This probably won't get a lot of attention here as most who discussed the movies and books have left for other boards but I'm curious anyway. A former schoolmate of mine wrote this for a status update:
"xxxx is watching the cheesy ending of Return of the King. Do they have to make Frodo and Sam look at each other that way??"
I'm quite sure she's not a Tolkien fan so this peeved me a bit. I think the movie did the book justice in this instance. Tolkien wrote a deep bond between Frodo and Sam. Frodo had the Shire taken away from him and was living with a heavy burden. He was finally moving on and felt the weight lifted off him I think. So for him to look back with a genuine smile was not cheesy to me.
What do you think?