That is one of my favourite movies of all time.
Mine also. I went to the Theatre 3 times to see it dragging someone else each time

  Have watched it many times.  Brad Davis was amazing in that role; actually all the actors were. Many of the very convincing "Turkish" actors were actually Italian, or American (which suprised me), like Paul Smith the sadistic prison commandant.  
Yes he was.  This is one part that is not even in the book. Actually Billy Hayes was in like 3 or 4 prisons over that time.

The dialogue coach must have been a genius to get the actors to carry the accent like that.  Brad and the guy who played his cellmate (the German guy...) are both deceased. 
Brad died of Aids although he was hetero.

It was one of the first major films for a very young Randy Quaid,
Yep and he played a hell of a role. Last Picture show was his 1st

 and John Hurt (who IMHO is one of the worlds' greatest actors) was sublime as the English junkie prisoner.   
He was the best actor by far in the movie. Pitiful

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