Kozintsev's King Lear, A People's Play

From the very beginning of the film with the halting steps of the peasant's foot on a dusty path, Kozintsev's King Lear announces itself as a people's play more so than Peter Brook's interpretation of the play.  The focus of the play was about the Lear familial relationships still but Kozintsev emphasized the effects on the common people due to the actions by the Lear monarchy.  While the play focuses on the absolute destruction that the familial relationships within the monarchy of Lear has done to the people over time, at the end of the film the people seem to be capable of repairing the burning ruin of their leaders. Their leaders on the other hand are all mad or corrupt and they get their just desserts.  Edmund's line after Edgar bested him rang true to me here, "The wheel is come full circle."

After watching both representations of the play on film, I noticed that two key scenes are entirely missing from the Kozintsev version, Goneril's suicide and the realization of hers and Regan's betrayal, that appear in the Brooks's version.  I interpreted this as Kozintsev's way of narrowing and focusing on the larger problems of the state that the corrupt monarchy has caused, the almost (and very possible that its completely!) irreparable damages to the lives of the people under Lear's rule.    Since the monarchy was corrupt, they all experience an early death even Cordelia, the one person who could have redeemed this entire play.  Kozinstev lingers on screen over Cordelia's death and Lear holding her, showing the total loss of life that was caused by his actions and the actions of his other corrupt daughters.  I saw this as a sort of mirroring of the effects that the corrupt monarchy has had on the people.