"I weren't dropping no eves! Please, sir, don't turn me into some unnatural thing!"

Such a phenomenal character, Samwise Gamgee. Left the film thinking that character was the heart of the story. And those dialogue lines you noted, Scott, such a pinnacle moment. Can't wait for The Hobbit.

What makes Samwise Gamgee's transformation and perseverance throughout his long, drudgery journey with Frodo believable and respectable is his motivation, his point of view, his pursuit of what he believes is right; and he truly believes it.

FRODO: I can't do this, Sam.
SAM: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
FRODO: What are we holding onto, Sam?
SAM: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

Sam has a goal and a drive, which help him push Frodo forward. He is the impact character who changes to keep his friend steadfast in his own mission of getting the ring to Mount Doom and destroying it while fighting the numbing effects of the ring.

@Anna: That is such a terrific quote and an excellent way to describe Sam's fundamental narrative function: impact character. Not surprising that Tolkien (and Jackson in the movie) end LOTR with Sam and his family in The Shire. He deserves that honor.

I absolutely agree. It was a satisfying ending.

I like this quote not only because of its role in the movie (SHOWING what Sam believes in, and thus making his choice of continuing such an impossible journey believable.), but because of what it tells us writers to consider when writing stories:
"Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something."
So, when I'm writing I keep asking:
- What is this character holding on to?
- Why will he keep going on?
- Why wouldn't he call it quits? Stop fighting? Turn back? or take some other direction?
- What will make his decision believable, the only, most probable, choice?

So, thanks Sam Gamgee for the "Point to ponder".

In the movie, I find Samwise to be much more the hero than Frodo. Frodo seems like nothing more than baggage that Samwise must carry to me.

In the end, Frodo is a whiny bitch. Samwise literally carries him up the side of the volcano.

And when the time comes for Frodo to do his one and only job -- toss the ring in the volcano -- he can't.

WTF Frodo! Some hero.

Samwise shoulda just accidentally pushed him in.

Tolkien considered the Hobbits representative of ordinary English country folk, and Samwise is the embodiment of the strength he saw in their simplicity. They could have come off as provincial and small minded, and sure, some of them are, but that the character is so memorable and lovable shows how much Tolkien believed in the nobility of the ordinary man.

I agree with James. In the books too, Samwise was a true hero. Out of all of them, all the characters that dealt with the ring, after all they went through - Samwise was the ONLY one that remained unchanged. Frodo still mourned the ring somewhat, Pippin and Merry grew and never stopped their wanderings. But Samwise ~ the darkness permanently damaged nothing inside him. He went home, wed, worked, and continued his life. Happily. He was the only one able to say "Well that's over. Cool beans. On with life." Yes. Samwise is my favorite, and I think reading about how the darkness didn't change him always made me admire him the most : )