The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took four Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night, including Best Picture, Drama and Best Director, giving the third release in the trilogy a great sendoff to the Oscars late next month.  The other two awards were both music awards:  best original score and best original song.  A major Oscar win for ROTK would extend the life of the film property and the associated merchandise, and serve to validate the trilogy as a major work of cinema, as well as the pinnacle of fantasy genre film-making.