30 of us ended up going to see Return of the King last night in South Bend. Let me just say that this ending of the trilogy was, by far, the best of the three. Even the spiritual significance was, in my view the most obvious.
Some of my favorite scenes:
At one point the beacons must be lit to warn of the siege of Gondor. The beacons are on the highest mountains and can bee seen for miles. Once the first one is lit, the watchmen miles away see it, and they light theirs. That sets of a chain reaction of beacons across the land being lit. It is a call to arms � for any man who is able to go and fight. Seeing that reminds me of the importance of The Watchmen on the Wall – the beacon keepers, as it were – who must be ready to light the fire and sound the alarm to alert the warriors for battle. Jeremiah 31:6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God. and Isaiah 62:6 I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence.
In another scene, Frodo and Sam are at the end of all they are. Exhausted and pushed beyond any limit in themselves the fall to the ground in exhaustion. It is at this point that Sam says to Frodo that the end is so close, and he knows that Frodo must bear the burden. But then he says, “I can’t carry this burden for you, but I can carry you.” And He picks him up and carries him up Mount Doom so that Frodo can fulfill his destiny and purpose. That picture of the bonds of true friendship and love is so amazing to me. Sam’s character was so amazing throughout all three movies. There are so many pictures that sam represented, but I think at that point, He represented Jesus Christ. Because he sticks with us no matter what – through every difficult circumstance he is there, encouraging and loving us, even when we reject Him.
The last one that struck me was when Sam and Frodo had completed their purpose. The ring was destroyed and they were laying on the side of the mountain, exhausted and spent. They lay on a small rock in the middle of a river of lava. Suddenly the eagles appeared and picked them up and carried them to safety. But the picture of that was so awesome. I think the eagles were like the angels – those warrior beings who fight alongside of us in the heavenly realm, but administer healing and rest to the weary.
There is so much more that I could say about it… But I will save that for another time.
My one last comment is that Hollywood needs to wake up and understand that here again, we have PROOF that you can make a good clean movie – with no swearing, sex, inuendo or any of the usual Hollywood formula crap, and it becomes a serious blockbuster… Make that THREE serious blockbusters.
RETURN OF THE KING. A FINE CINEMATIC MASTERPIECE.
I thought the movie was great!
Actually, I liked the end. I thought it gave the trilogy finality. It answered my every question before they even formed in my mind. and THAT is what a good ending does. Had they not made the end so long, I would have walked out of the theatre with questions still hanging.
I give it ***** (5 stars)
You aren’t on IM so here is my rebuttal..
okay here are the things where i just smacked my forehead and wondered why:
There were many very small 2 second parts of things like dirty poor women bracing their child as the enemy comes, now i wouldn’t have a problem with this if there weren’t so many of them and if they were background elements and didnt take up THE WHOLE SCREEN.
the ending: it should have ended either on the rock when they thought they were gonna die or after gandalf comes up with the eagles, that’s a matter of opinion, but you can’t tell me that you think that movie still had ANY MOMENTUM after that. i was gonna throw rocks at the screen. Epilogues are cool and all but goooooodneeeesss.
When Frodo wakes up.. i half expected that blonde guy from gundor to pop in. i mean they only had 6 of the 7 and they had the guy’s brother, it’d make 6 and a half. and the way that part was made… HORRID. waaaaaay to over the top and corny. I laughed at that part. it was ridiculous. i was embarassed for ever having put faith in that man’s editing or directing skills.
And from there on it just kept going. that was dvd material, or post credits material, because it didn’t fit right there. any of it. Epilogue’s at most should be five minutes. that was like 20 minutes.
But other than that I was in awe. It’s just bad endings peeve me like no other peeve has ever peeved before..