Jancso's world-wide acclaim reached its peak with "Red Psalm" (1972), for which he was named best director at the Cannes Film Festival. "Red Psalm" stands as perhaps the most coherent expression of the director's desire to combine a revolutionary form of filmic language with the theme of the moral complexities of social revolution. Although he would receive a lifetime achievement award at Cannes in 1979, Jancso's more recent films, such as "The Dawn" (1986) and "Season of Monsters" (1987), have not found the widespread approval granted to his films of the 60s and early 70s. His films are now criticized as experiments in purely abstract formalism, devoid of social relevance and lacking in human compassion. Ultimately, his most enduring contribution to cinema may well be the role he played during the 60s in liberating Hungarian filmmaking from the formal and thematic constraints of state-sanctioned realism.
From his first feature in 1958 ("The Bells Have Gone to Rome"), Jancso demonstrated a preoccupation with history, particularly for its potential for providing scenarios of political conflict and social upheaval. By the late 60s, he had developed a remarkably consistent narrative model, in which historical situations are used to isolate specific political oppositions, which are then played out to their ultimate conclusion. In each film, the conflict is presented abstractly, with little explanation as to its origins or to individual character psychology or motivation. In "The Red and The White," the setting is 1918 Russia during civil war, the action an ongoing military battle that occurs in an unspecified location. The red and the white armies engage in a series of struggles which leave first one side, and then the other, temporarily victorious. Each victory, however fleeting, precipitates the massacre of prisoners to solidify the gain. The outnumbered red army is eventually extinguished by what remains of the white forces. By decontextualizing the conflict and presenting it in abstract terms, Jancso encourages reflection on the larger theme of the nature of power and its relation to human brutality.
The abstract nature in which Jancso develops his narratives is complemented by his highly original visual style, which serves to undercut normal narrative conventions. Jancso's trademark is his masterful use of long takes, in which elaborate camera movements are utilized in tandem with highly choreographed movements of figures within the frame. Actors are often arranged into geometric patterns to match the topography of the rural landscapes the director favors. Dialogue is used sparingly, accompanied by an expressionless acting style which limits viewer identification with the characters. The overall effect of this visual design is to encourage contemplation and analysis of the complex ideas circulating through the films. Though Jancso's style has been increasingly criticized as overly mechanical, it remains unmistakably his own, and for that reason his films will continue to make a distinct contribution to international cinema.