[Protoclown]

Poxpower, I've only read the books twice in my life, I'm by no means an expert. However they are fresh in my memory because I read them for the second time about a year ago.

FS, Carni is right about everything that's in the book. Merry was very badly wounded after the fight with the Witch King, and he was in the Houses of the Healing along with Eowyn and Faramir. It was thought that he MIGHT die for a while but he managed to pull through. That's probably what you're thinking of. Aragorn was never really hurt at all that I can remember.

And Sam never did go off to the Grey Havens, in fact the last two pages or so from the book are exactly what you see on screen down to the very last line uttered.

There MAY be a mention of Sam eventually going to the Grey Havens in the appendices or the timeline, but I don't think so, and even if there is, it's not part of the story proper.

As it stands right now I cannot say this is the best movie I've ever seen, or even definitely the best of the trilogy, it just feels incomplete to me at the moment (though I DID fucking LOVE it). I fully expect when I view the Extended version and see so many of the sequences I looked forward to reinserted into the film, it may very well become my favorite. I feel it's unfair for me to make comparisons based solely on the theatrical release though since I view the Extended versions as the definititive ones.