"Oh, Billy!"

Alan Parker's greatest achievement is probably this film, a harrowing -- and infamous -- account of an American who foolishly tries to smuggle home drugs after his visit to Turkey. He's quickly made an example of and tossed into a revolting prison cell. After his 3 1/2-year sentence is nearly up, it's extended for another 30 years. You can imagine how he feels, and thanks to Brad Davis's searing performance, it's all laid out on the screen in one of cinema's most underrated roles. The scenarios that Billy Hayes encounters -- squalor, official ambivalence, violence, rape, an eventual escape -- are nothing new in the annals of prison dramas, but the emotion and talent pouring out of the film, particularly John Hurt as the prison's longest-surviving detainee, push the film into classic territory.

Based on Billy Hayes' book and a script from Oliver Stone, Midnight Express has earned a (rightful) reputation as one of the most distrubing films about third-world prisons... or any other prison, for that matter. Parker writes in detail about its production on Sony's new 30th Anniversary DVD release, expounding on the film's shoestring budget and hostility the film faced on release, especially in France. (You'll also find a commentary track and several making-of featurettes on the disc.)

Put simply, all modern-day jail flicks owe Midnight Express a debt.