Gorgoroth Revisited 1b: 'No return journey’ ….
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This is really just a series of concluding close-ups. It is short, but very important, conveying Frodo and Sam’s new mutual understanding [that there will be no return journey]. The book passage, too, is a powerful one, cherished by most fans, if for various reasons.
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This is really just a series of concluding close-ups. It is short, but very important, conveying Frodo and Sam’s new mutual understanding [that there will be no return journey]. The book passage, too, is a powerful one, cherished by most fans, if for various reasons.
( Read more... )
I agree with you and Gentlehobbit that Frodo is lacking compared to his book character, not only in RotK but throughout. But I don't agree that Frodo, in the waterskin scene, doesn't already know that "there will be no return journey." I thought the opening scene in Ithilien (when the hobbits are resting in a sort of culvert formed by some ruins) made clear that while Sam still thought they'd be coming back, Frodo had no such belief. In the scene above, when Frodo says "There'll be none for the return journey," I have always understood his reading of that line to mean that he was humouring Sam, pretending to go along with the fiction of "there and back again" for Sam' sake. When Sam says, "I don't think there will be a return journey" and they exchange looks, I have understood that to show that Sam is saying, "You don't need to pretend anymore, Mr. Frodo. I know there's no hope of coming back." But they go on anyway, committed to accomplishing the Quest if they possibly can.
BUT, if you and Gentlehobbit are right, and the line means what it says--that Frodo really did not know until Sam gave his line that they would not survive the Quest--then that is a grave fault indeed. In fact, I would find it impossible to take pleasure in the scene, it would be so wrong-headed--just as bad as the inane EE scene in Ithilien in which Frodo says, as if it just occurred to him (and right after the scene in which his look made it clear that he did not think they were going to come back), "I don't think I'll be coming back."
If you are right, and the line really means to convey the sense that Frodo still is not aware on Gorgoroth that he's unlikely to come back, my only excuse is that I so *want* the line to mean the other thing I've *forced* it to mean that in my mind. I suppose that is very possible, for I really do want to like the scene! *rolleyes*
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