Search/Recent Changes
DBTropes
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

Oedipus Rex

 Oedipus Rex
type
TVTItem
 Oedipus Rex
label
Oedipus Rex
 Oedipus Rex
page
OedipusRex
 Oedipus Rex
comment
Oedipus Rex is a 1967 film from Italy directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini.It is—no prizes for guessing—a telling of the myth of Oedipus, most famously dramatized in the Ancient Greek play Oedipus Rex aka Oedipus the King. The film is a straightforward depiction of the myth, except for the fact that the opening scene is set in Fascist Italy of the 1920s. But we still have Laius (in the modern setting an officer in the army), who is jealous of his wife Jocasta's attention to their baby son, even before he becomes aware of a prophecy that the infant will grow into a man who will kill him and then have sex with Jocasta.At this point the film's setting changes to the ancient world, as a servant abandons the baby on a mountain to die, per Laius's orders. But the baby is rescued by a passing shepherd, and given to the childless King Polybus of Corinth and Queen Merope (Alida Valli, in a small part) of Thebes. Oedipus grows to adulthood as the beloved son of the king and queen, but he hears a disturbing rumor that he is not their natural son but in fact a foundling. He goes to the Oracle of Delphi to ask about this, only to hear a far more disturbing prophecy: that he is doomed to kill his father and have sex with his mother. Distraught at this, Oedipus leaves Corinth immediately. After some random wandering, he meets King Laius of Thebes at a crossroads...Silvia Mangano plays Jocasta. Oedipus was played by Franco Citti, who had a small role as a Sicilian Mafia foot soldier in The Godfather (he's one of Michael's bodyguards).
 Oedipus Rex
fetched
2023-09-01T02:30:03Z
 Oedipus Rex
parsed
2023-09-01T02:30:03Z
 Oedipus Rex
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Oedipus Rex / int_127fc252
type
Creator Cameo
 Oedipus Rex / int_127fc252
comment
Creator Cameo: Pasolini can be seen briefly as a high priest of Thebes.
 Oedipus Rex / int_127fc252
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_127fc252
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_127fc252
 Oedipus Rex / int_1876ce6c
type
At the Crossroads
 Oedipus Rex / int_1876ce6c
comment
At the Crossroads: The symbolic turning point in Oedipus's life, when he kills his biological father at a crossroads.
 Oedipus Rex / int_1876ce6c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_1876ce6c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_1876ce6c
 Oedipus Rex / int_1b6d7d29
type
The Creon
 Oedipus Rex / int_1b6d7d29
comment
The Creon: The original was the Trope Namer. After Oedipus accuses him of wanting the throne, Creon replies calmly that he'd rather be the king's sidekick, that he's content to enjoy the cushy lifestyle of the royal court without actually being the king and having the responsibility.
 Oedipus Rex / int_1b6d7d29
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_1b6d7d29
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_1b6d7d29
 Oedipus Rex / int_246989a4
type
Circling Vultures
 Oedipus Rex / int_246989a4
comment
Circling Vultures Vultures are circling in the sky as baby Oedipus lies on a mountaintop. Vultures are circling again at the beginning of part 2, as the bodies of plague victims are rotting outside of Thebes.
 Oedipus Rex / int_246989a4
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_246989a4
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_246989a4
 Oedipus Rex / int_30d2ae29
type
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
 Oedipus Rex / int_30d2ae29
comment
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Laius abandons his son on a mountainside, allowing him to grow up without knowing who his true father is, and thus allowing the prophecy to be fulfilled.
 Oedipus Rex / int_30d2ae29
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_30d2ae29
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_30d2ae29
 Oedipus Rex / int_33029735
type
Dies Wide Open
 Oedipus Rex / int_33029735
comment
Dies Wide Open: Laius should have hired more/better guards.
 Oedipus Rex / int_33029735
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_33029735
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_33029735
 Oedipus Rex / int_3c598f56
type
Conflict Ball
 Oedipus Rex / int_3c598f56
comment
Conflict Ball: So just why does Oedipus kill Laius and four of his five servants? Later Oedipus claims that it was because Laius insulted him, but in the movie it comes off as Oedipus just picking a fight.
 Oedipus Rex / int_3c598f56
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_3c598f56
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_3c598f56
 Oedipus Rex / int_4603ea49
type
Mystical Plague
 Oedipus Rex / int_4603ea49
comment
Mystical Plague: Oedipus's desire to help his people after plague strikes Thebes is what leads him to find out the unpleasant truth.
