A Different Breed of Despair

Though both Kosinstev and Brook filmed their versions of "King Lear" in the same style, they have strikingly different effects on the viewers. In my opinion, a major distinction can be drawn between the types of hopelessness that are brought about by the films. In Brook's film, the sense of loneliness is overwhelming. The characters of action stand alone on a desolate plain, far away from any touch of humanity. This film was centered wholly on the main characters, and as many of them died in their own separate ways, the feeling of forlorn solitude increased. In Brook's adaptation, the suicide of Goneril by crushing her own skull against a rock followed immediately by seeing Cordelia's hanged body lead the viewer to feel that, as each main character dies, the world moves closer to losing all remaining humanity.

Kosinstev's particular breed of despair, though different from Brook's, is no less poignant. Instead of focusing on the loss of humanity through death, Kosinstev brings our attention to the lack of humanity that the royals show to those around them. The horrific conditions that we see in Poor Tom's hovel and the despair emanating from the emaciated peasants as they make their journey produce in viewers the effect of seeing injustice in the world around them, rather than in a post-apocalyptic setting. Lear's statement  "O! I have taken to little care of this" has a far deeper meaning in Kosinstev's film than in others (3.4.37). Also, the cutting out of the pseudo-suicide scene and Goneril's suicide allows the viewer to not be as caught up in the problems of the nobles, and focus instead on the wretchedness of the peasants. The Soviet influence of the film is clear in that it's focus is on the despair of the poor, instead of the despair of the royal families.