Monarchical Abuse of Power in Kozintev's King Lear

The first thing I noticed about the Kozintev film was how the focus of the play was broadened from a story about familial relations to a story about how those familial relations affect the country at large that they preside over.  While the play is centered around Lear and his family only (with the exception of the subplot about Edmund, Edgar, Gloucester), focusing on their actions and dynamics, Kozintev’s film draws our attention to the repercussions their actions have on their kingdom, best exemplified at the end of the film, when we see a country in disarray after the actions of this family have turned it to war.  In a fairly politicized way, Kozintev seems to suggest that the monarchy’s irrational mistakes can have dire results on those outside of their conflict –in this case, the people of their kingdom.

This idea is even more enforced when you compare several scenes from the film with Paul Brooks’ film.  Specifically, two of the scenes in the Brooks film (the revelation of the sisters’ betrayal and Goneril’s suicide) are entirely absent in Kozintev’s film, or at least not shown on screen.  These elements, which are mostly focused on the family, may have been neglected or downplayed so they wouldn’t distract from the larger theme Kozintev was working towards: a country brought to an almost demise by the irresponsible and selfish actions of the ruling they live under.  Another scene in Brooks’ film that differs from Kozintev’s is the death of Cordelia.  While Brooks barely lingers on this scene, Kozintev gives extra focus on it.  This attention on her death seems to hammer home Kozintev’s theme; the loss of an innocent, Cordelia, seems to signify the larger loss of innocence throughout the country at the hands of Lear and his family.