Film Act I

Green pepper plants tend to wilt if not watered daily in the hot midsummer sun. Gravity controls the leaves bending them toward the earth. Heat curls leaves inward toward their center stem with little hope of rejuvenation. Conversely, once life-giving water moistens the soil around the roots, the green pepper plant springs to life in as little as twenty minutes. Gravity once master of the wilted leaves looses hold. Now life in defiance, resists downward motion with resiliency. Curled leaves unwrap into a full pallet tasting the nutrients of the soil and air. A sickness called ignorance, i.e. stupidity, overwhelms society today with regards to film. It wilts our mind leaving us victims to its gravity. That is, the passive or unintelligible viewing of film leaves us without the moisture of logic. With out understanding the logic and message of the film, we wilt in the heat intellectually seeking more special effects to compensate for the lack of engaging ourselves logically.

A beautiful woman told interviewers of a pornography magazine, she does not waste time viewing television or watching an abundance of movies. She is engaged in business and every day living. Living life to the fullest. There is no question of personal pride; she is a symbol of lust and intelligence. She takes great care of her full-figured womanly body. Engages in intellectual and sophisticated work and loves life in the present. However, a great injustice is served by the acceptance of a mythology that television and film are mediums for the ignorant. What a shame. With a little watering, this beautiful woman could have a full-figure intellectually.

Neanderthals have shown a great respect for life. The fact that they buried their dead with flowers and other materials shows loss of a loved one. Families truly felt a loss with the passing of other members. Stone tools and other hunting artifacts show coordinated activity in gathering resources for the continuation of life. Food gathers and members of an animal hunt would take center stage and convey critical information in the form of storytelling. The stories are so critical for survival, that the minds of the listeners are fully engaged in every detail. Youth about to encounter their rights of passage to adult hood, have the most to gain. Stories of the hunt show skill of attack, safety measures taken by experience hunters, spatial and geographic locations, and procedures for tracking and hunting different species of animals. Homo sapiens no doubt engaged in the same ritualistic practices of storytelling for the same reasons. In fact, this type of storytelling was so critical for survival that the tall tell had not been born yet. Lies or misleading stories would certainly do in the next generation of hunters. The liar had not been born yet. This system had existed for so many millenniums, that even today, the masses do not question what they hear or see in white light religious propaganda. Propaganda is alive and well.

The dawn of the theater in ancient Greece is a wonderful event. 500 to 300 BC are known as the golden age of Greek theater. Dionysus is honored with Comedies or Tragedies written for the yearly festival. Male actors played multiple roles using masks to show both change in mood and character. Just as tribes of Neanderthal and Homo sapiens relayed stories of food gathering and the hunt, plays show people living critical moments of their lives. In Greek plays, the moments are acted out seriously or humorously. Two pillars on the foundation of storytelling arose in the plays of ancient Greece. Plays had meaning. They were models of life and living standards for the Greek. Plays were to be discussed among the members of Greek society upon ending. The Greater Dionysian festival was an arena of discussion. Once the play ended, the audience broke into two groups to discuss the play and its meaning; one group to the left and one group to the right. Groups discussed the plays message of life in society, and how surrounding nations impacted them. Continuation of discussions leads to hypothetical resolutions of current issues addressed in the play. Some of these resolutions would find a legal base and be eventually passed into law.

The Greater Dionysian festival was a political and social hotbed for logic, learning and philosophy. Plays stimulated the mind and helped form critical opinions of politics and an individual's role in family situations and society. Aeschylus (525 BC to 456 BC), Sophocles (496 BC to 406 BC), Euripides (480 BC to 406 BC), Aristophanes (448 BC to 385 BC), and Menander (342 BC to 291 BC) are the great mind that produced plays for ancient Greece. Of all the plays Sophocles's "Oedipus Rex" legend is most familiar.

