Comparing two screen versions of King Lear - The Fool:

The Fool is a character who is used by Shakespeare to point out King Lear’s follies throughout the play by using thinly veiled songs and quotes (‘Fathers that wear rags/Do make their children blind/But fathers that bear bags/Shall see their children kind’ and ‘Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise’). He disappears in Act 3, Scene 6 because his purpose has been taken away from him as Lear starts to regain his senses and learn from his mistakes. The character can be portrayed as someone who really cares for Lear like in the 1983 movie version directed by Michael Elliot - or he could be seen as a prophet (reminiscent of Tiresias in the Oedipus Rex) who only observes as Lear goes mad in the play shown in the 2008 TV movie version directed by Trevor Nunn.
Critics and audience members (including myself) seem to prefer the aloof Fool because as Isaac Newatt comments, the 1983 version has a fool who is a ‘bit too pathetic’ on the IMDB website for King Lear and Mara W says that John Hunt gives a ‘fairly standard and slightly too foolish portrayal of the Fool’. However this interpretation also has its advantages as the ‘scene after they are driven out of Goneril’s house’ showed the Fool trying ‘in vain to make his beloved master laugh, and Lear’ trying ‘just as hard in return to bring himself to laugh at the jokes’ which made the scene more melancholy and tragic than it would have been with an aloof Fool. This -as Mara W says- ‘allows the relationship to Lear’ to ‘particularly shine’ in this movie version of the play.

Trevor Nunn’s interpretation of the Fool as a prophet figure in his version of King Lear allows the audience to rely on the Fool (played by Sylvester McCoy) in the play as Lear does in the first three acts. The Fools most important quotes are highlighted in this version of King Lear with the contrast of dramatic speech and comedic singing and the sudden change of atmosphere with each line he says (for example the silence from Lear’s attendants as Lear says ‘Dost thou call me fool, boy?’ and the Fool replies ‘All thy other titles thou hast given away’ gives a lingering sense of tension and lets Lear think about the mistakes he has made). From the IMDB website, numerous critics highlight his performance as a key part of the film as ‘he makes you laugh while he breaks your heart’ and one describes him as ‘goofy, wise, and melancholy’

As the Fool disappears in Act 3, Scene 6 the director has to choose how the Fool will go. This creative freedom allows the director to make some bold decisions which is shown in the 2008 version of King Lear where the Fool is hung in plain sight after he makes his final prophecy (taken from Act 3, Scene 2) about Albion (‘Then shall the realm of Albion/Come to great confusion’). As Charles Holderfer says ‘This development is sudden, disturbing, and arguably sensational’ however as an audience member I feel that it removes the mysterious quality of the Fools disappearance. In the 1983 version Michael Elliot follows the text closely and lets him disappear into the stormy night. I feel that with John Hurt’s clingy interpretation of the Fool that the tension from Act 3 disintegrates and lets Lear realize his follies and regain some of his sanity. Therefore I think that Michael Elliot’s interpretation of the text in regards to the Fool’s disappearance is better.