I was going to do something for the Minecraft movie release to keep things current like I like to do every once and awhile, but that prompt got movied to next week which will consequntially put it behind the times so as to facilitate the even more currentnicity of this most special of days which I just realized on this Saturday (Mar 29th) what day the Weekly Movie Thread actually falls on, and while I do not personally believe in fate I also do not believe in letting a good opportunity go to waste so I acted accordingly.
This day of course being April Fool’s Day means pranks may be abound wherever you are. For me pranks are actually pretty hard to pull off. Thinking them up actually comes super easy to me, and setting them up would not be all that hard either. What makes pranking difficult for one such as myself is that I do not want it to be a mean-spirited thing. I want any pranks I pull to be funny and there should be some level of relevance to the prankee so they laugh at the end and do not feel like the butt of a joke. As such this weeks prompt is… not that either! April Fool’s! But more seriously I had trouble thinking of good pranks that fit my criteria and then I thought of the nature of Fools in literature and by extension movies. But instead started thinking about King Lear of all things and the character The Fool. As a trope the Fool character often acts or speaks erratically but more as a show to hide the wisdom behind their words, deeds and actions, with the exception of Rom-coms and the like where the fool is more of a straight up wacky sidekick more oft than not. And that is also okay, sometimes it is good for someone to just provide humour and wisdom is not necessary. Sometimes I just want to forget things and laugh and there is nothing like a good Fool to draw that out of me.
Fools be they of April or any month of the year walk a fine line often providing laughter and insight, a step away from the story and yet driving it forward at the same time. Fools think outside of the box, surprise us and can be asked to fulfill many roles in a film. So as actually such this time the real unfooled prompt is who is your favourite movie Fool? For my part I would go back to basics and mention Kikuchiyo from The Seven Samurai. He ticks all the boxes for both forms of Fools. He is silly and legit messes up a lot and his antics are fun to watch, but also was shown to be brave resourceful and thinks outside the box and it is super helpful to have him played by Toshiro Mifune. Yes, this is a Fool I definitely do not pity.