In February 2020, with the expiration of the composer's copyright after more than 70 years since Strauss died, the film was shown at a special screening event in Cumbria, England hosted by Russell's widow.
[1] "One of the purposes of making the film was to shock complacent critics and viewers who sit in front of their sets for hours on end watching cocoa advertisements.
I was simply setting out to make a film about Richard Strauss, and I felt that everything I showed was necessary for presenting my idea of this man," Russell told Peter Waymark of The Times in February 1970.
It created a sufficient outcry for 20 Conservative backbenchers to table a motion objecting to it after the television screening.
Huw Wheldon, then managing director of BBC Television who was present at the screening, defended the film.