This analysis of 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' (2003) will consider how the screenplay's five plot points create the story's deep structure. These discrete story points include the 'Inciting Incident' in Act 1, 'Turning Points 1 and 2' in Act 2, and the 'Crisis Decision' and 'Climax' in Act 3. Spoiler alert: this structural analysis will reveal crucial plot moments; you may prefer to read this after viewing the film. For actors' names I refer you to the analysis of 'The Fellowship of the Ring'.
This movie's back story is a follow-on from the events of Books 1 and 2. Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, having set out from Helm's Deep, arrive on horseback at the ruins of Isengard, where they find Merry and Pippin savoring a day of rest after accompanying the Ents in their siege of Saruman's stronghold.
In this movie two plot-lines see each of the five plot points mentioned above. The two plot-lines are Frodo/Sam and the alliance forces that gather at Minas Tirith.
The Inciting Incident in the Frodo/Sam plot-line occurs when Smeagol (Gollum) speaks to his vicious alter-ego in his reflection in the pond, who divulges his plan to let the spider in the cave near Mordor kill the hobbits, so he can get back his 'precious', the ring. The Inciting Incident in the Minas Tirith plot-line sees Pippin use the 'palantia' to see Mordor, which also enables Sauron to see him'. Gandalf rescues him at the last second and questions Pippin, who had seen Mordor's forces gathering near Minas Tirith. Gandalf says they must warn Minas Tirith, and he sends Aragorn to gather other human forces to join in that city's defense. Thus is the action of this third part of the story unleashed.
Turning Point 1. Frodo/Sam plot-line: Frodo, Sam and Gollum have arrived at the long stairs cut into the side of the sheer cliff-face leading up to the plateau that surrounds Mount Doom at the center of Mordor. The stairs are also adjacent to the large portcullis leading to Minas Morgul, where Sauron's forces have been gathered. Frodo wants to enter by that route to get directly to Mount Doom, so strong is the quest in his mind. Sam and Gollum pull him away from certain death, and bring him to the stairs, which the begin to climb. Minas Tirith plotline: Gandalf is with Pippin at a stronghold on the frontier, and assigns the hobbit the task of stealing up behind the guards to light the signal fire there. Pippin succeeds, and the signal will now eventually be visible to Rohan, asking them to come to assist in Minas Tirith's defense.
A movie's Midpoint usually provides the story with a coherence and symmetry that the audience feels unconsciously, and for this reason is important structurally. Frodo/Sam plotline: Gollum steals lembas bread from Sam's pack and throws it away, to incite Sam to speak against him, which he hopes will divide Sam from Frodo. It works as predicted, and Frodo asks Sam to stay behind. Sam is devastated by this final rupture in their friendship. Minas Tirith plot-line: the weak and cowardly king at Minas Tirith, Denethor (John Noble), sends his dutiful son, Faramir (David Wenham), back to certain death to defend Osgiliath.
Turning Point 2. Frodo/Sam plot-line: Frodo is too weakened by the climb to fight the spider in the cave. Despairing, he runs from the spider and hides. Galadriel speaks to him from Lothlorien, in a vision. She repeats her earlier injunction: "This task has been appointed to you, Frodo of the Shire. If you do not fulfill it, no one will." Frodo sees his duty, knows his oath, and turns back to face the spider. He falls, and the enormous spider spins a cocoon round the hobbit, and leaves him in the cave. Minas Tirith plot-line: the siege of Minas Tirith is fully under way, with Orc/Urukhai forces pouring across the defenses. Gandalf and Pippin catch a moment together behind a locked door, and Pippin asks Gandalf of what follows death. Gandalf speaks of the 'white city of joy', and describes it. Pippin is greatly cheered, and replies, "Well, that's not so bad, is it?" Gandalf smiles, and agrees.
Act 3's Crisis Decision. Frodo/Sam plot-line: Sam followed Frodo, after Frodo was carried away by Orcs and taken to their lookout post near Mount Doom. He and Frodo battle their way out of the post, and are now crossing the last smoking, sulfurous marshland surrounding Mount Doom. Frodo is sincerely grateful for Sam's loyalty, and comments that there'll be no lembas for their return journey. Sam replies, half-smiling, "I don't think there'll be a return journey, Master Frodo." They both have come to accept that the quest will kill them, but know they must see it through to the finish. There truly is no turning back. Minas Tirith plot-line: Gandalf despairs as he sees Minas Tirith's imminent fall, and says: "I sent Frodo to his death, for nothing." Aragorn replies that what they need, hoping against hope, and to give Frodo the extra time to destroy the ring, is a diversion.
Act 3's Climax. Frodo/Sam plot-line: Frodo is fully seduced by the odious power of the one ring, and standing on the lip of the abyss within Mount Doom, he claims it for himself, as had Isildur so many years before. Gollum sees Frodo's lust to possess the 'precious', and have for himself the ring's power, and rushes him. Frodo slips the ring on his finger, turns invisible, and they struggle, oblivious to the edge of the abyss just inches away. Gollum bites off Frodo's finger and slips the ring on his own finger, and capers at the edge, slips, and falls into the abyss. Frodo reaches after him, horrified at the loss of the ring, and nearly falls himself, hanging by one hand to the edge. The ring dissolves in the fiery lava of the pit, and as the sound of Sauron's shrieks rend the sky, Sam comes to the edge and hauls Frodo to safety. Minas Tirith plot-line: everyone believes the quest has failed, and that the ring-bearer and his friend are dead. As a last defiant gesture against utter tyranny Aragorn surges out in front of the alliance army of the city's defenders, among Rohirrim, elves, dwarfs, and hobbits, and turns back, holding his sword into the sky before the Orc onslaught, and shouts: "For Frodo!" and the good Aragorn charges forward. As the alliance forces hurtle forward after him, the sound of Sauron's shriek reaches a new height, as the certain knowledge instantly reaches him that the one ring has been destroyed.
The Orc and Urukhai forces' strength which comes from Sauron's dark arts is suddenly rent, and the Dark Lord's forces begin imploding and shrinking in on themselves, and falling into gaping holes that open up in the earth around the formerly-surrounded, shrunken cell of alliance forces. Sauron's army disintegrates as it falls to its doom, even as they turn and try to flee.
This third movie in the series has an extensive Slow Curtain sequence, as follows: Frodo and Sam are rescued from the overflowing river of lava around Mount Doom following the destruction of the ring; Frodo awakes to a joyous reunion with the surviving members of the Fellowship; the hobbits are honored at Aragorn's marriage to Arwen (Liv Tyler); the hobbits return to the Shire; Frodo surprises the other hobbits with his decision to accompany the Elves to their ancestral home, in a different world from this; and Sam settles down to a long life of domestic peace with his new wife in the Shire.
The world of Middle Earth is again at peace, at long last.
It is difficult not to see the 3-part narrative arc of 'The Lord of the Rings' as an allegory on the modern world's struggle with radical Islamists and those who collude with them, the radical Left. The reluctance of the residents of the Shire to get involved in the gathering storm of evil facing Middle Earth, almost until it's too late, resonates with the reluctance of democratic states to confront the gathering storm of evil in our own world. Sauron's demented lust for power was concealed by an ideology that professed to be bringing peace to Middle Earth through the power of the one 'ring'. We face similar delusions - that the Islamists can be talked out of their seemingly implausible goal of global dominion. Meanwhile the 'Wormtongues' of the Left do everything in their power to subvert our willingness and capacity to resist, or even to recognize that any struggle exists against which resistance is required.
Art, especially literary art, almost always has an allegorical element. 'The Lord of the Rings' series was certainly no exception.
