Late tonight as the credits rolled for "The Return of the Kinig" the question voiced from several directions was, "is there a sequel?" Well, not one that is sanctioned by J.R.R. Most of the people I've talked to have not read the trilogy. I'm not sure if that was good or not. Having read the books and listened several times to the BBC radio production, I found myself wondering what would be left in, what would be left out, and how it would all be done without devoting four or five hours to this last movie.

I love the Lord of the Rings story. It is a classic struggle between good and evil. Evil manifests itself from many directions and the triumph of good is not guaranteed until the ring is destroyed. And this telling of the story was, for the most part, faithful to the original. The ending of the movie omitted a few of the details. Tolkien made the story more bittersweet and helped his readers feel more deeply the hurt done to Frodo.

For me, the experience was great. And time should be kind to this retelling of the story. I'm looking forward to spending a day next year watching the extended versions of all three movies in, more or less, one sitting. That will be a real treat..........
10:26:25 PM    comment []