Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus the King, though written in the 5th Century B.C., has continued to influence popular culture, even in this modern era. Every year new literature, theater, and screenplays are written with one or more of the elements of Oedipus the King. These elements include blindness, prophecy, hubris, and attempting to outwit fate. One example of popular culture that has been influence by Oedipus the King is the motion picture, Minority Report.
The movie Minority Report is based on a short story, also called, The Minority Report, by Philip K. Dick. John Cohen and Scott Frank adapted the short story into a screenplay. The story takes place in Washington D.C. in the year 2054. Though taking place over 2000 years after the events in Oedipus the King, the two stories share many common elements.The Heroes
The hero in Minority Report is John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise. John Anderton is not a king, as is Oedipus, but as a detective with the Pre-Crime Division in Washington D.C., Anderton is also in a position of power. Detective Anderton supervises the Washington D.C. division and reports to the director of Pre-Crime, Lamar Burgess, who throughout the film is a close friend and fatherly figure to Anderton. Both Oedipus and John Anderton are saviors of their cities. Oedipus saved Thebes from the Sphinx that was terrorizing the city.
The Sphinx, sent by Hera, had learned a riddle from the muses. The Sphinx would ask the citizens of Thebes this riddle, “What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?” The Sphinx ate anyone who could not tell her the answer. Oedipus was the only one that was able to give the correct answer, “Man is the answer: for as an infant he goes upon four feet; in his prime upon two; and in old age he takes a stick as a third foot.” Upon answering the riddle the Sphinx destroyed herself, and Oedipus was made king of Thebes and given Jocasta as a wife (Morford and Lenardon, p 383). Detective Anderton saves the city from murders by arresting the would-be murderer before he or she commits the crime. Tragedy
One definition of tragedy is a “drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances” (Dictionary.com). According to Aristotle a classical tragedy should include a “reversal of situation” and a transformation from ignorance to knowledge. Both Oedipus and Detective Anderton are tragic heroes in their own right.
Oedipus murdered his father, which is a moral weakness. Oedipus is also guilty of excessive pride, or hubris. Oedipus calls himself a “champion” of his country and “the God” and says that he will “drive pollution from the land” (Sophocles, lines 135-136).
Oedipus also is irrational at times and quick to anger. He loses his temper with the blind prophet Teiresias when Teiresias is hesitant to inform him, that he is the pollution on the land, the killer of King Laius. Teiresias is the prophet of Apollo, and should be treated with honor and respect. In his arrogance, Oedipus blasphemes against God by calling Teiresias a liar, heaping insults upon him, and telling him that he doesn’t have the gift of prophecy. Oedipus tells Teiresias, “you are blind in mind and ears as well as in your eyes” (Sophocles, lines 370-372). He irrationally accuses his brother-in-law, Creon, of plotting against him to gain control over Thebes.
Detective Anderton’s young son, Sean, was abducted from the public pool where Anderton and son were having a contest to see who could stay under water the longest. Anderton is guilt-ridden, blaming himself, and sure he could have prevented it. For the past six years Anderton has been purchasing drugs from a strange blind man in the wrong side of town. He uses the drugs, watches old family videos and wallows in self-loathing and grief. If Pre-Crime had been invented one year earlier, his son’s death would have been preventable. Anderton devotes himself completely to Pre-Crime, making sure that no one else is killed. He is one of the best at what he does, and believes fully in what he is doing.
Detective Anderton’s other major flaw is his desire for revenge. When Anderton comes face to face with the man who claims to be responsible for the Sean’s death, Anderton tells the precognitive, Agatha:
Everyday for the last six years I’ve thought of only two things. The first is what Sean would look like if he were alive today, if I would recognize him if I saw him on the street, the second is what I would do to the man who took him if I ever found him… I don’t have an alternate future. I am going to kill this man. (Minority Report).
