Evaluation

My study on my critical essay is on how the Promethean theory and Oedipus theory are represented in science fiction films over the past 40 years, the macro aspect I chose to cover was narrative. The main aspect I was looking for was more the hatred and rebellion against your creator and wanting to kill them rather than sexual acts towards a parent. But the sexual acts are still present in one of the films I have chosen for my critical essay. Both the Promethean theory and Oedipus theory come up in films that are mainly about cloning of a human. Where as in majority of other science fiction films the Promethean theory is heavily present as they rebel against their creator or their leader for the good of humanity. All these aspects would come across in Mise-en-scene but mostly through the narrative and dialogue.

The main aspect in my work I was looking at was the connection between the Greek myths of Prometheus and the Oedipus and how they link in to science fiction films over the past 40 years. What I learned from my research is that in the science fiction films I chose for my study (Womb (UK name Clone) 2010, Starwars original trilogy 1977 - 1983, and Prometheus 2012) all have aspects of the Promethean theory in them as at some point as the protagonist has a hatred for their creator or the creator has a hatred for them. In star was Luke has a hatred for his father who is Darth Vader and wants to kill him to stop the empire taking over as Luke has become one of the rebels. In Prometheus when Doctor Elizabeth saw find the last Engineer on the alien ship and wakes him up the engineer goes on a murderous rampage ripping the head of David and killing various characters including Peter Weyland and in Womb the clone of Thomas started to show signs of hatred towards Rebecca once he has found out that he is a clone of her dead boyfriend. The Oedipus theory show up in two of the three films I looked at Starwars and Womb. It is easier to spot in Womb than it is in starwars. In womb when the Clone Thomas is struggling with who he is and his mother is jealous of his girlfriend the sexual tension breaks the both of them when she tells him that he is a clone of her ex and they have sex and this is shown on screen not just assumed and he impregnates her as the last shot is of her on the beach say’s “thank you for the last gift you ever gave me”. But in starwars it is not as obvious it is more to do with that he falls in love with his sister and kisses his sister with out knowing they are related, this links in to the story of Oedipus by the fact that he married his both mother with out knowing that she was his mother as he was adopted.

The way I showed the aspects of Promethean and Oedipus theory through my course work was through the use of dialogue in my script I used this to build the back-story and have all the information the Protagonist Annabel being killed then being reborn in a cloned form. Admittedly my script does not show any aspects of the Oedipus complex apart from the character that is killed at the end of my script the only link to the story of Oedipus is that the character that is killed by Annabel had a relationship with her at some point. The way I showed the aspects of Promethean and Oedipus through my key frames was through the narrative on there own you can work out a vague story but they make a lot more sense when they are put together with the script. I tried to keep my photos minimalistic by not having two many things going on in the background it is mainly just the actor’s as I wanted the focus to be on the actors rather than the things happening around the actors.

In my personal opinion there are a lot of things that I would do differently next time. For example I would make a time management plan and give myself deadline rather, than going with the teachers deadline and leaving my work till a few days before they need it in, if I managed my time better I could get them to mark my work and improve on points I have missed out on. I believe that my 20 key frames could have been better than they are as well due to the same fact time management, I could have used a better camera for clearer images and also I could have used Photoshop to a better standard then I did. Admittedly if I had a bigger budget I would have liked to turn my 20 key frames in to 5 minuet short film following my script as I personally think that would have worked quite well, the only difficulty would be getting the science fiction aspect across well enough to make it look good. The one piece of work out of the creative artifact that I am happy with is my script I believe that it has quite a good story line and drives the narrative forward and at a good standard. I also believe that my script heavily follows the Promethean theory. If I spent more time and research in to the Oedipus theory I believe that in my script I could have added more aspects of it to my script.

