Yup , Swing Kitten. You're absolutely right. It's very difficult, if not impossible, to divorce a movie from the period in which it was produced. I won't speak on the Romeo & Juliet example, because, of the three versions you mention, I only saw one.
So let's take Hamlet for example. The Sir Laurence Olivier version (40s?), the Richard Burton version (60's) the Mel Gibson version (80s?) and the Kenneth Branagh version (90s). All the same story, but extremely different interpretations. Some of the differences clearly attributable to the time period in which the film maker lived. Some likely due to the film maker's personal interpretation of the story. Yet, in each of these cases, the story was the same. Darn it, even the dialogue was exactly the same. But the movies looked and felt very different. In that sense, you are absolutely right.
Then there are examples of movies where, because of technological advances, a story becomes impossible to tell in a new time period without some major changes. (Think Gaslight and Midnight Lace.)
Then you have movies where a film maker unsuccessfully tries to copy another film maker's vision (original Psycho versus early-90's version)
IMHO, what happened with LOTR is a little different. In Lord of the Rings, no women were actually added. Women who had fairly insignificant roles in the book were given pivotal roles in the movie, for no apparent reason. What bothers me about it is that, in The Two Towers, Tolkien has one of the females lament being left out of the action. Yet he chooses to leave her out. (Tolkien couldn't escape his time period, either. The women's movement was a few mere years away when he wrote these books.
) I'm taking pains here not to spill the beans on anything that happens in book three, so bear with me. :?
Incidentally, my view is neither unique nor particularly profound. There was a big controversy over this when the first movie came out. The film makers and publicists for the movie were all over the press, explaining why they chose to expand the roles of women so dramatically. I'm just telling you which side of the controversy I stand on.
:?: