The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: “For the journey home.”
From the moment the end credits rolled on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001, audiences everywhere were preparing themselves for the long haul. For the next two years they would invest time (countries have been through revolutions faster), emotion, considerable amounts of money and several cinema prompted calorie binges in their commitment to seeing through to the end Peter Jackson’s glorious telling of Tolkien’s epic novel.
In these films, Jackson gave a masterclass in the sort of ambition required for making those movies that change cinema forever; from the various landscapes of Middle Earth to the details of each costume design, the sheer breathtaking scale of the whole endeavour is unmistakeable. But as impressive as the visuals were, they wouldn’t have mattered half as much if it wasn’t for the love and the attention that was paid to the characters – a fact that is proved with something approaching almost unbearable heights of emotion as we reach the conclusion of the journey in The Return of the King.
Very near the film’s beginning, even before the title has appeared onscreen, we join Frodo, Sam and Gollum as they press on into Mordor. Exhausted and afraid, the task ahead of them looks more impossible by the day. But their roles are well defined by this point, and whereas it takes Frodo all his will to just keep walking forwards, their success really has come to rest on the shoulders of the stoic and loyal Samwise. During a conversation about the food rations, Sam states that they need to watch them to make sure there is ‘enough.’
When Frodo asks him enough for what, Sam replies – steadily and almost indignantly – ‘for the journey home.” Sam’s role in Tolkien’s allegory on the battle between good and evil has never been clearer than it is here, his stalwart nature and his faith the reminder of the continuing goodness of the world they are fighting for. But actually, it is not Sam’s words that are the real focus in this moment – it is Frodo’s reaction to them.
With Elijah Wood demonstrating once again the perfection of this casting choice, Frodo says nothing – but his expression reflects their whole journey from beginning to end, all at once; although the vast battles for Middle Earth are happening elsewhere, the entire war is here on Frodo’s face in response to those words of Sam’s: Fear, exhaustion, disbelief, despair, and above all – hope.