No, they were explicit in that his mistakes were his lack of inclusiveness (as they define it)...
So, they have multiracial elves (kind of cool, except the only elf we see initially who faces racism from humans is also the first brown-skinned elf, so the viewers don't really know if it's the skin color or the pointy ears the humans are reacting to, or if it's the combination), multiracial hobbits (having them also be nomadic made this make a good deal of sense) and multiracial dwarves (which is total nonsense given how Tolkien described dwarves and the mythologies he based them on). Also, far more central female characters, which may be his biggest shortcoming, really.
But they DID use either "errors" or "mistakes" as well as the phrase "finally correcting" in at least one interview - and not just a more honest and modest "We're updating it for a more contemporary audience" (which would have ticked off some anyway, but not as much as insulting the actual source material did).
Oh my Actual Sir Francis Bacon.
I have not read through the source material in a long long time… but (oh my god I can’t remember how to spell the two most notable (not Galadriel) female characters…. Google help!)
Éowyn is a badass in the movies. I seem to remember some letter from Tolkien likening her to B— names are not with me Right now… Brunhild. But this is a very distant, possibly invented memory… but it is indisputable that she had some pretty dang cool scenes in the movies. Besides, daddy issues he may have had, but iirc book Faramir looked at the Ring and said “lol nah”, in the lingo of my contemporary audiences.
Arwen is cool too; good representation of the classically represented female trait of ‘Resilience’.
It’s a staple throughout literature the world over: good things come to women who wait.
Of course, whether it’s a good message or true is up for debate, and I’ve seen both horrors and wonders in life through that lens, but the counter to that is currently mostly running through Villainess media; being a ‘bad girl’ who actively moves to take what she wants rather than be bossed around and stuff.
But Tolkien wrote this stuff a LONG time ago. I’d say he modelled two classical depictions of heroic female characters present in all the fairytales of his day, and he did justice to both of them: Arwen is strong to love a mortal man, and to forever mourn him. Éowyn asserts her will and avenges her father who did not believe in her until the end (or just wanted to protect her, which is my preferred interpretation, but both are equally as functionally accurate despite motivation).
I personally like that the halflings and women of Tolkien's world are not supreme beings unmatched in warfare like Legolas and Gimli and Aragorn; I like that they are burglars, and are full of courage that overcomes the cruelly weighted scales of their fate!
… I’m pretty enthusiastic over a book series I last experienced by listening to it on tape (and it was no Stephen Fry to make that one palatable unfortunately). The movies were damn good though. The entire Moira section is just… phenomenal.