Overall I think my creative artifact could have been a lot more successful if I put more work and research in to it. But also I think if I picked a different study to do rather than the one I did. I found it very difficult to find any resources that related to the Oedipus and Promethean theory in film where as if I did a research on the male gaze it would have been easier to find it. But the main reason I struggled was down to my self and my lack of organizational skills.

textual analysis

How are the Promethean and Oedipal theories represented in science fiction films in Contemporary cinema?Prometheus was a Titan in Greek mythology that was given one of the most important roles which was the task of building mankind out of clay. His attempts to improve the lives of man, was not well received well by Zeus. The main thing that aggravated Zeus about Prometheus was when Zeus banned mankind from the use of fire. Prometheus stole it from Olympus and delivered it to the humans. Zeus feared that by giving mankind fire they would use it to fight the gods. This made Zeus scared and he punished Prometheus for these rebellious acts of giving mankind fire by bounding him to a stake on Mount Kaukasos where an eagle was set to feed upon his liver that would regenerate after ever feed.
Oedipus was born to King Laius and Queen Jocasta. King Laius found a prophecy in which said that his first-born son would grow up to murder his father and marry his mother. To prevent this, the baby’s mother placed a stake through the 3 days old child and gave him to a servant to place on the mountain to die. But the servant could not go through with it so gave it to a local Sheppard. The local Sheppard gave the baby to King Polybus and Queen Merope in the city of Corinth, knowing they could not have children of their own. The king and queen never told him that he was adopted he found out from one of his friends he did not believe this so he went to an oracle. He found out that the prophecy said he would kill his father and marry his mother, believing he was fated to murder Polybus (adopted father) and marry Merope (adopted mother) he left Corinth. Heading to Thebes (the home of his true parents).Oedipus met an older man in a chariot coming the other way on a narrow road. The two fought over who should give way, which resulted in Oedipus killing the stranger and continuing on to Thebes. He found that the king of the city had been recently killed and that the city was at the mercy of the Sphinx. Oedipus answered the monster's riddle correctly, defeating it and winning the throne of the dead king and the hand in marriage of the king's widow (his mother). The way that both of these Greek mythological theories can be applied to science fiction films is down to the idea of playing god and defying the ones who had created you and going against the orders of the people who have made you and have given you the power but throwing it back in their faces this would be for the promethean theory. For the Oedipus complex it would be sleeping with the person who created you or sleeping with a relative.             

