Ok I'll try not to be subjective as the movie itself while judging it, whereas it'll be hard. Now, it has its pluses and minuses like all the movies ever made in the history of cinema. Nothing wrong with that for sure. What's wrong, though, is that, the minuses override the pluses in this movie BIG TIME! Life in a Turkish prison might not be anywhere close to a vacation in Hawaii, but the situation is exaggerated 5 million times in this movie. First of all, foreigners are always treated nicer than locals in Turkey, in all aspects of society, including the prisons. Second, this Hayes guy wasn't imprisoned just because everyone in the prison was ugly and the prison needed a handsome detainee, he was imprisoned because he was trafficking DRUGS! Even in Holland, where the law permits the use of hash, trafficking so much stuff would be enough to make one look at the world through the jail bars. For those who don't know: There was another American guy who went to prison in Turkey at about the same time as Hayes, for the same crime. And upon watching this revolting movie, he wrote a book about his experience in the "tourist cell" of a Turkish prison, and he clearly states Hayes is a big time BS thrower and his life in the Turkish prison was exactly as good as a life in any prison could have been. So one could easily tell that the storyline on this movie is not necessarily imaginary, but an absolute exaggeration of the reality.
Enough about the story, now let's talk about the cinematography itself. Well.. It's BAD! The Turkish lawyer and the Turkish prisoners speaking Turkish with an Italian accent, the Turkish judge speaking Turkish with an American accent, the Turkish prosecutor played by an Armenian terrorist speaking in a terrible Armenian accent.. That's hillarious! Also, everyone who plays a Turkish role in the movie is ugly as hell. Women all wear ninja-suits. Well, what else? Or do we need any other reason to say this movie is a failure? It's so obvious that the director is tearing up his rear to make Turks and Turkey look bad. And if it takes such an obvious try to do that, it means his filmmaking skills are not good enough to manifest his message.
If you want to see a movie that's showing things 0 out of which are the least bit real, and if you want to lose all your respect to director Alan Parker, go watch this movie right now! But if you just want a good movie, avoid it at all costs, it'll make you nauseous.
Enough about the story, now let's talk about the cinematography itself. Well.. It's BAD! The Turkish lawyer and the Turkish prisoners speaking Turkish with an Italian accent, the Turkish judge speaking Turkish with an American accent, the Turkish prosecutor played by an Armenian terrorist speaking in a terrible Armenian accent.. That's hillarious! Also, everyone who plays a Turkish role in the movie is ugly as hell. Women all wear ninja-suits. Well, what else? Or do we need any other reason to say this movie is a failure? It's so obvious that the director is tearing up his rear to make Turks and Turkey look bad. And if it takes such an obvious try to do that, it means his filmmaking skills are not good enough to manifest his message.
If you want to see a movie that's showing things 0 out of which are the least bit real, and if you want to lose all your respect to director Alan Parker, go watch this movie right now! But if you just want a good movie, avoid it at all costs, it'll make you nauseous.