Even though Agatha tells Anderton that he has a choice, he is willing to further ruin his own life by committing the murder he was foretold to commit.Eyes and Blindness
The theme of blindness is one of the most important elements of both Oedipus the King and Minority Report. Both Oedipus and Anderton are metaphorically blind. Oedipus is blind to the fact that he is the debt of pollution on the land. Oedipus is blind to the fact that he is the killer of his father and has lain with his own mother. Oedipus is blind to whom he really is. Teiresias tells Oedipus:
You have your eyes but see not where you are in sin, nor where you live, nor whom you live with. […] A deadly footed, double striking curse, from father and mother both, shall drive you forth out of this land, with darkness on your eyes, that now have such strait vision […] when you shall learn the secret of your marriage […] And of the multitude of other evils establishing grim equality between you and your children you know nothing. (Sophocles, lines 413-425)
Although there are many clues pointing towards who Oedipus really is, he is blind to them. As Oedipus investigates the death of King Laius, he becomes more and more uneasy as his eyes are slowly opened. Oedipus was foretold to kill his father and lay with his mother. Oedipus has killed a man whom Jocasta, his wife and mother, tells him looks similar in appearance to Oedipus. Laius was killed at a crossroads, and Oedipus killed a man at the crossroads. Oedipus has a swollen ankle, and the baby that Jocasta and Laius send off to die was pierced through the ankle. Teiresias all but tells Oedipus whom he is when he says:
I tell you king, this man, this murderer […] he is here. In name he is a stranger among citizens but soon he will be shown to be a citizen true native Theban, and he’ll have no joy of the discovery: blindness for sight and beggary for riches his exchange, he shall go journeying to a foreign country tapping his way before him with a stick. He shall be proved father and brother both to his own children in his house; to her that gave him birth, a son and a husband both; a fellow sower in his father’s bed with that same father he murdered. Go within, reckon that out […]. (Sophocles, lines 449-460)
It is not until it is too late, that Oedipus realizes who he is. When Oedipus’ mental ‘eyes’ are opened, he fulfills the prophecy by gouging out his eyes, and becoming literally blind.
Oedipus is also blind with self-righteousness. He doesn’t believe that there is anyway he is the cause of the pollution upon Thebes. He will stop at nothing until he finds Laius’ killer. A messenger comes to Thebes and tells Oedipus that he is not whom he thinks he is, and that Polybus is not his father. Instead of putting the clues together, Oedipus thinks that perhaps he is the son of a goddess.
Oedipus is not the only blind one in Oedipus the King. Jocasta is also blind. Oedipus is her son. She tells him that he resembles Laius, when she is describing him to Oedipus. She has been intimate with Oedipus – they have four children. She has obviously seen his ankles. Jocasta is the one who pierced her infant’s ankles. She should have realized something was not right. When Jocasta begins to realize what has happened she begs Oedipus to give up on his search:
I beg you- do not hunt this out – I beg you, if you have any care for your own life. What I am suffering is enough […]. O Oedipus, God help you! God keep you from the knowledge of who you are! (Sophocles, lines 1060-1066)
Oedipus does not give up, and Jocasta hangs herself.
Teiresias is yet another example of blindness. He is physically blind, yet sees more than any other character in this tragedy. Unlike the other characters in this play, Teiresias has mental, spiritual, and prophetic vision. He sees things that are hidden to everyone else.
Detective Anderton is also blinded by self-righteousness, in two main ways. Anderton believes that Pre-Crime is infallible. He unquestionably puts thousands of people in containment for crimes that haven’t been committed yet. Colin Farrell plays government agent Danny Witwer. Agent Witwer has been sent to find fault with Pre-Crime. He finds it wrong to arrest people for crimes that haven’t been committed. How do you know for sure the person will go through with the crime? Anderton rolls a ball across a track and Witwer catches it.
John Anderton: Why’d you catch that?
Danny Witwer: Because it was going to fall.
John Anderton: You’re certain?
Danny Witwer: Yeah.
John Anderton: But it didn’t fall. You caught it. The fact that you prevented it from happening doesn’t change the fact that it was *going* to happen.
Anderton firmly believes that if fate cannot be changed. Once the precogs ‘see’ you committing a future murder, it’s sealed in stone; you are guilty.
Secondly, when Anderton is seen committing a murder in a vision, he believes as Oedipus, that he is innocent, and will stop at nothing to prove his innocence. Anderton has no reason to kill Leo Crowe, the person he is supposed to murder. He lacks inner vision. When Leo Crowe claims to have killed Anderton’s son, Anderton realizes that he has a reason to kill Crowe. He has been waiting for the opportunity to kill his son’s murderer.