 Oedipus Rex / int_4603ea49
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_4603ea49
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_4603ea49
 Oedipus Rex / int_4e3d253b
type
Downer Ending
 Oedipus Rex / int_4e3d253b
comment
Downer Ending: Jocasta kills herself. Oedipus is left a wandering blind man (in 1967 Bologna, somehow).
 Oedipus Rex / int_4e3d253b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_4e3d253b
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_4e3d253b
 Oedipus Rex / int_5313c266
type
Bookends
 Oedipus Rex / int_5313c266
comment
Book Ends: The end of the film has Angelo lead a blind Oedipus to the very meadow where Jocasta was nursing him at the beginning of the story.
 Oedipus Rex / int_5313c266
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_5313c266
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_5313c266
 Oedipus Rex / int_5456f857
type
Too Important to Walk
 Oedipus Rex / int_5456f857
comment
Too Important to Walk: Jocasta is carted out on a litter to meet Oedipus, after Oedipus slays the Sphinx and frees the city.
 Oedipus Rex / int_5456f857
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_5456f857
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_5456f857
 Oedipus Rex / int_5bca5a56
type
Surprise Incest
 Oedipus Rex / int_5bca5a56
comment
Surprise Incest: Oedipus marries Jocasta without knowing she's his mother, only to be unpleasantly surprised when he realizes the truth.
 Oedipus Rex / int_5bca5a56
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_5bca5a56
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_5bca5a56
 Oedipus Rex / int_5cd8680b
type
Doorstop Baby
 Oedipus Rex / int_5cd8680b
comment
Doorstop Baby: A shepherd picks up Oedipus after Oedipus is abandoned on a mountain.
 Oedipus Rex / int_5cd8680b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_5cd8680b
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_5cd8680b
 Oedipus Rex / int_69cce3dc
type
Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!
 Oedipus Rex / int_69cce3dc
comment
Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: This happens a lot towards the end of the story, like when Jocasta tells him that prophecies don't always come true, because there was a prophecy that her son would kill her husband, so Laius abandoned the baby on a mountainside...
 Oedipus Rex / int_69cce3dc
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_69cce3dc
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_69cce3dc
 Oedipus Rex / int_6cc2137b
type
The Scream
 Oedipus Rex / int_6cc2137b
comment
The Scream: Oedipus screams after finding Jocasta dead, and the scream plays on the soundtrack as the camera cuts to a shot of the palace of Thebes, and then to shots of mountains outside the city.
 Oedipus Rex / int_6cc2137b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_6cc2137b
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_6cc2137b
 Oedipus Rex / int_6cf96262
type
Our Sphinxes Are Different
 Oedipus Rex / int_6cf96262
comment
Our Sphinxes Are Different: Unlike the Sophocles play and indeed most Sphinx stories, in this film Oedipus defeats the Sphinx in combat instead of answering a riddle.
 Oedipus Rex / int_6cf96262
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_6cf96262
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_6cf96262
 Oedipus Rex / int_6d332aea
type
Driven to Suicide
 Oedipus Rex / int_6d332aea
comment
Driven to Suicide: After seeing that Oedipus will not be able to get past what happened, Jocasta hangs herself.
 Oedipus Rex / int_6d332aea
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_6d332aea
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_6d332aea
 Oedipus Rex / int_7241785e
type
You Can't Fight Fate
 Oedipus Rex / int_7241785e
comment
You Can't Fight Fate: The Oracle of Delphi tells Oedipus this straight up.
 Oedipus Rex / int_7241785e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_7241785e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_7241785e
 Oedipus Rex / int_81a1960f
type
Silence Is Golden
 Oedipus Rex / int_81a1960f
comment
Silence is Golden: The first fifteen minutes of the movie, namely the whole Fascist Italy part where Oedipus is born, then abandoned, has no dialogue except for some background muttering and toddler Oedipus saying "Mama" a couple of times.
 Oedipus Rex / int_81a1960f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_81a1960f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_81a1960f
 Oedipus Rex / int_82accf22
type
Gainax Ending
 Oedipus Rex / int_82accf22
comment
Gainax Ending: The ending leaps forward a few thousand years, even past the Fascist Italy opening, to find Oedipus a Blind Musician in modern-day Italy—blind even though his eyes look just fine and un-stabbed.
 Oedipus Rex / int_82accf22
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_82accf22
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_82accf22
 Oedipus Rex / int_8e1db422
type
Adopted into Royalty
 Oedipus Rex / int_8e1db422
comment
Adopted into Royalty: Oedipus, although he doesn't know it—with tragic consequences.
