Midnight Expressas a Product of Hollywood Orientalism

Abstract

This paper aims to deconstruct the motives behind Oliver Stone & Alan Parker’s 1978 film Midnight Express, in terms of putting Turkey and Turkish people in the Oriental position and putting Western and White characters in the Occidental epistemological positions. Some questions this paper tackles include “How does Orientalism work in the context of Film Studies? Does the Gaze grant a monolithic and unidirectional look at the Orient instead of the Occident? How does the “based on a true story” tagline serves as a marketing tactic in order to augment the “horror” of being stuck in a Turkish prison, while the actual true facts were differing from the facts represented in the film? What affects do these misrepresentations have?