Why They Cut The Real Ending Of The Lord Of The Rings

my friends you bow to no one the Lord of the Rings trilogy has a near perfect ending considering it eats up about 30 minutes of Return of the king's runtime you might assume Peter Jackson packed everything he could into the end of the film and yet there's one glaring Omission that book readers have been debating over for two decades one that would have completely altered the themes of The Lord of the Rings trilogy here at last on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship before we go on this adventure together be sure to like this video And subscribe to nerdstalgic if you're into deep Dives like this one we've sung their praises and lauded Peter Jackson Philip aboyans and Fran Walsh as Stellar creative talents and why wouldn't we the film franchise is held in high regard for countless reasons Jackson and his cohorts have a reverence for JRR tolking that's apparent across practically every frame of The Lord of the Rings movies sure some changes were made overall though the world and stories of Middle Earth remain remarkably intact the creative team went to Great Links to make sure that was the case when fans came out of theaters after watching Return of the King in 2003 some of them were left with one question if Jackson boans and Walsh were so committed to telling tol keen's story why would they leave out an important chapter right at the end what does he mean that important chapter is of course the scouring of the Shire the moment the hobbits find the Shire has been overtaken by evil to answer why it wasn't included in the final moments of the movie we first first have to look at what was I know what it is you saw for it is also in my mind in the theatrical and extended editions of The Lord of the Rings Return of the King our Intrepid group of Hobbits goes back to the Shire after Aragorn is crowned king of Gondor their home has been Untouched by War their people have been oblivious to the world- ending threat on their doorstep and all is right with the world for everyone except Frodo that is feeling restless and physically pained After experiencing the horrors of journey froto opts to go with Gandalf and Bilbo to the gray Havens his friends accompany him to the boat where they say their tearful goodbyes before watching the ring bearer sail off into the West we end with Sam coming home to his family and saying one final line I'm back most of this is similar to what happens in the book after destroying the ring Aragorn has his coronation everyone celebrates the hobbit's head home and froto makes for the grey Havens shortly after the book even ends with the exact same lme from Sam but there's one major difference the Shire has not actually remained untouched over the few months the whole place was turned upside down under the direction of a mysterious Crime Boss named shy the fields are being burned ugly buildings have been erected all over the land and men from the south rule over the hobbits by force Frodo and his friends don't take any of this lightly of course they rally the other Hobbits against the men and face down shy and his right hand who turn out to be none other than a powerless Sauron and Worm tongue just like in Two Towers it's Worm tongue who takes saon down after an argument and then Worm tongue is subsequently riddled with Arrows by unnamed Hobbits and that's it Sam and the other Hobbits restore their home and everything goes back to normal before froto finally decides to go to the undying lands you finished it not quite there's room for a little more if you've never read the Lord of the Rings you might be a bit confused as to why any of this happens why would tolken ch to make the penultimate chapter of his fantasy series a depressing battle with a powered down version of one of the main villains especially after all the main conflicts have been resolved over the decades several theories have sprouted up the most obvious for the chapter's Existence is just to show how far our characters have come as people Frodo Sam Mary and Pippen all get to show off their Newfound bravery and Leadership skills during the scouring further proving how they've been forever changed by their experiences some readers believe that the purpose of the scouring of the Shire was to demonstrate that war is far-reaching and nowhere is safe from the ugliness of conflict not even Havens like the Shire the most pervasive theory is that the scouring of the Shire is an allegory for the state of England at the end of World War II but tolking famously hated allegory and even pushed back on this idea in the forward for the second edition of Return of the King saying it has been supposed by some that the scouring of the Shire reflects the situation in England at the time when I finished my t it does not well I guess that clears that up he would go on to say that if anything the scouring of the Shire was somewhat inspired by his youth as he watched the countryside he grew up in he's slowly overtaken by industry the old world will burn in the fires of Industry the forests will fall whatever the reason for its inclusion in the book The scouring is an important aspect of token's story it's a part of the history of the Shire and it depicts the death of soromon which infamously was not included at all in the theatrical cut of Return of the King and yet Jackson was unwilling to put the scouring on screen we did pay homage to it um in The Fellowship of the Ring when Frodo looks into glad reel's mirror he sees exactly the imagery from the scaring of the shy he boans and Walsh knew from the beginning that it wasn't going to make it into the movie it was never shot and as far as we know it was never in the script at all to sort of deviate into a completely different event and storyline to me felt anticlimactic I guess is what I'd describe it which makes sense Jackson's version of The Lord of the Rings is a grand tale of massive scope suddenly pivoting to a bunch of Hobbits enacting Guerilla Warfare on a group of Invaders would have been in direct opposition to the solemn and epic tone of the film up to that point especially when followed up by that emotional final scene you can't start up the story again not after nearly 9 hours of Storytelling which I know people are going to find ironic given the ending that is on this movie Return of the King is also known as a movie that simply refuses to end there are several Fade to Black fake outs that just give way to more scenes this multiple ending phenomenon was one Jackson and his team recognized but it was mostly unavoidable even though the scouring only takes up a few pages of the book it could have represented tens of additional minutes of runtime and several days of shooting but the most poignant reason for excluding the scouring of the Shire from Return of the King actually comes from the DVD commentary track for the movie Jackson talks at length about the scene where our four Hobbits sit together in a busy Pub while everyone around them is blissfully unaware of the dangers that very nearly broke down their doors Jackson felt that this was a necessary theme to touch on particularly because tolken had been a soldier in the first world war one of the things that that just about all veterans of the first world war talk about is a sense of coming home to their families and they've been thoroughly Changed by the experience it's a quiet scene with no dialogue instead the hobbits glance around the room at all the smiling happy faces and give each other knowing glances before Downing their drinks they're home but they've changed and no one will ever understand the trauma they underwent as Jackson put it I wanted that feeling um amongst those four guys that they were there but no one else knew how heroic they really were it's both a hopeful and heartbreaking message that perfectly fits into the ending of Jackson's Return of the King the scouring of the Shire on the other hand is a pretty sour note to end on Sam even goes as far as to say it's worse than Mordor after everything the hobbits went through coming home to more destruction may be a more realistic depiction of the effects of War but it drastically undercuts the theme of hope that's so important to the story overall life moves forward the road goes ever on and on and good wins over evil as long as there are heroes to fight it it's important to show audiences that even when you're facing unspeakable Horrors there are still things in this world that are safe and good and worth protecting even if they don't know you're protecting them Jackson buyens and Walsh understood this and they were right to cut the scouring of the Shire in favor of the scenes we ultimately got in Return of the King but that's just what we think now we want to hear from you do you think they should have kept the scouring of the Shire in Return of the King let us know down below and while you're at it be sure to like this video And subscribe to nerdstalgic for more content 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Channel: Nerdstalgic

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Keywords: Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings Scouring of the Shire, Lord of the Rings Frodo, Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson, Lord of the Rings Ending, Nerdstalgic, Lord of the Rings Return of the King, Lord of the Rings Mordor, Lord of the Rings Gollum, Lord of the Rings Samwise, Lord of the Rings Gandalf, Lord of the Rings Hobbits, Lord of the Rings The Shire, Lord of the Rings Books, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, LOTR, Rings of Power, Rings Of Power Amazon, ScreenCrush, IGN, New Rockstars

Id: KxsPtoronL0

Length: 8min 32sec (512 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2024