Oedipus Wrecks

"Oedipus Wrecks" is a segment within Woody Allen's 1989 film New York Stories. The segment satirizes the Greek myth of Oedipus, the king of Thebes who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. In Allen's comedic take, a vaudeville comedian named Sheldon M. Finkelstein discovers that his mother, who abandoned him, is now a giant statue in a museum. The film humorously explores themes of fate and self-discovery, mirroring the tragic elements of the original myth in a modern, absurd context. It critiques the tendency to overlook obvious truths, much like Oedipus himself.