The Ending was Just Right!

Rating: Null/10 (27 December 2003)

If you've read the books through to the end, you must, as I did, have experienced the deep bittersweet feeling when Frodo joins Gandalf and the elves to sail away into the mists of Middle Earth. This ending absolutely HAD to be included in the movie trilogy. We've travelled with Frodo from the idyllic meadows of the Shire, to his unearthly stabbing at the hand of the Lord of the Nazgul, to his gut-wrenching crawl to the door of Mount Doom, all the while suffering with him as the ring and its chain wear a channel into his neck. Would you really have been satisfied with the Judy Garland ending? (BTW, the Oz motifs went just a bit far, IMHO, with the "gang" showing up at Frodo's bedside!) No, this is no mere Hollywood tale. Frodo was the savior of Middle Earth, and like the true Savior, could not carry the evil of the world to its doom without suffering the supreme penalty. And that is what gives the movies, and the books, their deep, satisfying, and lasting impression.