Primary Womb is a story about a love started between two children, Rebecca and Tommy, who swear to love each other forever. Then Rebecca has to move Japan with her mother rather than stay with her grandfather on the island. The two are ripped apart. A number of years later Rebecca returns as a young woman to find that Tommy not only remembers her,  but still loves her as much as the day she left. Tommy is a now political activist fighting against the biotech corporations who specialise in cloning. Tommy plans to spoil the opening of the new cloning centre by planting a bag filled with cockroaches in the new facility. Rebecca insists on accompanying Tommy.Driving to the cloning centre Rebecca asks Tommy to stop the car so that she can have a piss at the side of the road. Tommy leaves the car as if he needs to go as well but as he steps out of the truck and is hit by a passing van that knocks him down and kills him. Rebecca and Tommy's parents are suffering from grief. Rebecca wants to use new scientific advancements to have Tommy cloned and thereby bring him back to life. By her self to be impregnated using Tommy's DNA. Tommy's mother objects, his father agrees to give Rebecca Tommy's cell material. However she continues and gives birth to a new Tommy. Tommy is now raised as Rebecca’s son, the two have a close relationship. Years later, Tommy has grown as old as he was before his had been killed. He is now the Tommy Rebecca fell for. When Tommy brings a girl home to stay with them Rebecca behaves jealously. Tommy struggles with what appears to be sexual tension between himself and his mother. The original Tommy's mother, arrives unexpectedly and stares silently at Tommy, he recognizes the stranger. Frightened and frustrated by Rebecca's lack of explanation, Tommy lashes out at Rebecca, ignoring his girlfriend, who quickly departs. An angry Tommy demands answers from his mother, Rebecca, who gives him original Tommy's old laptop with pictures of himself and his mother and father. Tommy initiates sex with Rebecca. The next day Tommy has packs his things and left by the time his mother has woken up. The film ends as it begins with a pregnant Rebecca on the porch. The characters that this effect is both Thomas the cloned version and Rebecca.The Oedipus complex signs start to show from within the formative years, but if the child does not have a male role model in his life to get jealous of this will carry on in to the later years of childhood. A scene that shows the Oedipus complex quite heavily is when the clone of Thomas must be about 8, him and Rebecca are playing outside by a swing set at this point they start play fighting and Thomas end up on top and say “now I can do anything I want to you” this reinforces the fact that Thomas and Rebecca have sexual feelings for each other. Rebecca does not seem to resist this she seems to embrace this statement so maybe she enjoys these comments? Although, Thomas is only young at this point. This also backs up that this is normal behaviour for the both of them, as it does not seem to be awkward between then. This also shows that his up bringing by only his mother has effected his psychosexual development. The lack of a male role model in the clone is explanation for this behavior and love for his mother, as he has never known differently. “while he is still a small child, a son will already begin to develop a special affection for his mother” [2] This statement is heavily evidenced in this scene.
The lack of a male authority has allowed the relationship to start getting incestuous and out of control. The scene I believe show this is when Rebecca is watching Thomas and his girlfriend play outside then Thomas picks up a net that he finds and places it over her and starts kissing her on the cheek and hugging her at this point Rebecca starts making what can only be described as orgasm noises and Thomas’s girlfriend seems creeped out about this but Thomas isn’t bothered at all. This shows the audience that this would be a normal thing that happened between clone Thomas and his mother. A statement from Freud about his childhood can apply to this scene."I found in myself a constant love for my mother"[[1]] This shows that Thomas has not really grown out of childhood and in this essence the Oedipus complex. Thomas’s behavior also backs this up. As whenever his mother tells him not to do something he out right refuses and carries on like a child. This scene also shows reverse Oedipus complex as Rebecca is lusting for her child. Rebecca’s behavior towards Thomas acts also does not help him get out of his Oedipal love for his mother.    If the Oedipal lust is not handled it will get out of hand and the child will try and rape the mother or the mother will willingly let him have sex with her. Thomas is now a young man and Rebecca has told him that he is a clone if her ex boyfriend. The camera shows them almost face to face, this shows the sexual tension between them this gets too much for the both of them and they both fall for each other and Thomas comes in to Rebecca’s room and confronts her about who he is.He climbs on top of her and starts passionately kissing her, and soon they start having sex. Once he has finished he just gets up and leaves never to be seen again. This shows the audience that their sexual feelings have got too much for each other and have broken them and they have both fallen for each other.The fact he gets up and leave also backs up the point of not having a male role model in his life and not knowing how to treat women. Also the fact that he has sex with his mother proves that this film has aspects of the Oedipus complex in it.

The Promethean theory also appears in womb, this theory only appears once in the film in my eyes. This is through the idea of playing god. How this is shown in the film is when Rebecca is impregnated with a clone of Thomas going against Thomas’s parents view on this as his mother disagrees with this. This is like when Prometheus gave the humans fire against when Zeus disagreed with this.

