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Pier Paolo Pasolini created a film based on the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. This film is considered one of the finest renderings of a classical Greek subject that the cinema has ever produced. Pasolini has in this film rearranged the flow of events, so that they follow the chronological order. The story starts with the shepherd carrying a child to the desert, while in the original myth from Sophocles the point of departure is different; the messenger come to ask Oedipus for help in saving the dying city. Furthermore Pasolini adds a modern prologue and epilogue, which are brilliantly lyrical and charged with great intensity of personal feeling. Pasolini s Oedipus Rex may be taken to be as much about Pasolini himself as about Sophocles hero.
According to Pasolini this film is the most autobiographical of all his creation. One of Pasolini s claims about his film was that the little boy of the prologue is himself, the boy s father is his father, and the mother is his own mother. Oedipus is born into circumstances of Pasolini s childhood, with his parents clothes in the film inspired by photographs of Pasolini s parents. Pasolini tried to create his own form of Oedipus; he wanted to avoid any connections that the audience could make with the original story. For this reason the location where the story was filmed was moved from Greece to Morocco.
In portraying Oedipus, Pasolini had made some insertions into the story. Somewhere at the beginning of the story line he presents Oedipus at the age of 20 throwing discus at the competition and what was significant about this event was the cheating of Oedipus. This fact might suggest to us that Pasolini didn t think that Oedipus is a completely innocent, but. Oedipus is allowed to kill in the film by Pasolini, in order to defend his pride, but is the killing the act of the innocent person or does Pasolini thinks that Oedipus is somewhat in charge of his actions and his future?
In the film, we cannot really see what drives the Oedipus to killing on the crossroads. When he decides to kill the bright light appears. This bright light can be interpreted as being blinded by his own rage. The way he kills suggests that he cannot control his own temper. In the film by Pasolini, Oedipus is a victim, but the aggressive one. From another prospective, Pasolini present us Oedipus as a person who had a dream at the age of 20 and wanted to discover what this dream was all about, so he leaves home and goes to find out his destiny, talk to oracle.
Oedipus, once learning the horrible faith he has been destined to (kill father and sleep with mother), decides not to go home to Corinth. He takes the road that would take him as far away from home possible, he is turning around with closed eyes every time he needs to choose the road he is going to take next. He is repressing self knowledge. This differs from Sophocles because he takes more responsibility and actually searches for his identity there, while here he runs from his identity. With this gesture, Pasolini indicates that Oedipus doesn t really want to face the reality. Reality issue is obviously one of the problems of Oedipus character, he knew his destiny and still he was not able to put 2 and 2 together in realizing that Jocasta is old enough to be his mother.
Along the way, Pasolini has added part into his film which wasn t a part of the book, he shows us Oedipus, coming to one city where the young women was given to him. Oedipus runs from the bare breasted girl due to his fear of conventional sex with her. Again indicated by Pasolini is the rejection of self-knowledge. Oedipus shows no interests of being with this woman. The way this could be understood is that Oedipus had no chance of avoiding his destiny, something more powerful than human-power itself had to be driving him. Understanding this gesture right, I would have to say that Oedipus was indeed an innocent individual, who was maybe blinded to see but than again what difference would it make if he could see.
Oedipus Rex Characters in the play Oedipus the King by Sophocles, attempts to block the horrible outcome of the gods oracle. The first people to try to do so were Oedipus mother and father, Laius and Jocasta. After hearing the unmoral and disruptive prediction, they attempted to execute their own child. Resulting in their actions, Oedipus grew up thinking that the king and queen of Corinth were his parents.
After Oedipus, himself, went to Apollo to hear his oracle he left Corinth thinking he were to do these deeds to the people he thought of to be his parents. In return, his actual parents, Laius and Jocasta doomed themselves. Oedipus attempt to run from his prophecy ended up condemning himself and his parents. Characters attempt to change the fate, when they already know Oedipus inevitable destiny.
The characters in this play feel that they, for some reason, have the powers to play with the gods. If the gods gave an unpleasant oracle, it did not matter, what the gods said went. These people did not like what they heard, but decided to work against the gods. They thought they could out do them, by sacrificing their only child.
They tried simply because they did not want this unbearable fate to come true. Who would want to be ended by their own kin? There can not really be a conflict between Oedipus and Fate. His fate was predetermined, which means he could have done nothing about it, he had no choice. Oedipus may try to fight it or beat it, but it is his destiny and bound to happen. He and his parents, may have thought they could have done something to prevent the predicted of becoming reality, but they had no chance.
In a way, there was a struggle, but it was Oedipus against an indestructible force that would not be budged. He was born with his fate, and it was not going to be changed, for any reason. Man is often the victim of circumstances and the circumstances that were pre-described by Gods for Oedipus were making him a victim. Being a victim of circumstances doesn t indicate you are innocent individual for every crime you commit but if does suggests that one doesn t have an option to chose, what is about to happened will happen no matter what. I believe that Oedipus was not only in the film by Pasolini but also in the book by Sophocles the innocent individual that had no chance to make his life better or different because nobody human like can compete or oppose the will of Gods.
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