What did they change about the ending? I read the book in like 7th grade, so I don’t remember much, but I don’t think they changed much of the plot, just maybe a little more focus on Sam perhaps. Anyway, I thought it was fantastic… if you find the violence ‘gratuitous’ maybe it’s just because you’re an old fogey . I mean come on… the scene where they show up with the dead army, or the drama with Denethor and Faramir… totally awesome.

Now, I do think there was a good deal of latent homosexuality in Sam, mixed with a filial kind of affection. Maybe Sam never had a father and so he looked up to Frodo as one. But given that they were almost the same age, I would go with the former. I mean WHY exactly was he so attached to him? Then he was jealous of Gollum because he was afraid Frodo liked him better. And did you see how his eyes lit up, full of kinky homoerotic thoughts, when he found Frodo naked and unconscious in that spider coccoon thing? Good thing those orcs showed up, or things might have gotten ugly. So yea… Sam = teh gay, despite his convenient “marriage” to Rosy… it’s just a front, and you know it.

But seriously though… there is some merit to the racist thing. This however, pertains not to the movie, but the book itself, and I’m really glad they stayed true to the book and didn’t change anything to make it more politically correct, like make Aragorn black or something. But if you do some research on Tolkien himself, you’ll find that he was the really stuffy British conservative type, along with his buddy C. S. Lewis, author of the chronicles of Narnia. Both were part of a generation of Romantic conservatives who were distrustful of industry and technology (look at the quasi-industrial imagery of Mordor and Sauron’s army and the fact that they’re always shown cutting down trees), preferred monarchy over democracy, and lamented some lost golden age where people knew their place and had a sense of honor and duty to their natural superiors. There are several running themes to support this view. The main one of these is that power, as symbolized by the ring, corrupts those who are not naturally/ divinely meant to possess it. The Nazgul, the nine kings of men who sought to rise above their natural superiors, the elves, serve as a warning example. Power can only be entrusted to a chosen, divine few, like Elrond and Galadriel. In anyone else’s hands, it becomes dangerous, evil. The other thing is that the Silmarillion, which includes the whole story of LOTR, was very directly based on the Bible. You’ll remember that Morgoth, Sauron’s former master, was banished from heaven for disobedience. As for the racist thing, the story obviously places a great deal of emphasis on race. The elves are described as tall, handsome, and fair-haired, the most wise and divine race, and the ones to whom rule over the earth has been entrusted. Dark-complexioned orcs are evil and grotesque by nature, without exception. Interestingly, Sauron’s army includes members of all races, including the “men from the south” (and I’m pretty sure there are a lot of things in the text that suggest they are meant to be african, as the movie portrayed them), while the good army only includes straight-haired, fair-skinned warriors. I’m sure there are several other underlying things like that, but aside from that, just from Tolkien’s personal biography and the people he associated with, it’s fairly certain that he did hold some racist views, which is perfectly natural for someone in the conservative, traditional, aristocratic, and imperialist society of his time and place. Not that any of this matters or takes away from my enjoyment of the book or movie. It’s just one of those “fun facts” that’s interesting after you’ve already seen and enjoyed all there is to enjoy about it.