Are they actually speaking proper Turkish?
-
Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Midnight Express
siukong — 10 years ago(June 18, 2015 12:51 PM)
I was in Turkey briefly last year, and comparing what I remember hearing in real life, many of the Turks in this movie didn't seem to be speaking proper Turkish, or were doing so with a heavy non-Turkish accent. Not that I'm any expert - just that it often didn't SOUND right.
I hear this was largely filmed in Malta, with Italian actors. I wonder if they were Italians of Turkish heritage, working with a badly translated script, speaking phonetically or something else. Can any Turkish speakers enlighten us? -
sonofbeach-sheet — 10 years ago(June 19, 2015 11:34 AM)
From what I heard, the only proper Turkish spoken was from the prosecutor in court. At the beginning, the customs officer and policeman giving the speech about a security check boarding the plane didn't speak Turkish at all, it was Maltese. The actors laying Turks:
Hamidou, the head guard: American of Israeli descent named "Paul Smith"
Yesil, the lawyer: Italian
Prosecutor: Armenian
Judge: Italian
Rifki: Italian -
cgeyik — 10 years ago(November 18, 2015 12:53 AM)
The prosecutor had the best Turkish, no accent at all. Ironically the Judge had the worst Turkish, i had to use subtitles to understand what the guy was trying to say. One of the police officers (in the scene where they check his bags, ask for his name and take pictures) was second best with his almost flawless Turkish.
The ones i don't mention are either sub-par or just outright terrible. -
washcloud — 10 years ago(March 28, 2016 10:09 PM)
that btw would be the late Mihalis Giannatos, Istanbul born and raised Greek actor, who is actually delivering two roles and credited only for one (that of the translator at the court scene where Billy gets 30 years).
Memory is a wonderful thing if you don't have to deal with the past