Midnight Express 1978

I watched this movie with full awareness of how it was received, and I'm offering my comments based on that, with complete objectivity. Most of the time, I'm someone who criticizes Turkey thoroughly from every angle. We are all aware of and vocal about the wrongdoings, absurdities, and filth in our country to some extent...

However, this movie has served one definite purpose: During the years when the movie was made, American-Turkish relations were strained. The Cyprus issue of that period, the ASALA matter, the pressure from Greek-Armenian circles in the USA, and all these factors had led to a deteriorated relationship between the US and Turkey.

As a result, the sole purpose behind making this film was to denigrate Turkey and Turkish people, portraying them as worse than they are, humiliating them, and tarnishing their reputation globally while fueling anti-Turkish sentiments.

Let's not forget that cinema doesn't always reflect reality. Cinema can be a powerful propaganda tool when used in a certain way, just as it was intended with this film... Indeed, years later, the director, screenwriter, and even the author of the book on which the film is based admitted to exaggerations in the movie and offered apologies.

No matter how you look at it, you can see that everything in the film was deliberately crafted:

The broken Turkish resembling Arabic spoken by all Turkish characters.
The deliberate selection of ugly individuals to portray Turkish characters.
The constant insertion of Islamic-themed Arabic elements throughout the film, aiming to create an image of Turkey as nothing more than what's shown in the film.
The repetition of phrases like "Turkish food and toilets are terrible" and similar derogatory statements throughout the film.
The portrayal of Turkish hatred and racism through American characters constantly insulting Turks and making derogatory remarks.
The depiction of Atatürk's pictures in filthy toilets, with the camera focusing on them, effectively humiliating one of the most esteemed figures in Turkish history and indicating an underlying hostility towards Atatürk.
All events, dialogues, and scenes being portrayed with deliberate bias.
The influence of the Greek lobby in the film is evident: When the American character is told, "You'll be safe if you escape to Greece," it's emphasized as if Greece is a very comfortable, modern place, while Turkey is depicted as nothing but hell, disaster, and filth. Yet, we know very well the plight of Turkish minorities in Western Thrace and the injustices they face.

Moreover, let's see what they do when you're caught with drugs, narcotics, etc., at an airport in another foreign country... We all know that while our own country doesn't always provide peace to its citizens and subjects them to all sorts of hardship, it applies double standards and shows more leniency to foreigners, even if you have no criminal record.

In the end, the ideology of the film is to spread the idea that Turkey is a disgraceful, uninhabitable, filthy place filled with dishonorable, inhumane people to the whole world. Because it's deliberately made this way, this film cannot be evaluated cinematically.

It's perfectly normal to react with reasons presented without resorting to cheap nationalism because when you watch the film, you can clearly see some things are blatantly obvious.