The Road Goes Ever On

Rating: 10/10 (7 September 2007)

Well, in the LOTR book, the noble elves never had those pinpointed ears, and the death of Saruman was not like a deleted scene in the DVD version, and then there was not the feat of Legolas of killing an elephant so easily, and then Sam never held Frodo hanging on a cliff There are many points of bitter criticism of the film, and many are true. But do they ever undermine the sheer pleasure of watching and watching again this feast of the film? No, they will never do. The siege of Minas Tirith is great and tragically realistic every new time. The final battle near Mordor is epic regardless how many times you saw that. The brilliant array of talents of Weaving, Mortensen, Wood, Tyler, Serkis, Urban, Wenham, Astin or any other is never vapid or losing taste. The film has stood the test of time, and any time you see the Sauron fall, you feel elation, pride, joy and great triumph. The Good has won again, and even with so many tragic deaths and losses and ruins, it will reign for ever and ever. The final scene of the film, with the parting of Bilbo and Frodo together with the great elves and Gandalf will always make us cry and the final song will make us breathe deep and swallow tears, for this is a noble sorrow and noble sorrow this film has to awake in us. Many films may be made on the eternal novel of Mr. Tolkien, but this epic will stand in our memory eternally. The road goes ever on.