Socrates is a 1970 Spanish-Italian-French television film directed by Roberto Rossellini. The film is an adaptation of several Plato dialogues, including The Apology, Euthyphro, Crito, and Phaedo.
Contents
Plot
The film tells the personal and historical events of the last period of the life of Socrates, the famous Athenian philosopher. The historical background is the period of the decay of the Greek Polis and of the democracy of Athens: the opening scene shows the demolition of the city walls by the Spartans, now victors of the Peloponnesian War, with the subsequent establishment of the Government of the Thirty Tyrants (404 BC).
The city is in turmoil for the defeat and humiliation suffered, as well as for the organization of military counter-moves for the liberation (which will lead to the fall of the Thirty the year following the establishment of the Regime). In this context it is introduced the character of Socrates, now seventy years old and engaged every day in his philosophical research with a large following of young people.
During the film many excerpts from some of Plato's famous Dialogues are presented, including Hippias major, Euthyphron, Republic, Crito, Socrates' Apology and Phaedo. There are also some explicit quotations, by a detractor of Socrates, of The Clouds, the comedy of Aristophanes in which the philosopher is described as a scoundrel, expert in sophisms and rhetoric, able to always make the unjust cause just.