he sentenced Billy to serve 4 years in a Turkish prison. In fact, the filmmakers did not make up the story to perfection. They let Billy himself admit that he was carrying drugs on the plane to sell money in the United States. In other words, Billy himself admitted to smuggling drugs, but the Americans contributed to the corruption of Turkey's judicial system and would be very happy to see Billy's crimes reduced to "drug possession."
The movie expresses this meaning: The Turkish sentence for Billy to "possess" 2 kilograms of drugs to serve 4 years is too severe and too heavy. This actually involves the sovereignty of a country, and the United States is not qualified to point fingers. As a result, Americans who were "abiding by the law" accepted the Turkish legal judgment with a "magnanimous" attitude. Although this sentence was the result of a lighter sentence after using judicial corruption and bribery, the film was lavishly rendered with sad music and tears, which shows how much wronged Americans have suffered, and it makes people forget that Billy committed drug smuggling. On the contrary, his crime is like an innocent victim worthy of sympathy.
When Billy's four-year sentence was about to expire, things changed again. The prosecutor refused to accept the judge's decision and appealed to the Supreme Court, insisting that Billy be sentenced for "drug smuggling." The lawyer again asked Billy to spend money on bribes. However, bribery was not successful. Of the 35 judges of the Supreme Court, 28 of them agreed to commute Billy to the crime of “drug smuggling”. In terms of the specific details of the case, the prosecutor’s protest and the Supreme Court’s decision were actually correct, not judicial corruption, but strictly in accordance with the law. The result of Turkey's legal system that is not affected by American bribery has greatly annoyed the United States, which claims to rule the country by law, and greatly angered Americans who claim to respect and abide by the law. When the Supreme Court’s decision was issued, Billy’s final statement in the court gave a very bad monologue.
Billy believes that his four-year sentence is enough to cover the crime. He righteously accuses Turkish prosecutors and judges, preaching the meaning of tolerance, fairness, and justice to Turkish judicial personnel, as if he is not a drug smuggler at all, but God’s Incarnation. In order to show contempt for Turkish judicial personnel who do not understand tolerance, justice and fairness, Billy accused the Turkish judicial personnel of being hybrids. Most Turks believe in Islam and Muslims do not eat pigs, so Bi used the most vicious way to insult the Turks with "poop-eating pigs". The American shouted loudly to hate judges, hate prosecutors, hate Turkey as a country, hate all the people in Turkey. The American also announced that he would fuck (fuck) the Turk's mother and daughter in court. Billy said that they were all pigs, and he seemed to be eager to have sex with the "pigs". "You are all pigs"! This is the most insult of the American to Turkey. In order to show that the Americans have suffered unreasonable grievances in Turkey, this film uses artistic techniques to make Billy insult the entire Turkey and the entire Muslims in a way that is absolutely unacceptable to every Muslim. The film director kept the Turks in court silent and silently accepted Billy's verbal and mental rape. Even in the United States, there is a crime of contempt of court. If this plot in the film really happened in a Turkish court, Billy would definitely be added a crime: contempt of court. However, because Americans were "wronged", this American film blatantly defied all laws outside the United States for the sake of Americans' vent. Indeed, the different cultural customs of various countries make the judgment or sentencing standards of various criminal acts inconsistent. The United States can be dissatisfied with the legal standards of other countries, but it is too much to expand this dissatisfaction into national hatred and cultural hatred towards other countries. It seems that the crime of drug smuggling by Americans is negligible.
The 35 judges of the Supreme Court of Turkey convicted Billy of drug smuggling by a democratic vote. Billy will serve 30 years in prison in Turkey. This democratic result that has not been influenced by bribery by the United States has annoyed the United States, which has always been known as a democracy. Billy began to plan an escape, but as a result, because the Turkish prisoner in the same prison "informed", the escape was unsuccessful. If in accordance with normal laws, jailbreak is a serious violation of the law, reporting the jailbreak does not violate the law at all, but this behavior has once again aroused hatred among Americans. In a beating, Billy bit the informer's tongue. With his beastly violent, he was portrayed as a lonely hero against the dark by the film creator. As a result, Billy did not increase the penalty for seriously hurting others, but through other operations, he was identified as a mentally ill person. In the end, Billy bribed the Turkish prison guard, killed the prison guard, put on the guard uniform and escaped from the prison, smuggled to Greece, and returned to the United States in 1975. Become a heroic triumph without mentioning the murder he committed. What is the life of a Turk in the eyes of Americans?
In order to shape the glorious image of Americans, this film made a lot of fiction and artificial selection on the basis of true stories. Its purpose is to demonize the Turks and beautify the "justice" and "heroic" of Americans. Americans have a greater right to speak than Turks, making the world only hear American voices. This is the value of Americans in the eyes of Americans. For the Americans, they can provoke the laws of other countries, regardless of whether they should abide by the laws of others, and whether they should reject the judicial corruption they have always accused others of; they hurt the Turks because the Turks did not allow Americans to successfully escape the law. The sanctions; the deprivation of the lives of the Turks is to free the Americans who violate the law and discipline. When this American gained freedom in the United States, the series of crimes he committed were nothing to Americans. The injuries, deaths, and insults suffered by others deserve it. Only the Americans represent justice, the Americans are the most important, and the Americans are the highest citizens in the world... This is the concept expressed to people in this movie.
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