Why didn't he just take it?
 

We've all thought about how awful they turned Faramir in the TT...and how he fell under that power of the Ring. How is it, then, that he didn't take it? He did, as he said, have a whole host of men at his call, and Frodo and Sam were, after all, only two Halflings. Why bother with two pieces of baggage and take them to his father when he could just take the Ring and carry it himself? Even if he wanted to take the hobbits, why trust them to carry it the entire way? When someone else has the thing that you want, you're more likely to loose it than if you had it yourself.

Any thoughts on the matter?

And...I neglected to look to see if it'd been brought up before and it really would be just my luck to find out that this has been discussed. :rolleyes:

- - Folwren

He probably did not take the Ring because he knew what fate befell his brother and maybe he thought that the same thing could have happened to him if he succumbed to the will of the Ring.

As for the part about not letting Frodo carry the Ring to Minas Tirith, I believe he thought that since Frodo carried it all the way from the Shire, he wouldn't loose it. And even if Frodo did loose the Ring, they would probably end up finding it again because he had the Ring in his possession for a long time and the lure of the Ring would be to great for him to endure, just like Gollum.

Even in the films, Faramir was not (as some might have us believe) simply a facsimile of his brother or "evil Faramir". He is portrayed as an honourable captain and devoted son who, in "capturing" Frodo and Sam, was doing what he considered to be in the best interests of his people. He did not take the Ring because he did not want it for himself, thereby distinguishing him from his brother (who acted out of similar motives, but tinged with a desire for possession of the Ring himself). Granted, film Faramir is not quite the noble and lofty character of the book, but neither is he quite as bad as he is often labelled. He acted wrongly, but did so selflessly and out of a sense of duty to his country. And, ultimately, he redeemed his error by allowing Frodo and Sam to continue on their way.

Movie-Faramir had to take the Hobbits as prisoners anyway. He wouldn't kill them and he couldn't leave them in Ithilien. Leaving the Ring in the hand of Frodo seemed safe enough.

SaucePanMan is right "Evil faramir" was onlt doing what he thought was best

and think about it if you flipped out over this change what would you have done if Faramir had actually taken it

They couldn't have had him take the Ring without wrecking the entire story and all of Middle-earth, that's true, and my personal opinion is that that's the reason PJ didn't have him take it. It's just, if Faramir isn't going to act like he did in the book and if he acts like he did in the movie, chances are, he would have taken the Ring and tried to carry it himself. Their twisted Faramir didn't make sense.

But Saucepan Man's point is very good. That's made the most sense so far.

I quite agree. He was only doing what he thought was right. In any case, he had to bring them to see Denethor so they could have leave to walk around in Gondor.

I agree that the whole Faramir-taking-the-ring thing would definitely have forced the entire plotline to be rewritten from halfway through TTT all the way to the end of ROTK. No way would Phillipa Boyens have agreed to do that, or PJ have consented to allow it.
But my real point in posting is that I think Movie!Faramir was just shocked and whipped when Sam told him that Boromir tried to kill Frodo to get the Ring. I mean, honestly, if someone told me that my brother, my beloved brother and role model, had tried to kill somebody "after swearing an oath to protect him", I would stop in my tracks and rethink what I was doing. Faramir, in my opinion, realized just HOW powerful the Ring was, and possibly considered what the heck it would do to his dad, once he had his hands on it.