I will miss the scouring very badly, since in some ways, it shows on a more concrete level a major point of the story, that the result of fighting evil may be the irreperable loss of what we value. But I think that this is a necessary decision due to the requirements of dramatic structure.
If Overtaxed was over here she could comment on this more knowledgeably than I, but we all know that when a drama reaches its climax it is important to finish the story and get everybody off stage as quickly as possible. This is even more important for a story which is highly dramatic in form, like LOTR. The climax of this story is the destruction of the Ring, and the coronation of the King. The scouring fits in literature, but it would be dreadfully anti-climactic in a motion picture.
I sort of think that the result of fighting evil is that they saved what they valued (if you mean the Shire), though it's true that Frodo actually did not get to enjoy it for long.
"when a drama reaches its climax it is important to finish the story and get everybody off stage as quickly as possible"
You're probably right, but I surely will miss that chapter. It would be refreshing to see heroes in a contemporary film beating up on a socialist type government.
I know, they are both Tooks... hard to tell apart sometimes ;~D
You've nailed it.
I'm a little saddened that we won't see the Scouring, it was one of the best parts of the book, but I do realise that this is an adaptation to film, and thus changes have to be made to make the feature 'work' in a cinematic context rather than a written context. The Scouring just wouldn't 'work' with the vast, vast majority of audiences and it would also steal the thunder of the high-drama when the Ring is finally destroyed.
I'm confident that RotK will be great. The 3 screenwriters have been drafting and redrafted the script for nigh on 8 years now. I'm pretty sure they've worked out a good way of dealing with the ending, in fact, I'm almost certain.