The plot of the movie is about Oedipus Rex the king of Thebes. During his reign as the king, the city is faced with a threat of a plague. Therefore, King Oedipus ordered his brother-in-law, Creon to try to find a solution to the plague that is threatening to destroy the whole city. Creon gives instructions on how the threat of the plague needs to be stopped. He orders that the city have to find out the real murderer of the former King Laius of Thebes.
In order to get the solution to the plague that is threatening the city of Thebes, Creon decides to get Tiresias, a blind prophet to come and uncover the death of King Laius. At first, the blind prophet refuses to speak but later openly accuses king Oedipus of the murder. King Oedipus denies the accusation angrily. In fact, King Oedipus get support from her current wife, queen Jocasta who tell him that a prophecy had been made about the death of king Laius but did not come true. This revelation from Jocasta makes King Oedipus reflect on the man they killed on the crossroads who resembled King Laius. King Oedipus then decided to find the shepherd who knew many stories concerning Oedipus in order to tell him the truth. At this point, King Oedipus discovers that he is not the true biological son to the Corinth’s king, Polybus and Merope. In fact, the worst revelation he discovered was that he was a son to King Laius and queen Jocasta. This made King Oedipus believe that the man they had killed on the crossroads was King Laius.
After the uncovering of these happenings, Jocasta, King Oedipus mother and wife decides to commit suicide while king Oedipus destroys his eyes and becomes blind. The king then decided to go into exile because he had decreed the penalty personally on King Laius’ murderer. The whole movie brings out many ironical instances. It is ironical that King Oedipus participated in a murder, which he is even not sure of the person he had killed. Therefore, he goes ahead to decree an unusually strong penalty only to discover later that the penalty is supposed to be imposed to him because he was the real murderer of King Laius. It is also ironical that King Oedipus marries his own mother without his knowledge. He has killed his father and then marries his mother. It is ironical because all these scenes happen without him knowing that those were his real biological parents.
The movie is a powerful lesson to the Greek audience. The audience clearly learns that the rule of the gods is a not a respecter of persons. Whether one is a king or not, once a punishment is decreed, it has to be imposed to whoever will be found guilty irrespective of his position in society.
Oedipus Rex. Accessed on December 3 2011 from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050792/