On Saturday Kirsten posted a message to her blog about LOTR: Return of the King and the "relationship" between Sam and Frodo. This has been a favorite topic of conversation between me and my friend Jennie ever since the first film came out, so let me bend your ear just for a moment on this important issue.

To me, the relationship between Sam and Frodo has always seemed filled with lots of sexual tension. At the end of the first movie Sam was so dogmatic about not letting Frodo go off on his own, my gaydar started to hum just a little. I wondered about them, but then brushed it off as too much time spent around speech team boys.

It's in the second movie that I think we really see the relationship between the two of them come out of the closet (so to speak). First, Sam is insanely jealous of Gollum. He is always giving Gollum a sneer that says, "stay away from my sweetums, Mr. Frodo." Near the end of the film Frodo holds a sword to Sam's throat and looks like he is going to kill him, until Sam says to him, "It's me. It's your Sam. Don't you know your Sam?" Again, my gaydar goes off, only this time the humming is a little louder. As the film ends Frodo gives a lovely little speech about how important Sam is to the his mission and (more importantly) to him. My gaydar started going crazy at this point.

And then we get to the final installment in the LOTR trilogy. Let me start by saying I really loved this movie, because I did. But of the three movies, this one by far had the most homoerotic overtones. There were times during this film I was convinced that Frodo and Sam were going to kiss, and I found myself wanting to yell at the screen, "Just do it already." And when they got to the part where Sam started to carry Frodo up the mountain all I could think was that Sam doing that for Frodo was one of the most romantic things I had seen in a movie in a really long time. I want some guy to carry my ass up Mount Doom. Really, I do.

I saved my favorite moment for last. The scene where Frodo wakes up at Rivendell was beyond anything my gaydar could comprehend. When the hobbits started romping on Frodo's bed all I could think was, "Dude, this has to be the gayest moment captured on film that was not meant to be gay." I don't think Peter Jackson necessarily meant for there to be a gay undercurrent in his movies, but it is definitely there. I can't help but think that a little hobbit-on-hobbit action might have guaranteed him an Oscar this year.

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