Edipo rey

Understandably they wanted big names but movie actors aren't necessarily able to play ancient drama. Plummer and Palmer are struggling here, Welles on the other hand is surprisingly good.

Some critics of this movie denigrated the stylised performances and ancient setting, but the producers were trying to faithfully portray a play which is 2,500 years old. It is an important movie and I think the correct decision was made not to modernise it for contemporary audiences. I thought that Christopher Plummer did a superb job of portraying the doomed hero. His big dramatic acting style perfectly fitted the setting. We use the phrase "it's not a Greek tragedy" when someone is overdoing a drama in real life. We use that expression for a reason, Greek tragedies were epic stories of Gods and men not everyday episodes in a domestic soap opera. Therefore the acting style has to be appropriate to the subject. The entire cast were mostly excellent in their parts; Cyril Cussak, Orson Welles and Lilli Palmer were outstanding. As others have commented, why did they overdub Donald Sutherland's voice with Patrick Allen's? It was a distraction.

The most rewarding quality of this film is the fact that Sophocles is left untouched - there has been no cuts in the text, as the film follows the drama closely with meticulous fidelity. Another great asset is the stylishness, which is just perfect - bringing the spectator back to very ancient times of Greece, with a rugged landscape and no spectacular additions to the basics of Greek drama.

The actors are all outstanding. Lilli Palmer as the only woman makes perhaps the greatest impression, but all the others are perfect also, like Christopher Plummmer as Oidipus, Donald Sutherland as the chorus leader, Orson Welles as the blind prophet Teiresias and several others. It is very seldom you get the chance to see a Greek drama on film so perfectly genuine and faithful to the ancient genre of Greek tragedy.

An adaptation gifted with so many and precious virtues, from Christopher Plummer as powerful and , in same measure, so vulnerable Oedip, to monumental Tiresias proposed by Orson Welles and a Donald Sutherland as leader of choir , being a profound pleasant surprise.

But the top of film is the performance of trully inspired Lilli Pamer as impressive Jocasta.

It is a play known from childhood, who, starting with sophocles and the work of George Enescu, was one of sources of questions, doubts and games of perspectives about life from my early ages.

This play, including for location and for admirabe scenes of death of Laius, is just a gem.

Sophocles on cinema is a delight; but with a dream cast that includes the lovely, talented Lili Palmer, the great Orson Welles, the charming Cyril Cusack, the arresting Donald Sutherland in a most unusual role, and of course stalwarts Christopher Plummer and Richard Johnson, the effect can be heady.

I recommend the film to anyone who cares for drama and acting. I am amused that the film has not been marketed intelligently by the studios and remains unseen by many who would have loved to see the film.

The scenes where Oedipus unknowingly kills his own father is captured on film in a truly remarkable way, suggesting the fleeting moment where recognition between father and son is totally implausible.

Jocasta's (Lili Palmer) performance is top notch--probably her best role ever. Cyril Cusack, Orson Welles, and Donald Sutherland add additional flavour to this remarkable effort.

I have always wondered why the famous cinematographer Walter Lassally did not choose to film the movie in the letterbox or cinemascope format, which would have given the subject an epic sweep it deserved. The format used by Lassally restricted the film to the level of a play on film rather than cinema capturing the great play on celluloid. Even with this fault, the film will remain one of my favourites. I commend Phillip Saville for his casting--bringing together great actors on both sides of the Atlantic.

I doubt if the ancient Greeks could have enjoyed the play any better than on a technicolor screen with special effects.