What Words Can Say

An added crime in my opinion was the fact that Sam, reaching for Frodo’s hand, says “Don’t let go!” and I have a terrible flashback to the movie Titanic. Two things redeem it, though— one is the symmetry between that gesture and its reverse, at the end of FotR, where Frodo reaches down to save Sam from drowning. The second is something very subtle but I hope deliberate. As Gollum falls into the molten lava, he doesn’t instantly vaporize. The Ring is protecting and unnaturally prolonging his life even then! But soon enough the lava consumes him. Then the Ring floats on the lava, heating up until the letters begin to glow. But it’s still not melting. It doesn’t melt until the moment when Frodo makes a choice. You can call that choice what you like— accepting that Sam’s love has a claim on him, choosing life, choosing hope, choosing to resist death. The moment he reaches up to allow Sam to save his life, the Ring is destroyed. As though that tiny act of individual love and faith were Sauron’s undoing. ”