[Man of the Old Hope]

Well-put, Davem.

In his book, The Gospel According to Tolkien, Prof. Ralph Wood writes of those who refuse the Ring's seductions,

"Like Faramir and Sam - but unlike Boromir and Saruman - Galadriel is able to refuse the Ring's magnetic lure. Bilbo had also used the Ring many times without permanent damage. [Wood does discuss the ill effects the Ring had on Bilbo, as well his greed in wanting to see it again.] Whence the difference? Why can some resist the fatal temptation while others yield to it? Boromir and Saruman both see themselves as leaders and heroes ; their loves are disordered by their own lust and ambition. The others, by contrast, possess something akin to what Jesus calls purity of heart. They have preserved their integrity of soul and conscience. They regard themselves as servants rather than lords. All four of them have properly ordered their loves to the Good. Bilbo lives to write his books and poems, and to translate works from the elvish for the benefit of hobbits. Sam serves his master Frodo above all others. Faramir seeks to preserve Gondor in readiness for the king's return. Galadriel wants only to protect Lórien from the assaults of the evil one. Because their loves and thus their lives are rightly ordered, the Ring does them little harm" (pp. 63-4).

I would only add to Wood, along the lines that davem has suggested, that Faramir seeks, as one of the latter-day Faithful, heir to those in Númenor of old who saw through the blandishments and the trickery of Sauron, to preserve Gondor for the returning king.

Farther along in his discussion, Wood remarks on the appeal of Evil to virtue rather than to vice, as in the desire of Boromir to use the Ring to oppose the Enemy, or in the temptation of Galadriel to do the same. He goes on to say that,

"Tolkien is close to Paul and Augustine and their long train of followers who argue that real freedom is the liberty to choose and do the good, and that to do evil is to act unfreely, to exercise an enslaved will...Not all evil is chosen. For while evil can subtly seduce, it can also brutally enforce its will. When the Ring thus bullies its victims, it can work its spell on even the most resistant will. This is the bitter truth that Frodo discovers in the Company's first encounter with the Ringwraiths..." (p. 70).

In the end, I have to conclude that regarding Faramir, as with a number of other characters and situations, Jackson and his writers just didn't seem to get it.