![]() ![]() The movie also completely ignores his transfer to an island prison, and his overnight row in a stolen dinghy across a stormy sea to shore and his trek on land to Greece and freedom. Hayes says, he never delivered the blistering anti-Turkish speech in court that is a centerpiece of the film. ![]() Hayes never accidentally killed a prison guard, and, unlike his character in the movie, he did have a brief, physically intimate relationship with another inmate. Hayes and his story were among the toasts of the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, where he met Wendy West, his wife of 39 years. Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning but overheated, dated and xenophobic script for the movie took liberties. In the scripts first draft (and also in reality), Hayes was transferred to an island prison and escaped by rowing one night all the way back to the mainland. Midnight Express would go on to become a phenomenon. When his sentence was later increased to 30 years, he resolved to free himself. Arrested while boarding a plane with two kilograms, Mr. Hayes at 23 had thrice carried hashish to America from Turkey, before that country cracked down on airport security to demonstrate to the Nixon administration its commitment to the war on drugs. Luke’s Theater about his escape from a Turkish prison. ![]() Riding the Midnight Express With Billy Hayes Mr. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |