OK, if you can sympathize with an idiot who would strap several kilos of hash to his body to smuggle them from a country where penalties for such crimes are often met with DEATH, then you can go with this slick,  atmospheric and incredibly violent movie.  Admittedly, it gets under your  skin, and Brad Davis was mightily effective in the role of Billy Hayes, and  John Hurt embodies creepily the stoned out prison mate Billy befriends  during his harrowing odyssey.  But this movie, directed with typical  stylish flair by visual master Alan Parker, never places the blame squarely  on Billy's shoulders, poor dumb guy.  And while his torturous stay in the  Turkish prisons practically smells, it is so dense and well-captured, it  did nothing for the image of Turkey, the country -- it is uncompromising  and brutally vicious in its depiction of virtually every Turkish location,  character and idea, for that matter.  If Turkey was such a pit of despair,  why did Billy decide to buy his hash there?  This movie revolves around a  character who is unrepentant and foolish, and while no one should have to  endure such human indignation, it is hard to escape that simple fact.  Parker's movie, taken on its own terms, has an almost poetic quality at  times, though Billy's dismissal of the Swede's advances actually made me  laugh out loud, and, by the way, was consummated in the book.  With so much  depravity at every turn, and hellish imprisonment your destiny, why  wouldn't Billy seek another human, even if he happens to be a man?