"The Return of the King" turns out to be even more ambitious than its remarkable predecessor, "The Two Towers, " though it's obviously not as compact (another relative thing), what with dramatic convolutions within its several plot lines and a stupendous martial passage that manages to dwarf the battle of Helm's Deep.
In Thailand, for example, it has brought down one government, and eased the passageof a new constitution aimed at cleaning up a political system long operated on commercial lines.