In the play 'Oedipus the King' an oracle tells the ruler of Thebes, Laius, that his son will surely kill him. Fearful of this prophecy, Laius and his wife Jocasta pinion the baby's feet and order a slave to feed the baby to the wild beasts of Mt. Cithaeron. The slave, fearful for the baby's life, gives the boy to a shepherd from Corinth. The King of Corinth, Polybus, adopts the child. The child is given the name Oedipus, i.e. Swollen Foot, because of his deformity. The deformities will be an important clue in the interpretation of the play. It is these subtle clues that leads us the meaning and intentions of the play.

Oedipus as a strong, handsome young adult is in competition with his peers. At a party, Oedipus is called a bastard. In an effort to dismiss the claim, he leaves Corinth for Delphi to consult the oracle. Oedipus is confident that the oracle will confirm his parentage. In contrast, the oracle gives Oedipus a prophecy of horrors. The oracle tells Oedipus he will kill his father and sleep with his mother, which will bear him children. Fearful of the prophecy, Oedipus takes another road to Corinth. He meets an old man outside Parnassus driving a wagon with a group of slaves at a junction of three roads. The man, Laius, aggressively orders Oedipus off the road. Oedipus refuses and lashes out with his goad killing the man. Unknown to Oedipus, he has just killed his father in a fit of road rage.

Oedipus haunted by the prophecy, leaves his fathers house. In flight he arrives at Thebes. A Sphinx killing all those who cannot answer its riddle terrorizes the Thebans. The Sphinx approaches Oedipus and demands he answer the riddle. Oedipus is successful and the grateful Thebans make Oedipus their king. As king he marries the queen Jocasta, i.e. his mother, which bears him children. Thebes prospers under the rule of Oedipus for many years. However, a great plague falls on Thebes. In an attempt to understand the omen, again the Delphi oracle is consulted. Oedipus finds that Thebes must be purged of the murder. Oedipus seeks out the murder in earnest only to find that it is he. Jocasta in distress hangs herself and Oedipus prays for death or exile.

There are several clues that give meaning to the play 'Oedipus the King'. The pinioning of the baby's feet, which causes physical deformities, is monolithic. Egypt and Thebes are intimately intertwined. Thebes is the Greek attraction of ancient Egyptian niwt, city or niwt-st Southern City. It is located on the east bank of the Nile about 700 km south of the Mediterranean. Thebes became the capital of Waset and was the capital of Egypt during part of the Eleventh and Eighteenth Dynasty. What is of interest here is the Prolemaic rulers of Egypt. A system of inbreeding left the pharaohs of Egypt with gross deformities. Pharonic patterns of family life continued for centuries. 'Oedipus the King' is an ancient play concerning genetics.

A Pharonic pattern of inbreeding is the substance of the prophecy by the oracle of Delphi. Oedipus the king of Thebes is deformed at birth just as the pharaohs of Egypt. The pinioning of Oedipus's feet at birth causing physical deformities is a metaphor of the deformities the pharaohs of Egypt encounter genetically through inbreeding. The second metaphor encountered in the play is Oedipus marrying his mother. This is the metaphorical cause-inbreeding. The dead father, Laius, is the absence of new genetic material, outside the family, needed for the proper coupling of adults. Sophocles identified this as the cause of physical deformities in the Prolemaic rulers.

Oedipus is a direct stand in for the pharaohs of Egypt. For one he is physically deformed. Two he is to answer the riddle of the Sphinx, which lands him the job of king of Thebes. The sphinx of Giza has been a symbol of Egyptian pride for millenniums. The Sphinx is not only a clue; the Sphinx defines whom Oedipus represents. Oedipus is to wield the same power of the pharaoh and watch over the matters of state. He is to fill an equivalent role in society. Like Egypt, Thebes prospered for many years under the rule of Oedipus. However, plague brought on by the gods for the murder of new genetic material, Laius, must be dealt with. The inbreeding must die as did Jocasta and the behavior exiled. The practices of the Pharonic families could only lead to misery. In the end, Oedipus prayed to die or be exiled.

Please come back next week for Film Act II.