Oedipus The King - Film Versions

Film Versions

The play has been filmed several times, twice in English, as well as presented many times on television. The 1957 film version, directed by Tyrone Guthrie, starred Douglas Campbell as Oedipus, and had the cast performing the entire play in masks, as in ancient Greek theatre. The second English language film version, directed by Philip Saville and released in 1968, was filmed in Greece. This one showed the actors' faces and boasted an all-star cast, including Christopher Plummer as Oedipus, Lilli Palmer as Jocasta, Orson Welles as Tiresias, Richard Johnson as Creon, Roger Livesey as the Shepherd, and Donald Sutherland as the Leading Member of the Chorus. Sutherland's voice, however, was dubbed by another actor. The film went a step further than the play, however, by actually showing, in flashback, the murder of Laius (Friedrich Ledebur). It also showed Oedipus and Jocasta in bed together, making love. Made in 1968, this film was not seen in Europe and the U.S. until the 1970s and 1980s after legal release and distribution rights were granted to video and TV. In 1967 Pier Paolo Pasolini directed Edipo re, a modern interpretation of the play. The story was adapted into a 35mm film performed entirely by real fruits and vegetables which premiered at the 2004 Sundance film festival, directed by Jason Wishnow with special effects by Industrial Light + Magic. In Colombia, director Jorge Ali Triana adapted the story with Gabriel García Márquez as Oedipus Mayor (in Spanish Edipo Alcalde) bringing it to the real Colombian situation.