Eyes and vision are a central motif in Minority Report. Anderton buys drugs from a creepy blind man who tells him, “In the world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king” (Minority Report). People’s eyes are scanned as a form of ID when shopping, to access buildings, and to pay for items. The Pre-Crime unit uses “spiders” that enter buildings and scan resident’s eyes on their manhunt for Anderton. Anderton eventually has his eyes removed and replaced in order to buy more time before he is arrested for murder. Ironically, the doctor who removes his eyes tells him repeatedly, “Don’t take the bandages off for twelve hours. If you take them off before then you’ll go blind” (Minority Report). He saves his old eyes to gain access into Pre-Crime. Later, his ex-wife, Lara, uses Anderton’s removed eyes to gain access to Pre-Crime to break Anderton out of containment. Lara is a photographer, which is another way of seeing the world. Finally, Agatha, the precog, asks Anderton several times throughout the movie, “Can you see?” as she shows him a vision of a woman being drowned.Prophecy
Both Oedipus the King and Minority Report also revolve around prophecy. Oedipus is prophesied to kill his father and lay with his mother. King Laius was prophesied to bear a son that would kill him. Teiresias is the prophet of Apollo was called upon by Oedipus to help solve the problem of the debt of pollution on Thebes. Instead he brings more bad news for Oedipus, that he is the debt of pollution on the land.
John Anderton works for Pre-Crime, which relies on the visions of three precognatives, Agatha, Dashiell, and Arthur, to find murderers before they commit murder. The precogs are children of drug addicts who as a side effect have visions, but only of murders. The precogs are kept in a pool of numbing drugs and vitamins in a room, nicknamed “the temple.” Just as the oracle foretold that Oedipus would kill his father and lay with his mother, the precogs foresee Anderton committing murder.Fate Vs. Free Will
The message behind Oedipus the King is that you cannot outwit fate. Upon hearing the prophecy that he would kill his father and lay with his mother, Oedipus fled Corinth and the people he thought were his parents. Going back further, Jocasta and Laius attempted to kill their infant son in order to cheat fate. Jocasta tells Oedipus:
So Apollo failed to fulfill his oracle to the son, that he should prove to kill his father, and to Laius also proved false in that the thing he feared, death at his son’s hands, never came to pass. So clear in this case were the oracles, so clear and false. (Sophocles, lines 720-724)
In the end, fate is victorious. Oedipus killed Laius, not knowing it was his father. He married Jocasta and produced offspring with her. And just as Teiresias foretold, Oedipus gouged out his eyes and was exiled from Thebes to walk in darkness.
In Minority Report people are meant to believe in fate. If people had free will, then Pre-Crime could not work, otherwise; who is to say the killer couldn’t decide not to commit murder? In the beginning of the story Anderton believes in fate, he believes in it so strongly he is willing to put people away for life before they’ve even committed a crime.
Anderton’s feelings change half way through the movie when the precogs foresee him killing a man he has never met. Anderton believes he is innocent. He discovers that Agatha sometimes sees a different future then the other two precogs. This is immediately deleted and covered up. These instances are called minority reports. Anderton discovers that he does not have a minority report.
Finally, Anderton is in the room with Crowe and Agatha, and ready to kill the man he thinks killed his son. Agatha tells him, “You have a choice – walk away…Leave.” “You can choose,” becomes her mantra as events unfold. At the last second Anderton chooses not to kill Crowe. Anderton reads Crowe his rights with plans to arrest him.
Next things get more complicated. Anderton was set up. Crowe was told to pretend he killed Sean, so that Anderton would kill him. Crowe was released from jail and told his family would be taken care of if he did this. In a panic, Crowe grabs Anderton’s gun and sets off the chain of events that the precogs really saw in their vision. Anderton tells Crowe to let go of the gun and tries to reason with him. Anderton and Crowe both are holding the gun, and it is right up against Crowe’s chest. Crowe manages to pull the trigger, shooting himself. It is the exact scene that the precogs saw, but to them it looked like Anderton had killed him. So destiny was carried out, just not in the way it had originally appeared.
Minority Report doesn’t fit exactly to the structure of classical tragedy. John Anderton has a happy ending, which would not happen in classical tragedy. He reunites with his wife. The prisoners are all freed, though some continue to be monitored. Though Minority Report is not a true tragedy in the classical sense, it still shares many common elements with Oedipus the King, including blindness, prophecy, the search for truth, and fate.
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