Character Analysis
Ol' Faramir can be a little bit of a drama queen:
FARAMIR: The enemy? [Faramir walks to an Easterling corpse, kicking it supine with his foot.] His sense of duty was no less than yours, I deem. You wonder what his name is, where he came from, and if he was really evil at heart. What lies or threats led him on this long march from home; if he would not rather have stayed there in peace. War will make corpses of us all.
Uhh, okay Faramir, take it easy bud. We've been looking at the dead bodies of the enemy for the last film and a half, and haven't though much of it until now.
But Faramir can't help himself. He's not a war mongering captain, he's thoughtful and brave—brave enough to withstand the wrath of his father when he lets Frodo and Sam take away the Ring of power, which might have been Gondor's if he had let it.
But it takes Faramir a while before he's able to do the right thing.
When we first see him and his men capturing and beating Gollum, he snags the Ring with the point of his sword because it calls to him—and it doesn't talk in the sort of dull hum with which it talks to Frodo, but in harsh whispers of Black Speech. Faramir decides that Gondor should have the Ring, although his decision doesn't seem to stem from a desire for power. Instead, it comes from his desire to please his Dad.
But, after seeing what the Ring's done to Frodo (almost making him kill his best buddy Samwise), Faramir has a change of heart. Sam asks him,
SAM: "Do you want to know what happened to Boromir? You want to know why your brother died? He tried to take the Ring from Frodo after swearing an oath to protect him. He tried to kill him! The Ring drove your brother mad!"
Knowing that the Ring corrupted his brother reveals to Faramir its real danger… and it makes the idea of handing the Ring over to his Daddy less than appealing. While Elrond may be right when he tells us in the first film that "men are weak," the honor and courage of Faramir stand out against men's failures and against his father's opinions.