Michael Reuben
Senior HTF Member
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- Michael Reuben
Another Mike here.
Where has it been "explained" that the movie stands on its own?
Still another one here.
By the end of the film (as was true of the novel's first volume), several major developments have occurred that provide an ending of sorts, albeit an interim one:
1. The Fellowship of the Ring (that's the film's subtitle, remember?) has come to an end. The members who remain go in separate directions.
2. A major effort to intercept the ring and end the quest has been thwarted, and the ringbearer has slipped away undetected.
3. Frodo, who has been resisting his role as ringbearer from the very beginning, has embraced his destiny and affirmatively assumed the responsibility to destroy the one ring.
These don't tie off everything, but they constitute genuine arcs (to use the modern term) that the novels lay out and the film respects.
M.