The literal translation of the title is "And the People Still Ask", a quote from a poem by Sándor Petőfi.

Like most of Jancsó's best-known works, Red Psalm is loosely based on events from Hungarian history.

"[2] The Time Out Film Guide sees the film as an improvement over Jancsó's "opaque and difficult"[3] Agnus Dei, praising Red Psalm as "crystal clear and involving: looking for a language in [Agnus Dei], he found it here and uses it with dazzling precision.

"[4] Taking a contrary position, Roger Greenspun wrote in his 1972 New York Times review that "it is difficult to pinpoint the reasons for the incredible monotony of so much vigorous activity, but surely one reason is that nothing happens in Red Psalm except for the benefit of the camera...Nothing could be further, say, from the great fluid camera movements of a Max Ophuls than the elaborate cycles and epicycles of the Jancsó world, where everybody — open fields notwithstanding — is imprisoned within rigid limits of the director's rage for abstract patterns.

"[5] Red Psalm won Jancsó the Best Director prize at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival[6] and is considered one of his major works.