Oedipus Rex

Read the book, then found this movie at the British Council and rented it. First thing: I found the movie's translation (by W. B. Yeats) much nicer than the translation I read. Second: I found the king's rage scene really wonderfully acted, even though that part in the book didn't suggest much dramatic climax to me (it was supposed to be just the king relating an exposition of antecedents.) That scene alone I think makes this movie worth watching, it is a very poetic sort of rendering of violence. The voice of the king overall is great. Several scenes really show great acting of the solemn kind. The details in the masks are truly worth watching as some others mentioned. Even the hair of the king (back of the mask) is quite a sculpture on its own. Also the long hands and nails, as well as the seer in white.

I first saw this film (in a movie theater) in 1962 and had no idea what I was watching. Years later, as a high school and college English instructor, I knew lots about Greek tragedy and this version of Oedipus the King remains one of my favorite dramatic experiences. You can't find William Butler Yeats' translation in print anymore because the (ahem) "scholars" have decided it's not totally accurate. Ever read any of the "scholarly" translations of Greek tragedy? Those professors can't write poetry to save their lives. They make tragedy boring and stuffy. Yeats makes it breathe. And Tyrone Guthrie made tragedy "pop" in this thrilling 1957 production. In tune with Aristotelean requirements, there is a bare stage with a representation of Oedipus' palace. The actors and chorus members wear masks (very close to the spirit of original masks found by archaeologists), and they chant and move in dance-like cadences. At first, it may seem bizarre, but when you understand that you are being transported 2000 years into the past and watching drama being born out of religious ritual, you can sense the raw power of watching arrogant Oedipus fall into ruin. The performances are visceral and dangerous, the colors beautiful, the effect shattering. And you also get to see a boyish William Shatner before he became Captain Kirk (you'll see him in the brief introduction; once he puts on a mask you'll have no idea which one he is). Unlike the pretentious film auteurs of today who meander on and on, Sophocles packed his cautionary tale of human frailty into 90 taut minutes. I used this video for years in my Advanced Placement English classes, but I've also watched it many times just for entertainment.

Sophocles, William Butler Yeats, Tyrone Guthrie -- sounds like a winning combination, doesn't it? And for the most part it is. Like Shakespeare's Hamlet, it may be one of the best known plays in the Western world. Unlike Shakespeare, though, it cannot really be done "realistically." Greek drama is not realistic, but highly formal. What Guthrie tried to do in this production was capture the artificiality, with all of the principals wearing great masks, such as might be seen at great distances, from the back of the theatre of Dionysus. Masks don't change expression, and at times, the masks don't match the words, but that is the way the Greeks would see the play. Besides, the fixed masks continually remind us of the underlying sadness and doom of the play. He also had the actors deliver their lines in a rather sing-song fashion, which at times proves almost too much. Unfortunately, he did not have the chorus really move about the stage dancing during their choral odes, as they probably did when the play was performed in the Theater of Dionysus in Athens in the 5th c. BCE. Still, it is probably the best way to see what a Greek play must have been like for those who saw it in ancient Athens so long ago.

The masks, the acting, the familiar play and the guilty of the king.

Each is the essential pillar of this profound inspired adaptation, story of revelation of the source of plague , confrontation against the past and genesis of truth.

The atmosphere is the basic good point, like a trip in the Athens theater , discovering not exactly a story but a kind of reality because the great tragedies are only reminds of od, profound present fears laying in us.

Great performances and seductive version of Yeats.. A good spectacle ? Obvious, little more. A delight , well crafted, offering beautiful version of an essential brick of human civilisation.

Contrary to a previous reviewer's remark, you CAN see William Shatner in this film. During the brief introductory prologue, three of the actors are seen without their masks, and Shatner (looking very young) is one of them. Otherwise, he is in the chorus, masked. Another of the actors (playing the messenger) is Douglas Rain, who later provided the voice of HAL 9000 in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.

As for the movie, it is definitely a curiosity. The masks are extraordinary, and as a lifelong devotee of the Greek tragedies, I found this production well worth watching. Oedipus's story is not only a journey of psychological self-discovery, but it's also probably the first murder mystery ever written; Sophocles, like every modern mystery novelist, had to work out the precise order of cumulative details and revelations to bring the climax to a head. All the shocking revelations about the king come tumbling out precisely because he long ago committed murder and kept his crimes a secret.