The latest release in Turner's series of made-for-cable movies rushed to home video is this Midnight Express spin-off which wants to be a thriller, but is more of a lukewarm commercial for Amnesty International. Inspired not by a true story, but by an amalgam of cases which Amnesty International has been involved in, Forgotten Prisoners opens with the abduction of several Turkish citizens who are thrown into prison for supposed crimes against the state. One of these prisoners, a political cartoonist, becomes the central victim of the film. Ron Silver (Enemies) adopts an early Al Pacino (Serpico) voice and mannerism to his role as Jordan Ford, a law expert who travels to Turkey on his first mission for Amnesty International. Upon arrival, Ford encounters yards of bureaucratic red tape, as he struggles in vain to get an audience with the Minister of Justice. With the aid of his Turkish lawyer sidekick Demir (Hector Elizondo), Ford moves closer and closer to the "hard evidence" he needs to convince the Turkish powers-that-be that systematic torture is still being practiced in the prisons. The film's problem is elementary: although we are continually being shown scenes of the brutality inflicted upon the political cartoonist, he is not the "focus." The focal point is Ford, who is basically a caricature. Throughout the second half of the film the resemblance of Ford's character to Rocky Balboa is ridiculously obvious (Ford "prepares" for his verbal battles by jogging and lifting weights; and yes, there is the running up the stairs scene as well as the arms raised in victory scene lifted from Rocky.) Because of this commercial crap aspect, the "torture" scenes begin to take on more and more of an exploitative resonance and we find ourselves beginning to seriously loathe the comic book approach to such a painful and serious subject. Not recommended. (R. Pitman)
Forgotten Prisoners
color. 92 min. Turner Home Entertainment. (1991). $79.98. F.A.B. Rating: M (Mature) Library Journal
Forgotten Prisoners
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