"Midnight Express" certainly takes a lot of liberties with the truth. I have always thought that films of this type should go one of two ways. Either they should use an event as inspiration and nothing more or they should make a movie that is factually truthful and keep artistic license to a minimum. Unfortunately, this film tries to make the viewer believe that it is being truthful when in reality it often isn't. As you probably know, "Midnight Express" is the movie based on the book by Billy Hayes (and his ghostwriter). Billy was busted at an Istanbul airport trying to smuggle hashish out of the country. He ends up in a brutal Turkish prison for many years until his eventual escape. It's hard to enjoy the movie for what it could've been because it is factually untrue in several places. Sadly, multiple animals died during filming...which makes you wonder just how brutal some Americans can be as well.