[discostu]

I think we get despair by the fellowship that Frodo is dead through the whole third movie. Aragorn seems to be the only one that thinks he's alive. And there's a great emotional play at the end, when the tower starts to crumble everybody realizes Frodo is alive and they're all like "holy crap the little bugger made it", then Mt Doom blows up and eveybody immediately is more depressed than they were when they thought they were going to be hacked to pieces by orcs. Sure they didn't get any dialog in about thinking he was dead but there was plenty of face acting going on.

[HairOfTheDog]

The portrayal of hopelessness to hope to joy to the dismay when the mountain blows and it seems sure that Frodo and Sam are now lost is magnificent. An emotional meatgrinder.