Artificial Intelligence: A.I. (2001)

In the story of Oedipus, the main character pokes out his eyes when he learns that he has killed his father, slept with his mother, and fathered children with her. In A.I., David cuts his mother’s eye with scissors he was using to obtain her hair (which coincidently holds her DNA – the building blocks for reproduction). When physically assaulted by his father as to why he did this, David replies he wanted his mother to love him. This scene is set in motion by David’s “real brother” who tricks him in to promising to obtain her hair and with the promise the Monica will love him if he is successful. It is not until David physically touches the bed (the father’s domain) that Monica is startled and nearly loses her eye. Spielberg has twisted the Oedipus story so that the son almost stabs his mother’s eye less due to the fact the son wishes to replace the father, but because he wishes her to love him as much as, if not more, than her biological son - echoing the familiar motif that one sometimes needs to be blinded before they can truly see. The wish fulfillment of this desire is granted at the end of the film, but Monica and David’s positions have changed – she is not the replicant and David is the special or unique individual. It is no surprise that the wish fulfilled day begins and ends on the mother’s bed. Spielberg again provided a story driven by the desire for the mother, where the main character struggles through many obstacles for her approval, where the father is distant and threatening, and where the final images (which appear as film or dreams) would not have been possible without the muse of the mother.