[Boromir88]

Personally, as a book fan I would have liked to have seen the Scouring, but I do agree that it's not the vocal point of the movies, and to add it in would be disastrous.

As Underhill and the others have said, the driving point of the movie is the Ring. When that's destroyed, there's no point (in the movie) to continue.

Tolkien of course has a bigger point then the Ring. I think it shows how mature the Hobbits have grown, how Frodo can no longer find rest and healing in Middle-earth, and no matter what "evil" will never always be defeated.

Throughout the books we get a sense that something bad is going to happen in the Shire...Tom Bombadil, Galadriel, Elrond wanting to keep Merry and Pippin back as messenegers, running into Saruman and Grima on the way back, all foreshadowing that something will happen in the Shire.

The Movies adds in a quick scene with the Mirror of Galadriel, we don't get this foreshadowing of doom in the movies, as we do in the books. And to add it all this in the movies would take a tremendous amount of time. Tolkien constantly reinforces the foreshadowing of what will happen in the Shire, the movies don't do this, and I don't think they should have.

We always have the books to turn to for the Scouring of the Shire. When going to the movies I think the majority (myself included) thought once the Ring's destruction is the Climax. We have this dramatic (probably too dramatic) fight at Mount Doom, the tension builds and everyones on the edge of their seat, when the Ring's destroyed and you get an uproar from the audience, that's the climax of the movies. I agree with Sauce in that adding the Scouring may have hurt the movies. While I think it's necessary in the books, the Movies conflict was the destruction of the ring, there's a resolution. Tolkien has a much more complex, and multiple conflicts that tie in with the Scouring and after the destruction of the Ring.