The subject of Prometheus is explored in the film made by Ridley Scott set in the close future, archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway discover a star map in a cave in Scotland that is the same as others that has been found over time. They take this as an invitation from the human’s creators, the "Engineers". Peter Weyland, the CEO of Weyland Corporation, Gives the archaeologists money to fund space on a ship called Prometheus to follow the map to the distant moon. The ship's crew travel induced comas while the android David monitors their voyage. Arriving a few years after there departure, The mission leader assigned by Weyland Corporations Meredith Vickers tells them there objective is to find an engineer, and not to make contact without her permiss
ion.
The ship lands on the moon, near a large what seems manmade structure, which a team explores. Inside they find the decapitated corpse of a large alien, they believe to be an Engineer. Dr Shaw recovers its head. The rest of the crew also find some body’s, leading them to assume that all the Engineers are now dead. Two crewmembers are unsettled by their discoveries and try to return to the ship but get lost. The expedition is forced to be delayed, as storm come in which means the crew have to return to the ship. David unknowing to the rest of the crew takes a cylinder. In ship's lab, the Engineer's DNA on the head they found matches the DNA of humans. The cylinder David takes leaks a black liquid. David spikes a drink with the liquid and gives it to Holloway, Shortly after he has finished the drink Holloway and Shaw have sex.
When they go back to the structure. David discovers a control room containing a surviving Engineer in hyper sleep, and a map with Earth on it. Holloway falls ill. He is rushed back to ship. Vickers does not allow him to get on, and kills him with a flamethrower. Sometime after the recent incident a medical scan reveals that Shaw, despite being told she can not cannot have children , is pregnant. Fearing for her own safety, she uses an automated surgery machine to extract a squid like creature from inside of her. Shaw then discovers that Weyland has been in Hypersleep aboard the ship, although they had been told he died. He tells Shaw that he want the Engineers to restore his youth.  Weyland and the remaining crew return to the structure. David wakes the Engineer up from hyper sleep tells him what Weyland wants. The Engineer does not like this so rips David’s head off and throws Wayland in to a wall resulting in his death before starting his spacecraft. Shaw and Vickers flee. Shaw tells the pilot still on the ship that the engineer is planning to kill all mankind. Knowing this he ejects the lifeboat and rams the ship into the alien craft, while Vickers running to an escape pod. The Engineer's ship crashes onto the ground and crushes Vickers. Shaw runs to the lifeboat to the squid creature has grown to a large size. David's still talking head tells Shaw that the Engineer has survived. The Engineer bashes the lifeboat's door and attacks Shaw, who releases the squid killing the Engineer. Shaw recovers David's remain. With his help Shaw launches another Engineer spacecraft.
The theory that is heavily present in Prometheus is the Promethean theory. As the underline story seem to be a rebellion of defiance towards your creator or god. The rebellion or defiance is normally comes from the race they have created.
Even artificial life will turn against its creator, displayed in the film when David the android who acts as butler to the crew on the ship offers a drink to Dr Holloway, having spiked the drink with a black liquid that he finds in the structure, knowing that this liquid is some kind of poison he still goes ahead with it anyway for his own gain.
This poison has an odd effect on his body and when he has sex with Dr Shaw she becomes impregnated with what later can only be described as an alien squid, but this poison also cause him to fall ill and his own crew go against him and Vickers kills him.
You know that the black liquid is a major point in the scene as when David puts it in the drink it is a close up. Also the fact that the liquid is black represents death and destruction. This also shows the fear of technology as well as this could be foreshadowing if humans carry on developing technology I will have the power to kill it creators.
If we found what created us it would kill us. The scene I am using for this is the scene where David wakes up the Engineer from its hyper sleep and Wayland asks David to tell it to “help save my life” the engineer does not like this question so he pulls David’s head off and kill Wayland with it. The lighting is quite dark in the ship they are in this signifies death and can even signify the devil. This also links in to the Promethean theory as the Engineers created human and they were not happy with what we became so they were going to punish us. “Prometheus, in eternal punishment, is chained to a rock in the Caucasus, Kazbek Mountain, where his liver is eaten daily by an eagle” [2]   If we carry on will it distort humanity? In the film it is said that the engineers created the ultimate biological weapon and we can assume that this biological weapon is what killed them. This is the biggest evidence for Promethean theory as the creatures they made have lost all humanity and have totally disregarded there creators and their life.The Promethean theory is shown heavily in Prometheus from all aspects of life From the creations of humans to humans creating there own life advancements.Overall I believe that all contemporary science fiction films have themes of the Promethean theory but not all of them have themes of the Oedipus complex, but have other aspects of Frauds works like psychosexual development.

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[1] Paul, Robert A. (1991). "Freud's anthropology". In James Neu ed. The Cambridge Companion to Freud. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 274. ISBN 978-0-521-37779-9.
2  Sigmund Freud 1 introductory lecture on psychoanalysis volume 1 page 243, The penguin Freud library (general editors, Angela Richards (1973-1982) Albert Dickson (1982-)3 "The Aetos Kaukasios (or Caucasian Eagle) in the Prometheus Myth". Theoi.com. Retrieved 2012-05-18.