The X Factor
The first X-film I ever saw at the pictures was "Midnight Express" which I managed to blag my way in to at the tender age of 16, two years before I was legally allowed to. That might not sound like much of an achievement but I was young-looking for my age (still am!) and had failed to get into X- and even AA-rated films before. I'd just started going to pubs by then and never had any problems being served but getting into an adult film seemed like a much more difficult proposition; a pint of lager was one thing but at an X-film there was sex, violence, nudity (lots and lots of that in the 70s, everyone got their kit off in films back then) and all sorts of mysterious grown-up stuff so attempting to bluff the old lady in the ticket booth of your local Odeon or ABC was as nerve-wracking as trying to buy a dirty magazine at the corner shop. And it almost always was an older person selling tickets at the pictures back then, not the spotty teens they have these days who would probably let a coach load of Boy Scouts in to see "I Spit On Your Grave."
So it was with a huge sense of relief that I settled into my seat at the Odeon Kensington High Street knowing that I was in and no one was coming to chuck me out. Even more so because I'd gone to see it with the beautiful Jackie Bolton, the curly-haired temptress I had an unrequited schoolboy crush on. Though sadly it wasn't a date, she was with a group of her mates and had asked me along as a "friend" — that dreaded word — but still, can you imagine the humiliation if I'd been turned away for being too young right in front of Jackie Bolton? I wouldn't have been able to show my face in public ever again.
"Midnight Express" had plenty of the "grown-up stuff": boobs, bums, masturbation, sadism, drugs, homo-eroticism, and lots of gory violence, though I was less shocked by all that as I was uncomfortable to be watching Brad Davis have a wank while I was sitting next to Jackie Bolton. I liked it a lot at the time but I think the older, more sophisticated me wouldn't be as impressed, director Alan Parker and scriptwriter Oliver Stone both tend to be as subtle as a knee in the balls and I've feeling if I was to see it now I'd find it all a bit sensationalist and lurid — like a beautifully photographed exploitation flick.
The soundtrack by Giorgio Moroder still sounds great though and supposedly was the first electronic score to win an Oscar. We used to play the soundtrack album a lot when I was working at WH Smith and every time we did someone would ask us what it was and buy a copy (Jeff Wayne's "War of The Worlds" opus had the same effect.) Apparently Alan Parker gave Moroder the job after hearing "I Feel Love" and the 8-minute "Chase" has a similar throbbing EuroDisco beat and is something of an early Techno classic (I think Daft Punk covered it at some point) while the main theme is slower and more squelchy, though I can't ever hear those bouncing "boom-boom-boom" synth drums without thinking of "Ring My Bell"
Download: Chase - Giorgio Moroder (mp3)
Download: (Theme from) Midnight Express - Giorgio Moroder (mp3)
Buy: "Midnight Express: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" (album)
5 Comments:
Good post. Midnight Express was one of my first X-films and I was blown away by it too (my first was Saturday Night Fever. Can’t remember the name of the cinema but it was in Frome). I also remember loving the music at a time when I either hated film music or didn’t notice it. I’ve seen it on TV some time in the last 10 years and still quite enjoyed it but you’re right, it wasn’t very subtle and the portrayal of Turks is particularly questionable.
I wonder - if Jackie Bolton is the siren's real name, what would you do if she left a comment here?!!
Good piece of Moroder there, I bought his E=MC2 on the back of a Donna Summer obsession.
But as for my first X - I have some dim memory that it was either The Man Who Fell to Earth (with that strange gun sequence in the middle, that you never see on TV) or was it really Blazing Saddles (was this X rated?). I do remember the latter was a double bill (yes, two films for the price of one in the seventies) - coupled with something called Alvin Purple (!) - a "Confessions" type film. I can only think that the reason I remember this great title is because it was my first X!
Phil
Blazing Saddles was a ‘AA’ cert which meant you had to be 14. I remember that because I was just about 14 when I saw it and thought cowboys farting round a campfire was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. In my local it was on a double bill with a John Wayne film called McQ.
My first 'X' was Alien, which, believe it or not, I went to see with my mum. I got into the habit of using Monday afternoon study time to nip out of sixth form to see all the films I thought I'd never see uncut on TV: Quadrophenia, Scum, and yes, this on a double bill with Taxi Driver.
You stirred up some good memories there, Lee my man.
I don't recall my first X, but I remember my first R, which required parental consent for those younger than 18: "Bonnie & Clyde." For some reason, my parents allowed me to go to it on a weeknight, and Dad vouched for me at the box office before heading home for a couple of hours.
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