 Oedipus Rex / int_8e1db422
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_8e1db422
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_8e1db422
 Oedipus Rex / int_a122bf2f
type
Blind Seer
 Oedipus Rex / int_a122bf2f
comment
Blind Seer: Tiresias, the blind seer, who is asked why Thebes has been struck by plague and answers matter-of-factly that it's because the gods are punishing Oedipus for killing his father and boinking his mom.
 Oedipus Rex / int_a122bf2f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_a122bf2f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_a122bf2f
 Oedipus Rex / int_a2b38d3b
type
Eye Scream
 Oedipus Rex / int_a2b38d3b
comment
Eye Scream: The famous ending in which Oedipus puts out his own eyes with a dagger after seeing Jocasta dead.
 Oedipus Rex / int_a2b38d3b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_a2b38d3b
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_a2b38d3b
 Oedipus Rex / int_af4d6174
type
Setting Update
 Oedipus Rex / int_af4d6174
comment
Setting Update: Sort of. The opening scene is set in Fascist Italy. The last scene is set in the modern day. But the rest of the film appears to be set in the appopriate Ancient Greece time setting.
 Oedipus Rex / int_af4d6174
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_af4d6174
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_af4d6174
 Oedipus Rex / int_bc3b029b
type
Impairment Shot
 Oedipus Rex / int_bc3b029b
comment
Impairment Shot: Blurred vision from Oedipus's POV as he staggers away from the Oracle, after the Oracle gives him that super-depressing prophecy.
 Oedipus Rex / int_bc3b029b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_bc3b029b
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_bc3b029b
 Oedipus Rex / int_bcf1d2c1
type
Blind Musician
 Oedipus Rex / int_bcf1d2c1
comment
Blind Musician: Apparently Oedipus's new job at the end of the story, after the Messenger gives him a flute.
 Oedipus Rex / int_bcf1d2c1
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_bcf1d2c1
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_bcf1d2c1
 Oedipus Rex / int_d9b4cc7f
type
Abdicate the Throne
 Oedipus Rex / int_d9b4cc7f
comment
Abdicate the Throne: Oedipus does this in rather spectacular fashion, by stabbing out his eyes.
 Oedipus Rex / int_d9b4cc7f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_d9b4cc7f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_d9b4cc7f
 Oedipus Rex / int_ef20d7bc
type
A Minor Kidroduction
 Oedipus Rex / int_ef20d7bc
comment
A Minor Kidroduction: One might think that this would be obvious for an Oedipus story, but Sophocles's play basically corresponds to only the second half of this film, when Oedipus starts investigating the mystery after plague hits Thebes. In this film Pasolini takes a straight approach to the story, starting with Oedipus's birth, abandonment by Laius, and adoption.
 Oedipus Rex / int_ef20d7bc
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_ef20d7bc
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_ef20d7bc
 Oedipus Rex / int_f6c3d469
type
Fanservice Extra
 Oedipus Rex / int_f6c3d469
comment
Fanservice Extra: A random moment on Oedipus's journey away from Corinth has him stop in a crumbling roadside building, only to see a woman, presumably a prostitute, wearing nothing but a loincloth.
 Oedipus Rex / int_f6c3d469
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_f6c3d469
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_f6c3d469
 Oedipus Rex / int_f77aa221
type
Nice Job Breaking It, Herod
 Oedipus Rex / int_f77aa221
comment
Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: Laius reacts to the prophecy by abandoning his son on a mountainside, thus allowing him to grow up without knowing who his father is.
 Oedipus Rex / int_f77aa221
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_f77aa221
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_f77aa221
 Oedipus Rex / int_f9636192
type
Prophecies Are Always Right
 Oedipus Rex / int_f9636192
comment
Prophecies Are Always Right: Oedipus is not happy about this.
 Oedipus Rex / int_f9636192
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_f9636192
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_f9636192
 Oedipus Rex / int_name
type
ItemName
 Oedipus Rex / int_name
comment
 Oedipus Rex / int_name
featureApplicability
1.0
 Oedipus Rex / int_name
featureConfidence
1.0
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Oedipus Rex / int_name
 Oedipus Rex / int_name
itemName
Oedipus Rex

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Mystical Plague / int_4151024c
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
Our Sphinxes Are Different / int_4151024c
 Oedipus Rex
hasFeature
The Scream / int_4151024c