Bootie Bad Azz

last half hour "the return of the king" (movie)

let’s go way back to tolkien. and to his book. the last of the “ring” triology. i don’t want to judge the book’s or the story’s quality. i definitely enjoyed reading it, but i’m not sure if i would still enjoy it today. however, in my opinion the ending was done very well and rather neat.

i want to pick up the story at the point when frodo and sam are rescued by gandalf’s eagle friends. tolkien goes on and tells about the final battle, about the crowning of aragorn and the return to shire. the departure of gandalf and frodo is told as well, then in my recollection the book has ended.

and i think it has ended well. this is because tolkien takes time to let his characters leave. the war against mordor for example isn’t just won after the ring has been destroyed. when the hobbits return to shire, they are faced with saruman again and have to fight one last battle. then shire is rebuild and a couple of years later gandalf and frodo go west. tolkien, as i said, takes a lot of pages for this.

now, the movie has quite a different ending. after frodo and sam are rescued the movie still goes on for quite a while, like the book. but still it doesn’t take enought time to let the story finish in decency. i experienced the movie ending as boresome. and i would have ended it with sam and frodo’s rescue (but i don’t claim to ever come into a position were i decide about the ending of a movie).in the movie we’re rushed through things. the viewer, i at last, has the impression, that peter jackson just wanted to retell the book’s ending. in my opinion he didn’t have the guts to finish the movie sooner.

after the rescue the battle is shown, the crowning and the return to shire. however shire is not destroyed, everthing’s as it was left. and after a few minutes of celebration in shire frodo and gandalf go on board the ship bound westwards. this is told in approximately fifteen minutes.

fifteen minutes i could’ve saved. fifteen minutes i could have saved, because they don’t serve the movie, not the story. they’re add-ons. anecdotes who were thrown at us, after the movie had already ended. they destroy the movie. make it a rather bad movie. i am serious. the ending sucked. those fifteen minutes were unnecessary, at least in the movie.

and that is important. i’m not saying the ending is bad. i’m saying the movie’s ending is bad. and i think tolkien makes a point in letting his epos not end right after the rescue. he dismisses the constant reader very slowly. and that is fine and good. because the constant reader is absorbed in the story and should be thankful, that tolkien took the time to farewell his characters. and the detail about the battle in shire - in my opinion - is quite important, because it shows us, that not all thing’s go back to normal with the destruction of one single ring. it shows, that one still has to fight for freedom and liberty. this aspect is completely ignored in the movie.

also the constant reader has time. able to lay the book aside and finish it the next night. he can wait, look forward to it. tolkien uses the “nature” of literature, books and takes time ending his story, gives us time to bid our farewell.

that is not necessary in movie theaters. one does not go to the movies to invest hours, days, hell even weeks. one goes there to be entertained for around 90 minutes. to see a well told story in moving pictures. movies are very different to books (or comics) and it is dangerous to translate them 1:1. i think jackson has done a good job during the first two movies and still a good one almost whole during the last, but then here comes the ending. and he wants to wrap up the story lines, to bring them to an end. he does not - in contrary to tolkien - dismiss his characters slowly, he does not give the viewer time to bid farewell, his intention is to end the story. to finish it, “make it round”. but it is not “round”. i would have loved to be left right after the rescue. because i would’ve known, could’ve guessed that the final battle would be won, that aragorn would be king, that the hobbits return to shire. there was no need to show me, because it was self evident that everything would be fine. the ending doesn’t tell us anything new - in contrary to tolkien’s. and the rescue scene would’ve been a furious ending, fitting the triology, it would’ve been massive. would’ve left the viewer with an epic impression, but instead the last fifteen minutes bore us to death and water the whole story.

in german we have a saying: “good ending, good everything.” suggesting a good ending saves a bad movie. sadly a bad ending in turn ruins a good movie.