how nice to see so many folk who really "get" the underlying theme of sadness that permeates the trilogy, as seen in the
responses defending the endings, particularly the farewell of Frodo as he sails off with Gandalf and Bilbo to the grey havens, and Sam's "Well, I'm back" as the final words to the story. I think in some way, LOTR was Tolkien's personal explanation of why he lived in a world that seemed bereft of magic and men living alongside magical races, and his elegy to that loss.

Of course the films had to end the way they did. The aftermath of the Quest is as important as the quest itself, and to give that short shrift would certainly have been to betray a major theme of the entire story.