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As far as the different endings of the book & the movie are concerned I think both are kind of inevitable given the times they appeared & the individual's who created them.
The book was written by an idealistic young man who had desired to change the world - or at least his own country - through an art that would produce a kind of moral regeneration. That young man returned from the horror of the trenches & found that rather than his sacrifices (& those of his entire generation) having made that desire possible, it had made it more difficult of achieving. In short, Tolkien could not have ended his story in any other way. I doubt that he, or any readers of his generation, would have expected the kind of 'happy ending' that we of a later generation might have. They wouldn't have been surprised by what the Hobbits found on their return.
The movies, on the other hand, were made by individuals from a generation who had never known total war, & the absolute destruction it brings - destruction of their ideals & dreams in particular. We, I suppose, want the movie ending - actually we want it to be a kind of 'prediction' of what will happen during the current 'war'. In that sense the movies are almost a kind of wartime propaganda excercise. Its simply untrue as PJ says that the Scouring would come across as anti-climactic (in the movie sense). Where it would be 'anti-climactic' is in terms of our hopes for what we're currently living through. It would be too much for the current movie audience. We all want to believe that the current 'war' can be won so decisively that the enemy will cease to exist, all the threats disappear, & we can all live happily ever after - apart from a few tragic veterans, who will be left with scars that will not heal - sad, but inevitable, & at least the rest of us can get on with our lives in the new Utopia which will arise from the ashes of war.
Tolkien may have wished for that kind of ending, but he was too honest to give us it. He confronted us with the reality of life in this world. Evil is an indestructible part of this world - at least it is not destructible by anyone within the world. It's part of us, innate, & cannot be eradicated by the defeat of external foes. We may wish to believe that, but its both erroneous & dangerous, because it leads us to extremes - if we just take that extra step, just step over that line, we'll solve all the problems we face, destory the bad guys, & win peace, happiness & freedom for all for ever.
Yet what Tolkien offers is both lacking in hope - there is no ultimate defeat of evil - & at the same time offers the chance of something better, something even 'salvific' for each of us - If evil is a constant, if it cannot ever be ultimately defeated forever, we can accept it, & keep from crossing that line in the belief that we can erradicate it forever.
So, the movie offers us a 'hope' which is both false & dangerous. Tolkien came back from the trenches wiser than that. The struggle against evil is an eternal one - there are no start & end dates to it.
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